No AV degree. No Apple Developer account. No tech team. A step-by-step Saturday-afternoon-to-Sunday-morning playbook for the volunteer who got handed "the streaming thing."

You volunteered to help with the AV at church. Maybe you mentioned at lunch one Sunday that you were "kind of techy." Maybe the previous volunteer moved away. Either way, the pastor sent you a text last Wednesday that read, in some form, "Hey — can you figure out the livestream thing for us by Sunday?"

You said yes because you love your church. Now it's Friday night and you're staring at a Google search that returned three different blog posts, two YouTube tutorials of varying age, and one $4,800 hardware bundle from a company you've never heard of.

Take a breath. You can do this in a weekend. Here's the actual playbook.

What you don't need

Let's clear the noise first.

• You don't need an AV degree. This guide assumes you can plug a USB cable into a laptop and follow on-screen instructions. That's the bar.
• You don't need an Apple Developer account. Those are $99/year, require tax-ID setup, and nobody at your church has time to deal with one. We'll get to how Fluger handles this for you.
• You don't need a $4,800 hardware bundle. A consumer camcorder, a laptop, and a halfway decent internet connection are enough to ship Sunday 1.
• You don't need to learn OBS, vMix, or any "broadcasting software." Not for this weekend. Maybe later, once you want to graduate.

If anyone tries to sell you something that contradicts the above, set it down and walk away.

What you do need

Five things. None of them are exotic.

Friday night — gather

Spend ten minutes finding the camera and the cables. If the camera came with a charging brick, plug it in tonight so it's full Saturday morning. Confirm your church's Wi-Fi router is somewhere within ethernet-cable distance of where the camera will sit. If it isn't, a 50-ft cat-6 cable from any hardware store solves it.

Don't overthink camera placement. Center-back of the sanctuary, framed on the worship platform, slightly elevated. You can refine the shot in week 3.

That's Friday. Go to bed.

Saturday morning — sign up and brand

This is where most "tutorial" blog posts spend twelve paragraphs explaining encoding software. We're going to skip all of that.

Open your laptop and go to fluger.tv/registration. The free trial runs 14 days, which is long enough to do two Sundays. No credit card required to start.

Walk through the setup. You'll be asked for:

1. Your church's name
2. A church logo (if you have one — a placeholder works for week 1)
3. A short description ("Sunday services, sermon archive, and live worship from [your church]")
4. The colors you want your branded apps to use

This is the part that makes the rest of the weekend possible. While you've been signing up, a few things have happened in the background that you didn't have to do:

• A 24/7 ministry channel was created in your church's name.
• A sermon library page was built and is ready for uploads.
• Your branded iPhone app and Roku channel were queued for publication to the App Store and the Roku Channel Store under your church's name.

That last one matters. Publishing to the App Store normally requires an Apple Developer account, app review, screenshots, marketing copy, and a tax-ID setup. Same drill for Roku. We do all of that for you. No Apple Developer account needed at your end.

By the time your branded apps go live in those stores (typically 7–10 days), your members will be able to search [Your Church Name] on iPhone or Roku and install your app like any other.

That's the silent win of Saturday morning.

Saturday afternoon — first test

Now we point a camera at the sanctuary and stream it.

For week 1, the simplest path is via your church's existing YouTube Live setup. Most churches already have one. Fluger pulls the YouTube live stream into your branded iPhone app, your 24/7 channel, and your sermon library — automatically. You point your camera at the platform, push a button on YouTube to go live, and Fluger relays the stream into all your branded surfaces.

Honest caveat for week 1: Live Sunday service plays on your branded iPhone app and on your YouTube link today. The Roku version of live Sunday is on the Fluger roadmap for summer 2026 — for now, the Roku app shows your sermon library and your 24/7 ministry channel (which is most of what members watch between Sundays anyway). For the live service itself, members on Roku can switch to YouTube directly until Roku live ships. We mention this so there are no surprises Sunday morning.

Set the camera up at the back of the sanctuary. Open YouTube on your laptop, go to YouTube Studio, click Go Live, select your camera as the input. Send the stream.

In your Fluger dashboard, you should see the stream populate the Live tile within a minute. Open the Fluger preview link on your phone. You should be watching yourself, in your church, on a branded app with your church's name on it.

That's Sunday's service in dress rehearsal.

If something doesn't work, the most common issue is ethernet — go double-check the cable. Second most common is YouTube Live not being enabled on the church's account. That takes 24 hours to enable, so do this part Saturday morning, not Sunday morning.

Saturday evening — sermon library

Pick three of your church's most recent sermon recordings. Upload them to your Fluger sermon library tonight. They'll be available immediately on your branded apps, the web, and the 24/7 channel.

If you don't have recordings, skip this. You'll have one by Sunday afternoon.

Sunday morning — go live

Get to church 30 minutes earlier than usual. Plug in. Power on the camera. