How can you come up with original creative ideas for your church Reels? ‍

DON’T. ‍

Especially, if you are just starting out. 

I’m going to show you in today’s post how to NEVER run out of Instagram Reels ideas for your church, witout coming up with anything original or having to do crazy dance moves (although they can help lol).

‍Yes, it sounds too good to be true. And good news, it IS true.‍

Keep reading to never run out of creative Instagram reels ideas again! 

Table of Contents: 

1. How to Know if Your Church Should Use Instagram Reels 
2. Ways to Make Your Instagram Reels More Discoverable 
3. How to Never Run Out of Instagram Reels Ideas for Your Church
4. 24 Creative Reels Ideas for Churches by Category (Make sure you get to the end! This is gold!)

Your Church Should Use Instagram Reels If… 

First off, here’s two reasons to know if your church should start using Instagram Reels. 

You should use Instagram Reels if #1: You want to reach NEW people

Instagram Reels is the best tool at the moment to grow your Instagram following with specifically NEW people. 

Currently the Instagram algorithm favors users who use Instagrams ‘newer’ features by showing them to a wider audience. 

The creation of Instagram Reels was an obvious comeback to TikTok, so Instagram is really pushing Reels to work well and to get people on board.

Meaning, you benefit when you post Reels. Instagram recommends posting 4-7 Reels a week!! 

That is a lot of Reels. But they make the algorithms so they know what works. 

I’ll show you an example of my account. 

At the time of this writing I have 1646 followers, so not a ton! I started this account from scratch 5 months ago. 

But my Insights show you some truth.

In the last 90 days, I have reached 1173 of my followers (less than I have!) and 76.1k non-followers. 

Of those numbers 51.5k came from Reels, so a majority of the “non-followers” who’ve seen my content are directly from Reels. 

Pretty interesting, huh? 

If more people see your account through Reels, they are more likely to visit your church’s Instagram profile and more likely to get to know your church! 

You should use Instagram Reels if #2: You want to be relevant in the future (and now)

As you know, short form video is where it’s at when it comes to social. You already know this. 

All I want to add to that, is don’t wait to try new things even if you feel like your church is bad at it or doesn’t have “experts”.

If you get people in your church to start taking action, and making Instagram Reels, they will learn.

You can only get better at Instagram Reels by making them. There’s no way around it. 

They might be bad at first. But quantity will lead to quality. Obviously don’t post something completely horrible, but if it’s “good enough” do it, and you’ll get better by taking action versus waiting to get things perfect.

It’s better to try, than to not, and then wish you did years later. 

Ways to Make Your Church Instagram Reels More Discoverable 

According to Instagram themselves, here’s how to get people to see your Reels. 

Post Reels That:

• Are entertaining and fun (grabs attention, makes them laugh, has a fun surprise or twist).
• Is Inspiring 
• Uses creative tools like (text or filters)
• Uses a vertical video
• Uses music from Instagram music library or original audio you create or find on Reels
• Apply to a wider audience that only your church (don’t only use insider language or promote local events)

Don’t Post Reels That:

• Are blurry due to low resolution 
• Are visibly recycled from other apps (contains watermarks, like reposting your TikTok videos)
• Is uploaded with a border around it 
• Has the majority of the image covered by text 
  

Instagram says these Reels will NOT be recommended as often to people who don’t yet follow you, but will be shown the way they always have to your followers, similar to how people see your Feed posts. 

So there you have it, short and sweet. Follow what Instagram says on this and you’ll do well. 

How to Never Run Out of Instagram Reels Ideas for Your Church 

Now, how to never run out of Instagram Reels ideas at your church. I’m going to give you five tips that will set you up for success, that don’t involve creating anything original. Phew!

#1 Search the Reels Tab and Copy Other Trends

Head on over the Instagram Reels tab and set yourself a 10 minute timer and scroll! 

When you look at each Reel think about how you could update the text or apply the concept to a church setting. 

When you find ones that seem promising or easy to recreate hit the save button so you can save it for later. 

Then when you are ready to create your Reels, you can come back to all your saved posts and have tons of ideas ready to go. Boom!

Don’t reinvent the wheel, especially if you are crunched for time or just starting out. 

