Screen shot 2010-02-16 at 1.55.31 AMThis topic is closely related to my post last week about video curriculum, but from a different angle. More and more churches are relying on video driven or video rich content for their curriculum. Sometimes the video supplements the lesson and at other times the video is the lesson. In either of these cases, using video curriculum has been difficult to equip our volunteers for the service they are leading. I’m not sure if curriculum publishers have thought this through at all. So I get a DVD (or video file for those publishers that are pushing the limits) that I’m going to use at my weekend experiences. However, I have 3-6 lead teachers that have to interact with the video. Or I have 50 small group leaders that really should see the video beforehand so they know how to lead their group best after seeing it.

When I get this video, how do I prepare my leaders?

  • I can tell you what I’m not going to do. I’m not going to order 3-6 discs for my lead teacher, nor am I going to order 50 for my small group leaders. That would be financially irresponsible.
  • I’m not going to host a training every week (or once a month) just so everyone can see the videos. That would be a waste of everyone’s time.

So here’s what my options are:

  • I can just let my leaders not really know what the video is about and have them wing it as best as they can.
  • I can make copies of the DVDs and give one to each of my leaders.
  • I can rip the video of the DVDs, put them on youtube or vimeo and share the link with all my leaders.

One of those options doesn’t adequately prepare my leaders. Two of those options are technically illegal. However, I know many children’s pastors who do the last two. Why? Because they want to equip their leaders and they don’t see any other way. They don’t want to break the law… they just want the ability to get their teams ready.

Can’t there be a way  or a place where leaders and teachers can view the video on a website that we can direct them to? Maybe the video is kinda crappy, so you don’t have to be worried about someone stealing it.

The same it true with resourcing our parents. In order to equip our parents to lead at home, we’d like to let our parents see the same video their kids saw on Sunday. It can provide a great frame of reference for discussion around the dinner table. However, I can’t in good conscience broadcast videos I’ve ripped and uploaded to youtube. But, I don’t really have any other options. Can’t there be a way to give my parents access to these videos where there isn’t a concern about content being stolen?