Creating Your Christian YouTube Channel: Unveiling Strategies for Effective Online Bible Studies

Can you imagine having your own Christian YouTube channel, offering Bible studies and impacting lives all over the world? It's no pipe dream, friend. In our latest episode, we'll show you exactly how to create a vibrant, engaging online Bible study platform, exploring five unique types of Bible study channels along the way. 

But there's more to a YouTube channel than just content. We'll take you through the nuts and bolts of setting up a Christian YouTube channel that resonates with your viewers. We'll unpack channel optimization, viewer engagement, and strategies to reach those seeking Christian content. We've even arranged a free course with step-by-step instructions on getting your channel up and running. And to top it all off, we'll discuss ways to enrich your videos with additional resources like Bible study notebooks, worksheets, and more. So buckle up and get ready to make a difference online!

If you are interested in taking your digital discipleship to the next level through blogging, YouTube, social media, and/or online Bible study groups, be sure to join my private FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/kingdombloggers
You can also follow me on YouTube where you will find a variety of helpful tutorials for navigating each of these important platforms: https://www.youtube.com/@KingdomBloggers

Transcript

LeeAnn Fox: 0:02

Welcome to the Kingdom Influencers podcast, where our mission is to get more Jesus online. This podcast will equip and empower ministry leaders, as well as regular everyday Christians, to take the message of Jesus Christ throughout the digital realm. I'm your host, LeeAnn Fox, digital Ministry Coach and the creator of the Kingdom Bloggers Ministry, and I am so excited and honored to be a part of this journey with you. Let's get started. Welcome to another episode of the Kingdom Influencers podcast. So today we're going to be talking about Christian YouTube channels. If you are, you know like, youtube is your thing and you're thinking I don't really want to start a blog, I'd rather do YouTube. Or maybe you already have a blog, but you're like what's next? A YouTube channel would be the next step. Either way, today we're going to be talking specifically about Bible study YouTube channels. Like, what kinds are they? What do they look like? What kind of video should you be making, and are people even looking for this kind of stuff? The first answer is going to be yes, people are going to YouTube to look for Bible study type content, but, of course, just like with anything else, they look for it in a variety of ways. So I'm going to break down five very specific types of YouTube channels that work well for the Bible study niche. Now, if you're a Christian blogger, you know you may be Bible study, but you may also do other things like parenting or, you know, just sort of secular with a little Jesus in it. So today we're going to be specifically talking about Bible study. So a Bible study is what you do as a blogger or what you just have a passion for. In general, these are the types of YouTube channels that would do really well. So the first one is going to be something called Bible study in a year. We're all very familiar with that. You know, around January of every year, everyone's New Year's resolutions includes I'm going to read through the Bible this year, so you can find channels that you can find who do this really, really well. So I'd encourage you like, go over to YouTube and just type in the search Bible in a year, and you will find some really great channels to follow.

LeeAnn Fox: 1:59

How does it work? Well, you can pre-record these in advance, of course, or you could get up every morning and ask part of your own Bible study. Just record it. But you're basically just, you know you have a Bible in a year plan where you do a certain verse or set of verses every morning with the goal of within the 365 days you're going to be completely finished with it, but you would simply read through the verses. Whatever verses you're reading that day, just read through them, as I am speaking to you here on this camera, but you would have your Bible, of course, and then you would do some reflection, just like if you have a reading plan with study questions you know, after the verses. So you read through it, discuss it, do some you know Q&A at the end. Of course you would have them pre-scripted beforehand and maybe even include a prayer in that. But the idea is that by the end of the 12 months you would at least have 365 videos and building a following along the way. Now, of course, you could add resources that they can download and things like that, and we'll talk about that in a few minutes after we get through the other ones.

LeeAnn Fox: 3:06

So the next one is going to be doing a topical study. Many of you have your topical reading plans, your monthly Bible reading plans. So let's say, for February it's the topic of love. So all the verses for the 28 or 29 days have something to do with love in the Bible, maybe it's identity in Christ, maybe it's, you know, hope, whatever it is. So you have a 28 or 29, depending on February, and then 30 and 31 day plans. You have plans for every month of the year.

