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Church digital: Parish is in contact with believers in the corona pandemic via YouTube

2021-06-15T08:23:49.904Z


YouTube is not just for young people: The parish association Fahrenzhausen-Haimhausen has discovered the platform for itself to reach the faithful.


YouTube is not just for young people: The parish association Fahrenzhausen-Haimhausen has discovered the platform for itself to reach the faithful.

Fahrenzhausen

- People have great hopes that society will have survived the worst with Corona and the tough lockdowns.

But there is also something new that arose out of necessity during the pandemic and is now and indispensable.

The parish association Fahrenzhausen-Haimhausen has reached the believers without contact via its own YouTube channel even in the worst pandemic phases.

Pastoral advisor Bernhard Skrabal (66) and Frank Groß (54), who is very involved in the project, are convinced of the channel, talk about the development and would like more (financial) support from the ordinariate.

How is the YouTube channel doing now?

Groß:

We currently have 203 subscribers, most of whom, of course, come from the area of ​​our parish association, but a few also from completely different corners of Germany.

On average, around half of the views of our videos are made by the subscribers.

The other 50 percent are not regular subscribers, but rather interested in the various content of the videos.

Do you have a goal of how many subscribers you want to reach?

Groß:

No, because we are not a sales channel. And we don't hand out any cooking recipes either. We want to offer church life and our cultural offers. The canal is a form of public relations work for the parish association. As far as I know, no professional public relations work is planned on site. Of course we are happy about every new subscriber, especially because we are a non-profit channel.


Skrabal:

We want to bring church content home, whereby the pandemic was of course the trigger.

But now you should also think about the post-pandemic period.

So people who cannot attend church services on site can still celebrate.

We have already received feedback several times that even if the video / sound quality is not so perfect, a service with us is more beautiful than a TV service.

Because these are our churches and the actors we know.

This is the local church.

And you can also see services outside of time.

Skrabal:

Of course the videos will remain available.

We see in the statistics that a service is sometimes watched in the middle of the night.

Can someone not sleep or do they watch before work?

The face-to-face event will always remain, but the streams and video impulses are a complementary offer.

At the most recent organ concert, we could still be creative with information about our organ or the composer.

We don't have these possibilities with our equipment in a live event.

Is that a way of the future?

Skrabal:

Yes.

If only ten percent of the parishes would stream a service every Sunday, then the church would be permanently present in this digital world.

This is a great opportunity.


Groß:

The motto for us is "Bringing church life home".

It would only be nice if the ordinariate would support the parishes more in this.


Skrabal:

The diocese is still too hesitant about the topic of the local YouTube channel.

Church congregations around the world have the problem of reaching young people and motivating them to attend church on Sunday mornings.

Can the church perhaps build a connection with the youth in this way?

Groß:

According to the statistics on our YouTube channel, the majority of users are people aged 50 and over.

The audience is equally divided between men and women.

Lately, the proportion of viewers between the ages of 18 and 30 has increased somewhat.

Perhaps this has to do with the fact that acolytes, former acolytes and the more young people from the choirs appear in the videos.

We do not have a specific target group, but instead target the channel to the age of around 16 years to infinity.

We only want to depict our church life in the parish association of Fahrenzhausen-Haimhausen.

And how much work does it take?

Groß

(laughs): No comment.


Skrabal:

As a full-time employee I have no fixed regulations such as school or the preparation of the sacraments, I have the time window. What Mr. Groß does on a voluntary basis is actually a full-time job. Our video for Easter Vigil 2021 is an extreme example. Those ten to fifteen minutes look pretty easy, but there are four full working days in it. You need a concept, ideas and implementation. Then comes the main work of Mr. Groß, cutting and processing the whole thing. On the other hand, it is easier to post-process a recording of a service. That happens relatively quickly. But even a one-hour live stream of a church service does not take less than three hours. Last year's Advent calendar also required a concept and a lot of work before we could put the videos online.

How do the recorded people react?

Are they enthusiastic or does the pastor receive a lot of instructions on where exactly to stand during the sermon?

Skrabal:

In the television service, for example, they have a very precise time window of 45 minutes.

And then no additional word may be spoken in the sermon.

That is staged.

With the live stream, we're just trying to readjust a little and tidy up the altar a bit because of the different perspective.

There is at least a mini-script for other things.

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Frank Groß built up the impressive YouTube channel with countless hours on a voluntary basis.

© Bauer

The way the service is, is it just like that?

Skrabal:

Exactly, that's just how it is.

Groß:

Nothing should be contrived.

And if someone makes a mistake or trips over a cable, then that's the way it is.

Church staff and helpers are human too.

Groß:

This is our difference to the stylish television service.

They are professional people and they cost money accordingly.

From the cost of a church service, they could easily pay me for at least a month as an employee.

I do this completely on a voluntary basis in the parish association.

At the moment, I can only afford the effort because I am looking for a job.

And, here I notice that my "work" is necessary, meaningful and recognized.

When you have a job again, will it be tight again?

Skrabal:

Then the YouTube channel died in its current form.

It currently only works in this form.

I have had the time for a year and a half and have found fun in it, but also meaningfulness.

I couldn't have imagined it like this before.

Are you considering forming a working group for the YouTube channel?

Skrabal:

Yes, we are there.

We always try to motivate new people, for example to stream the church service.

The aim is to find a group of volunteers here.

I also need to get a part of myself because I will officially retire on July 1st.

My time for this task will inevitably have to be reduced.

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The parish association moves with the times: The church of St. Georg in Weng can also be visited via a digital church guide (www.der-kirchenfuehrer.de).

© Bauer

Then we already have a volunteer for the YouTube working group ...

Skrabal

(laughs): I already do this largely on a voluntary basis because it goes beyond my working hours.

But I can't do this job that Mr. Groß does.

Videos have to be cut and edited well.

His video editing work shows, at our level, what can be changed.

Even my modest knowledge would be enough to make a video weird.

When you see what you can actually “manipulate”, then you can get an idea of ​​what is possible for people with professional equipment and professional programs.

We sometimes also work with private equipment.

So the base is in the parish association?

Skrabal:

I still remember how difficult it was a year ago to get a streaming case.

The stream is now a matter of course and an integral part of the church.

Even for people who were initially skeptical, this is now an integral part of everyday church life.

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Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-06-15

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