UU Growth Lab friends,
This is Peter Bowden with our latest on-demand member training "Turn Your Congregration's YouTube Channel Into an Online Welcome Center" is now available in our member area. The focus is using your YouTube channel to help people researching your congregation say YES! to a live visit.
Below these access links, you'll find questions you may use to assess your congregation's present YouTube channel in terms online visitor support. I also inlcude key strategies from this training so you can get a taste of it.
- Watch The Training
- Google Doc Notes including key "How to customize your channel" screenshots
- Reader Transcript PDF
- Audio podcast episode of this training.
- Podcast feed setup instructions.
Not a member? Join the UU Growth Lab as a congregational team before the end of June to save on your membership. Your membership helps power my work as an independent UU trainer, innovator, and change agent. Most important, it saves your leaders' time and energy as they benefit from my research, decades of practical experience, and the wisdom emerging from our ongoing UU Growth Lab strategy conversations.
About This Training
"Turn Your Congregration's YouTube Channel Into an Online Welcome Center"
Most UU congregational YouTube channels are organized like worship archives. You can access previous content, but it isnāt designed with visitors in mind.
In this training, weāre working to transform your congregationās YouTube channel into a resource to support people exploring your congregation online. We want to support what I call your āonline visitorsā and their process so they make the leap to an onsite (or live online) visit.
Today, people research online to discern if a congregation is right for them before they visit live onsite. In our May 2026 training, we discussed specific visitor oriented UU website design principles. I shared that the online experience of your website and associated video content now functions as the first visitor experience. This applies to YouTube as well. In fact, often people seeking more information on a website will see a YouTube icon and click over to your channel.
Visitors are looking for orientation, reassurance, connection, and evidence that your congregation is right for them. We can use your YouTube channel and your existing video content ā and additional filmed content too ā to offer visitors what they need to choose your congregation.
START HERE: Assess Your Congregationās YouTube channel
Visit your congregationās YouTube channel as if you know nothing about the congregation. Use the following questions and objectives to assess your channel in terms of how well it supports online visitors and their experience.
1. What would a newcomer feel, learn, and understand about your congregation in the first 60 seconds on your channel scrolling over the available videos?
We can adjust how we title, describe and choose thumbnails for videos so the moment people land on the channel they can see faces and read the themes and issues you explore.
2. Is there a featured welcome video with your minister or other leader greeting newcomers?
I recommend having a leader on camera speaking directly to online visitors offering an immediate welcome, snapshot of your congregation, and invitation to visit your website welcome page.
The second a possible visitor lands on your channel, we want them to be welcomed by a real human being. An on-demand human on video, but still doing the greeting!
If you donāt have people greeting online ā which is essentially like the first visit now ā it is like not having greeters. The traditional live visit at your congregation is what happens AFTER people have a great online first visit. Online video greeting is essential to help people move from online exploration to an actual visit!
NEED HELP? Even if you understand the strategy, it can take congregations a long time to get around to trying this. Video takes energy, motivation, and we tend to want things to be perfect. Forget perfect! Get it done ASAP! If you need help, Iāve started doing remote production (filming, directing, editing) of video content to support the online visitor experience. Send me a note saying āUU video helpā with your website and Iāll send you the details. https://www.peterbowden.live/contact
3. Can online visitors see people and faces in the thumbnail images?
Some congregations get too fancy with more formal, slick and over designed thumbnails. Donāt lose your humanity in your attempt to look professional.
Visitors are not looking for an institution, theyāre looking for friends. Theyāre looking for community. Show your people. Show your humanity.
Yes, having great thumbnails helps your video capture attention in a video feed. But thatās not what weāre optimizing for. Youāre a congregation, not a YouTuber. Different priorities.
We are focusing on the experience of people researching, exploring, and discerning if your congregation is right for them.
4. Are worship service videos titled with a meaningful title that communicates what the service is about so online visitors immediately get it and can choose what to watch?
Unitarian Universalism is very different from many other traditions in the nature and diversity of what we explore. I want you to lead with your UU awesomeness! Make the focus, topic or theme of each service crystal clear in the title. Online visitors should have their minds blown as they scroll and read your video topics.
āWhat in the ā what kind of church is this? They talk aboutā¦. and ā¦?! And ā¦ too???! Wait. Thisā¦ This is exactly what Iāve been looking for!ā
5. Do video descriptions include the full worship service blurb used to promote the service? What about the sermon takeaway message?
Many congregations have volunteers uploading the service video with just the service date and no description. You can help visitors navigate your content by including the original worship service blurb used to promote that service in your communications.
Even better, after the service is written and the service has been delivered, add the key message from the service. That paragraph your minister, guest speaker or member offered that was the heart of the service? Put that in the description too. This helps online visitors find the perfect example services to watch!
6. Does every video have a standard block of content about your congregation with web link calls to action so every video leads people to your website?
We want every video to serve as a link back to your congregation. After the video specific description, I recommend adding a standard content block about your congregation. Think of it like turning every video into a mini brochure.
Visitors see the video specific topic description, then your standard congregation content block, followed by multiple links such as the main website, subscribe to our newsletter, follow our audio podcast, learn about our childrenās program, learn about our social justice efforts.
Whether people are exploring your YouTube channel or the YouTube algorithm shares a video with them in their feed, we want to make the transition from YouTube to your website easy!
7. Do your most watched and recommended videos have video chapters so visitors can jump to the good stuff?
Keeping it real, most visitors are not looking to watch a whole service including the announcements. They likely want to pop around, get a sense of things, then watch some sermons.
The easier we make it to navigate to the content visitors are seeking, the more positive their experience! Adding chapters to videos is a huge help. This is very easy now thanks to the AI āAskā feature. Logged into YouTube on a desktop you can literally ask YouTubeās AI to give you the chapter titles and time code to add to your videos. It takes seconds! I share the exact prompt I use in the training.
8. Are there playlists presenting visitors with the content youād recommend they watch?
One of the strategies we explore in depth in this training is using YouTubeās channel customization features, including creating and sharing playlists, to make it easier for people to find relevant content.
Whether you are sharing playlists of full services, or excerpts from services such as sermons or other shorter videos, we can offer playlists that map directly to what visitors are looking for.
Imagine a YouTube channel with playlists such as the following:
Newcomers Start Here
Sermon Sampler for Newcomers (Sermon Excerpts, not full service)
Meet Our Staff and Leaders
Messages for All Ages
Music and the Arts
Courage, Resistance and Social Justice
What I love About [Congregation Name]
That gives you an overview of the transformation that's possible!
Most important, remember that this is all new. Changing technology is changing culture and behavior. As visitor dynamics change, we have the opportinity to figure out how to better support their process. If we attend to how they are actually trying to research, explore and connect with us, we can help them succeed!
- Watch The Training
- Google Doc Notes including key "How to customize your channel" screenshots
- Reader Transcript PDF
- Audio podcast episode of this training.
- Podcast feed setup instructions.
As always, know that Iām here to help.
Peter Bowden,
The UU Growth Lab
PS -- If your congregation would benefit from additional training or implementation support, I lead private trainings, facilitate retreats, and work directly with our congregations. Contact Me.
Responses