The Making of a Video Collection: Five Years and Counting
- Keith Stanglin
- Jul 30
- 4 min read
Keith D. Stanglin
When we launched the Center for Christian Studies five years ago, we realized there’s more than one way to fulfill our mission of producing resources for equipping churches. What are those resources? We knew that the Journal of Christian Studies would be an important component, and probably books, too. We also knew that in-person teaching and workshops would be an integral part of this ministry to churches. But what else?
Well, I do know that people watch videos. Some people read, but, sadly, in a post-literate society, some don’t read books or journals. Some people come out for live seminars and instruction in the faith, but others stay home. But nearly everyone watches videos. And nearly everyone has a screen with internet access. To ask people to watch videos should not be a hard ask.
Anyone who considers making educational videos must face the question of what sets them apart from the millions of other videos out there. What we wanted for our videos is what we aimed at for all our resources: scholarship for the church, something on the level between Sunday school and seminary.
We noticed plenty of videos out there on individual (often, clickbait) questions, and most frequently from someone who has no true expertise in the topic. YouTube, for example, is a hotbed for presenters who have read a little or looked at other videos on a topic, imagining they now have the authority to teach and popularize because they have the gift of gab. Instead, we wanted original material written and presented by true experts in the field—not people who have read a book or two about the topic, but the specialists who write the books that other people are reading. The presentations are original and the information the teachers provide is reliable—not something they found on an internet search. In this way, CCS subscribers know that they are getting reliable information from our videos. We’re not after clicks. We offer patient, long-form instruction for those who want college-level material in an accessible format.
We also observed videos online that often come from either a fundamentalist or a skeptical perspective, often with an ax to grind. Instead, CCS videos are orthodox and non-denominational, informed by Scripture and by the many important voices throughout the historic Christian tradition.
Finally, we wanted to make our videos accessible. CCS videos are intended primarily for interested believers who have had no advanced training in the topics presented. The courses are meant to be understandable to the non-specialist but also instructive to the minister who attended seminary but is looking for enrichment and continuing education. For us, accessibility also means affordability, so we wanted them to approximate the cost of a cup of coffee per church member per year.
The vision was pretty clear. We wanted to produce the best theological video library in Churches of Christ, a resource for theological and biblical study that would bring the best instruction directly to churches and thoughtful believers.
The execution was another story. How would we do this? We’re theologians, not videographers.
We began with a phone on a stand and me behind a lectern. I had my notes in front of me, and I taught. I recorded a few episodes. But who would edit the footage? What would the finished product look like? Probably not great.
That’s when, at just the right moment, a local church stepped in. Throughout the Covid pandemic, like many churches, this congregation became more savvy with its video production. They had made a cry room into a functional studio.
The church invited the Center for Christian Studies to film in their studio, with their equipment, thus saving CCS a ton of up-front cost. To this day, Georgetown, Texas, remains our primary filming location, but we have also filmed new series in Searcy, Arkansas, and Florence, Alabama. We are extremely grateful for these spaces and especially for the good and generous people who work behind the scenes to make these videos happen.
And the rest is history. We began with zero videos. We now have had 8 different scholars who have written and presented the series we host on our video platform. A total of 245 episodes are included in our video catalogue, across 23 distinct series. These series of courses range from Archaeology of the Bible to Theology of Christian Worship, Teaching Bible Classes, Introductions to the Bible, Faith and Reason, and many others.
“CCS Equip” is a specific curriculum of 7 video series that deliver the most foundational content that church leaders—and really any thoughtful Christian believer—ought to know. These video courses may be supplemented with a Workbook that helps students track their own progress as they move through the curriculum.
That’s the first 5 years. What’s next?
We continue adding to the CCS video collection. With much of the basic theology and instruction in how to read and interpret the Bible complete, we are moving more intentionally toward producing studies of individual biblical books, such as our recent series on Psalms and on Ecclesiastes.
And now with a fairly complete set of basic instruction in theology complete, we are hoping to start adding translations into various languages, such as “The Story of God” in Spanish and the Sexual Ethics course in Russian.
We invite your participation.
First, what does your church do to provide good external resources for equipping the saints, the teachers, the leaders? If the answer is “nothing,” then the best thing a church can do to provide the needed resources right now is to subscribe to the CCS video library.
Second, to help us continue to produce excellent video lessons and to make them available to as many people around the world as possible, will you partner with us? Our Expanding the Reach campaign aims to raise $150,000 this year to help us secure our future, to continue growing and to expand the good work that has been done for the kingdom.
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