LeeAnn Fox: 3:34

Go as you yourself are going through your actual study plan. Record it set that camera up, just record. You can do overhead views of the actual verses that you're doing in your Bible. There are different ways to go about doing that, of course. If you want to keep it simple, do it how I'm doing it right here. For those of you watching on YouTube where it's just me on the screen with a background and I'm just talking to you and so doing these topical ones are great because you can do these. You can just do them for YouTube, but you could also have a dedicated Facebook group for people who end up following your channel to come over and follow you in the Facebook group as well, and then you can do them together.

LeeAnn Fox: 4:12

So a third one would be your character studies. Go through all the women of the Bible, all of the prophets, all of the apostles, whatever All the different characters, these questions that people have in general, and they go to Google and YouTube and so forth, to seek information. So instead of reading about it, you can provide it in a video format and so doing, of course, all the verses and things that they need to read with actual application study questions. There are plenty of them that you can find either on Amazon as well as within our Christian blogger community A lot of them have some really great topical character and other studies and just go through them, go through them day to time and again. You could pre-record these. You know, if you're short on time, you can't always get to it every morning. Do like a week's worth on a single day of the week and then have them spanned out to where they're published every single morning. There's different ways to go about doing that, but the idea is that you're providing those topical studies now in video format.

LeeAnn Fox: 5:08

So the fourth one is going to be a chapter study, of course, just breaking down the different chapters. There's a lot of actual Bible studies that you can buy again on Amazon or through our Christian blogger network, or you could write your own. I have some great tutorials to teach people how to write their own studies. I'll actually link that in the show notes. And then the final one is one that I think is super, super fun and very, very popular, and that is your Bible journaling. Whether you use a journaling Bible like the Inspire Bible or you create your own journal doodles, there's templates and stuff that you can trace or, if you're just creative, you can draw the things yourself.

LeeAnn Fox: 5:43

But journaling through the different verses. Of course, with your topical and these other plans, you could journal through them as well, and this would actually you would probably need a little more video kind of recording equipment like tripods and things like that, so you can do an overhead view showing just like your hands in the Bible as you are coloring and doodling and things like that. These are actually very, very popular. I have found a lot of these type of channels on YouTube and they have a lot of followers, a lot of engagement and, of course, they're a lot of fun to do, because who doesn't learn journaling and doodling in your Bible with colors and things like that? That's the five Bible in a year topical, character chapter and journaling.

LeeAnn Fox: 6:24

Now, in addition to these types of video studies, you could also offer videos that are more like resources, a video breaking down, like if you use the life application study Bible, you could do a sort of like a review post, but showing them why you like it, doing the overhead views, showing the different verses and things like that. Also, resources if you create your own worksheets, like Bible study notebooks, worksheets, things like that, then create videos to talk about those and show them how cool they are and then links to where they can download them or purchase them or whatever Other types of resources. I mean really anything that you use in the course of your study, whether it be the notebooks, the Bibles, journaling pens, highlighters, things like that. You can do videos to kind of show you using it. No, just do a video to be like hey, you should buy this. Like show it in action, show how you are using them, because that's what people really want to see. Like, you can tell me to use this to do something, but I want to see you do it so that I understand how to use it Right, and so these make for really great additional video content as well as building. If you're going to provide items like maybe you want to create products to sell eventually at some point, this is a great way to build that audience's interest. Show them items in action and then provide the links for them if they do want to purchase them, as well as free stuff that you're going to get them as well. Anyway, that's it Five ways to do a Bible study Christian YouTube channel.

LeeAnn Fox: 7:48

Again, there is a huge need for these guys. Like people are really, you know, I think, because you know the pandemic shutting everything down and people forced into doing online study they have found how valuable they are. How you know, accessible. They are like literally all they have to do is have their computer or their smartphone. But it's also been a really great way for the creatives, those who really have a passion for Bible study, to kind of take it to a next level and reach people far beyond just the ones that come to your church or maybe you're in your friend group.

LeeAnn Fox: 8:17

We are reaching people through the internet who are seeking out these kinds of things, and so, if you have any questions at all, let me know. I have several videos on how to get started with a Christian YouTube channel. I actually have a free course I will link that as well that walks you through all the steps of getting your YouTube channel set up and all the kind of technical stuff that goes along with that. And so, as always. If you have any specific questions, hop over to my Facebook group and I will be happy to answer them. All right, everyone have a great week. God bless and bye.