Most of us make sermon reels the same way: pull clips from the live stream, cut them up, and crop them for Instagram and Facebook. There's a different style I've been seeing more and more, and it feels different from typical live stream footage. With a few small tweaks, the reels feel more engaging and more immersive, like you're in the room.
North Point (Andy Stanley) and Life.Church (Craig Groeschel) are both doing it. I like the style because it feels intentional. For our Easter services, I made a few clips using this method.
Intentionality is the main thing that separates these from other sermon reels you see online. You're intentional with how you film and with how you edit. Both halves aim at the same feeling: the viewer is sitting in the room with everyone else.
The biggest filming difference is a dedicated camera mounted vertically. It's completely separate from the broadcast feed, and it records straight to an SD card.
The framing is the other piece that separates this from the live stream look. Here's how to set it up:
That angle gives you an in-the-room perspective. It feels like you're sitting there with the rest of the congregation.
For this test run I used:
You don't need this exact setup. It's what I had for that week. Our weekly roaming camera is a Panasonic GH5, and the plan was to make this back-of-room spot a permanent home for it. At the end of worship, our camera op would place the GH5 on the tripod and hit record to an SD card, so the roaming camera gets used during the sermon while it would otherwise sit idle.
The other part that sells this style is how little editing there is. Most of the clips I've seen have zero cuts or minimal cuts. They pick a 30 to 60 second take and let it play out in full. That keeps it natural, like you're sitting there listening, and it matches the feeling the camera angle already creates.
Some of these reels have light music underneath. They also work without music, because again, the goal is to feel like you're in the room.
Here's the whole editing process:
I pulled three clips from the Easter sermon and posted them as reels, each with a different amount of editing:
For all three, I synced the footage with the live stream audio and added captions. That was most of the work.
The caption font is called Owners. I came across it a while back and have used it a lot since.
This part isn't necessary, but I think it's fun. The clips have a little camera shake on them. They were shot on a tripod, so the original footage was still. I added the shake afterward with a plugin.
I've seen other sermon reels do the same thing. A bit of movement makes it feel like you're right there in the room, and it draws you in, maybe subconsciously. Some people won't even notice it.
The effect I used is a camera shake effect from Film Impact. It came in a plugin pack I bought a while ago. I set it to the least aggressive preset. You can make the shake a lot stronger, but you want it subtle and minimal.
We posted these across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. They either outperformed or met the average for our typical reel performance. It's a decent way to keep things fresh and interesting, and this style keeps showing up more often.
For this style, yes. The method uses a dedicated camera mounted vertically, separate from your broadcast feed, recording to an SD card. Your audio can still come straight from the live stream mix.
In the back of the room on a long zoom lens. Frame it so the shot is compressed but you can still see at least the first few rows of the audience.
The clips in this style run about 30 to 60 seconds, usually with zero cuts or minimal cuts. Letting one take play out is what keeps it feeling natural.
No. Some use light music underneath, but this style also works without any, since the goal is to feel like you're sitting in the room.
Want the full camera and video workflow we use? Church Video Made Simple walks through it step by step.
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