Generate personalised videos for your church for free this Christmas

We have launched Benefice homepages – find out how to edit yours here, option to copy events over to other churches you edit, the Resource Hub, ability to add a bio information for the clergy in your church, analytics on your page, ability to add videos to pages and edit the order of these pages – and more! 

This Advent and Christmas, we’re also thrilled to announce the launch of our video generator tool, which is exclusive for A Church Near You editors. You can access it via the Resource Hub. 

This new tool allows you to design personalised #FollowTheStar videos to share on your ACNY page, social media accounts and even church screens! 

Here’s how you use the video generator tool: 

1. Log into A Church Near You and visit the Resource Hub.  

If your church has not yet claimed their A Church Near You page to edit, find out how to do that here in time for Christmas, when millions of people will visit the site to find a service or event to visit. Each church can have up to five editors to help them keep their page up to date.  

2. Fill in the simple form with the title and a subtitle that encourages and welcomes visitors into your church this Advent and Christmas.  

Remember to keep this text short so that people can easily read it in your video in a short time. Also think about your language – have you told people they’re welcome at your church and invited them to find out more?  

You will be able to preview your text. Make sure it is easy to read, if your text has gone onto a second line for the subtitle, are you still able to see this clearly? 

3. Then hit the 'Download video' box.  

In a few minutes, your video will be ready to share! Save this for use across your social media and websites or hit the social media icons to share directly onto these platforms.  

Remember to use the hashtag #FollowTheStar if you're sharing these films on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. We'd love to see your generated videos.  

We have already seen some wonderful videos from churches who have used the tool, such as:

If you’re sharing on social media this Advent and Christmas to encourage more people into your worshipping community, have a look at this blog explaining about our brand new #FollowTheStar gifs, available to churches for the first time.  

As we approach Christmas, more videos will be added for you to edit in the video generator tool, so do check back over the coming weeks!  

Generate your simple, 20-second video now using #FollowTheStar branding.

Generate your 35-second of the Church of England's national #FollowTheStar advert here.

Learn how to add your services and events to A Church Near You, here.

Amaris Cole
Senior Digital Communications Manager