Starting a Television Ministry from scratch can be a daunting task. Frazer UMC has been through all the steps involved. We first started by contracting with an outside production company to record each week’s service. Then we began broadcasting our services both locally and nationally on INSP each week. Next we created a full-time, 24 hour a day LPTV station. Our previous TV Ministry Director and founder of Frazer UMC’s TV Ministry, Jerry Kemp, took all the steps necessary in starting and building our TV Ministry. He wrote the following guidelines to assist churches who are interested in starting a Television Ministry.
-John Rogers, Director, Frazer TV Ministry

How to Start a Television Ministry
By Jerry Kemp, Founder, Frazer TV Ministry

When looking at starting a TV Ministry, needless to say, there is a wide range of needs among those who attend. Some participants do not even have a camera. Others have already begun a ministry and have several cameras. The big question is: Where to begin?

First, be sure that the Lord is calling you into a TV ministry.

Second, make certain the congregation will support the ministry (it can be rather expensive as you will later see).

Third, it is imperative that your pastor is a willing supporter of the ministry.

Once these three items are met, let’s begin with the first thing you need to do.

You must decide up front how much your initial investment will to be. You can have a video ministry with one camera and a good tripod. Simply filming your worship service with a single camera and sharing copies of the tape with church shut-ins can be an excellent ministry. If you have greater aspirations, you will probably want to think about multiple cameras. It is always important to ask yourself, “what will be the final use of this video?” because the addition of two or more cameras becomes a whole new ballgame.

Let’s assume that you can invest $50,000 initially in the ministry. The next thing to do is to contact a good video/television supplier in your city. If you do not know where to begin, go to the next largest city. Ask to have a sales rep visit in person and bring you some ideas.

With the advent of digital recording, materials have become a lot less expensive. You can now set up a pretty nice ministry for under $50k. This amount would allow two cameras, a switcher, and the other equipment you will need such as recording devices and monitors.

After that, it is a matter of how sophisticated you want to be. You can add waveform monitors, for example. These devices are a must in fine-tuning your equipment. If you are not going to put your program on television, you probably will not need a waveform monitor.

For recording purposes, you can buy a good DVD recorder for about $700 that will record excellent video for you. You can also get a Mini DV recorder/player for under $2,500. You will more than likely want to do your editing with a non-linear computer program such as Adobe Premiere Pro. This program costs under $600 and does a good job.

The main requirement to have in your computer is a lot of memory (Preferably at least 1GB). You will also need adequate hard drive space (80GB or larger). Video files require a large amount of storage space. You might want to think about an external hard drive for backup purposes. Make sure you keep good backups of your video files. Try to find someone who understands enough about computers to help you with the specifics. As in most things, the equipment does not mean that your end product will be great. Getting the equipment is the easy part; editing with imagination can be harder. But, be assured that with time and patience, you can do a wonderful job with the new equipment that is available to us these days.

After you have received all your equipment and become pretty proficient with it, the next consideration will be who will operate it. We utilize about 60 volunteers at Frazer. They work during all the Sunday services, as everything from camera operators to directors. They have been the heart of the TV ministry. I am blessed to have such dedicated men and women who have found God at work in the TV ministry and joined Him in His work! Volunteers must be dependable and eager to cooperate with the team. This is not a solo act – only a great team of volunteers can produce the kind of video that you want. Remember, “the quality of the presentation should always equal the quality of the message."

If you have the calling to be on television, either on the local cable access channel, or through buying time on a local TV station, you will again enter into a whole new ball game. Check the station’s requirements first before buying anything. You might find that they require certain video formats that you don’t have in your budget. Ask about their rate cards and the time slots they have available. Get exactly what they need on the tape, i.e., color bars, slate, etc. and find out how long your program can or must be. Most stations work on a 28:30 for a half hour broadcast or a 58:30 for a full hour time slot.

The content of the video should include an opening describing the service, probably not much more than 15 seconds. A brief message from the pastor to the TV audience is nice. You can edit this into the opening, in the middle during the offering, or at the end. Here at Frazer, we prefer to have our pastor do his “greeting” at the offertory time.

You will have a lot of freedom and flexibility with non-linear editing. Think of it as having a necklace with a bunch of beads – you decide that the bead at the bottom of the necklace needs to be changed. With non-linear editing, you can replace that bead with a “drag and drop” operation. So easy!

If you really want to get fancy with your editing, you might want to purchase the Adobe After Effects program. For more information on Adobe products, you can log onto www.adobe.com Another site, www.digitaljuice.com, offers still and moving backgrounds for graphics and royalty-free music programs, which will enable you to add a nice touch to your finished product.

I have purchased a lot of equipment from B&H photo in New York. Check out their web site, www.bhphotvideo.com

Remember, all things start with a single step. At Frazer, we literally started out with one single camera and built on that. God is faithful and will supply all your needs. Do the best you can and ask Him to bless and anoint your work.