From Clip to Connection
by Ashley Graham-Wilcox
Below are highlights from my summer workshop on video that Caffeinated Church members can access here.
Video is everywhere. It’s one of the most effective tools churches have for reaching people today, but it’s also one of the trickiest. How long should a video be? What platform works best? Does anyone actually watch full sermons online?
I was a (failed) film major once upon a time, and over the years I’ve used tools like Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, and MovieMaker Pro for video projects. But, these days, when it comes to sermon videos, I stick with Canva. It’s not perfect, but for quick-turn, social-ready videos, Canva works—and gives me enough flexibility to create consistent weekly content.
Here’s what I’ve learned about making sermon videos that connect (mostly):
Start with the whole sermon, then clip it down
Every Monday, I upload the full sermon to YouTube or Facebook. That’s the library piece. Then I go back and make shorter clips—15 to 60 seconds long—that can live on Instagram or TikTok. Same content, different form.
Why? Because platform matters. A full-length sermon on YouTube might get 60 views, while the same sermon clipped and captioned on Instagram might get 3,000. You can’t always predict what will resonate, but giving your content more than one doorway into people’s lives makes it more likely to find its audience.
Make the basics part of your workflow
For each sermon video, I add:
An opening slide with the sermon title, preacher’s name, and date.
A closing slide with a call-to-action and the church’s website or socials.
Transitions between slides and sermon footage, usually a simple dissolve.
Captions so the video can be watched muted (most people do).
Those steps don’t take much extra time, but they make a huge difference. They turn a raw recording into a finished video that feels intentional.
Know Canva’s strengths (and limits)
Strengths:
Easy to embed captions and music before uploading.
Your brand kit, photos, and past projects are already there.
Quick to duplicate and update weekly or seasonal templates.
Limits:
Timing isn’t as precise as professional software (You can’t edit frame by frame.).
It’s bandwidth-heavy and only works online (no airplane editing).
Its auto-clipping and some AI tools aren’t ready for prime time.
If I need a polished, long-term video (like a fundraising campaign or rector search), I use another tool or outsource. But for social media and sermon clips, Canva gets the job done.
Treat clips differently than full sermons
For full sermons: I embed captions in Canva before uploading. That way they’re consistent, can be branded, and easy to read.
For short clips: I let the app (Instagram, TikTok, etc.) auto-caption them. Native captions look more natural, and I’ve found they perform better.
Keep experimenting
Some weeks a clip goes nowhere. Some weeks it unexpectedly takes off. That’s not failure: It’s the nature of social platforms. The key is to keep showing up. Each sermon has the potential to connect with someone scrolling by.
At the end of the day, sermon videos are ministry. They carry the preaching moment into people’s everyday lives: their phones, their commutes, their late-night scrolls. And when we treat them with the same care as worship itself—clear, consistent, and invitational—they become more than clips. They become connection.