When you start to recreate trends, you’ll naturally come up with some of your own ideas as well. 

#2 Find Examples In the Audio Tab of How Other People Used a Sound

If you don’t know, there’s an Audio Tab on your Instagram search page. Just like you can search for accounts, tags and places, you can search audio.

This is a great way to find audio and see how other people are using it in Reels! You can see a ton of variations of how people got creative with the same audio and then save the Reels you want to recreate. 

This is super helpful if you are looking for a certain song or theme. 

#3 Follow Other Churches or Christian Accounts and Recreate Their Ideas in Your Own Way 

Another great way to never run out of ideas, is to copy other similar accounts.

Find church accounts or other christian creative accounts that you can follow to get ideas for Reels. I like @biblebrowsing and @jenessawait to get inspiration. 

You can also head to one of my posts called 11 Churches You Should Follow on Instagram to get more ideas of who to follow! 

Two of my favorites for church Instagram Reels Ideas are @bldg_28_church and @txcelebration. 

#4 Write a List of Ideas to Educate Your Community 

Reels don’t only have to be funny or entertaining. Although, Instagram DOES say that entertainment is the main purpose.

Educational Reels do really well and are super valuable for your community.

So write down a list of ideas you want to educate your community on. Get other leaders involved in this exercise and I bet you’ll come up with a longgggg list to keep you going for a while. 

#5 Keep a Running List of Ideas in Your Posts 

Lastly, you need a place to keep a running list of ideas so you don’t forget. 

Sounds simple, but works wonders.

This is how you never sit down to make Reels and just “have nothing”.

I like to keep a list in my project management system. I always paste the link to the post where I got my idea so I don’t forget and also jot down any ideas I had to make it church related.

You can always use a simple google doc to keep your running list. If you have a team, you can share the list with everyone so everyone can add to it! 

24 Creative Reels Ideas for Churches by Category

Now for some ideas! Reels trends come and go, so I want to give you ideas based on different categories to keep you going for a long time. 

Church Reels #1: Reels that Educate 

When someone learns something they want to remember, they are more likely to save or share your post. Educational Reels are such valuable resources in a quick 30-60 seconds. 

Examples:

1. Lists 
2. This kind of list
3. How-Tos
4. Quick Tips
5. Quick Tips #2
   

Church Reels #2: Reels that Entertain 

As much as you don’t want to, entertaining Reels that are very short, like 7 seconds, do really well. 

For these, you’ll want to copy current trends you find via the methods we talked about above. 

Examples:

6. Lip syncing (the quickest type of Reels to make!) 
7. More lip syncing
8. Even more lip syncing
9. Funny Christian
10. More funny christian Reels 
11. Another Funny Christian Reel 

Church Reels #3: Reels that Inspire 

People want to be encouraged. You can inspire them using scripture or content from your messages on Sunday! 

Examples: 

12. A word of encouragement
13. Scripture
14. Another way to do a scripture Reel
15. Message Recap (note the vertical orientation of the video!)
16. Message Recap #2 

Church Reels #4: Reels that are Personal

You may want to post about your volunteer teams, recap an event or encourage your church personally through video. You can do that, just know it won’t apply to a lot of people who are outside your church. And the main purpose of Reels, as of now, is to reach NEW people.

That being said, I think these are great to mix in for your current community as long as they aren’t the only type of Reels you are posting. Variety and trying new things is a good thing. 

Examples:

17. Volunteer teams
18. Event Recap
19. Another type of event recap

Church Reels #5: Reels that Promote 

Lastly, promote!! You don’t want to do a ton of promoting on Reels, but if you create an interesting Reel and then use your caption to talk to your community about something you have coming up, that is a great way to get creative with sharing your events. 

Examples: 

20. Event Promo
21. Another event promo idea
22. Church Invite
23. Church Invite #2
24. Church Invite #3

Conclusion

To wrap this up, you learned: 

1. How to Know if Your Church Should Use Instagram Reels 
2. Ways to Make Your Instagram Reels More Discoverable 
3. How to Never Run Out of Instagram Reels Ideas for Your Church 
4. 24 Creative Reels Ideas for Churches by Category
   ‍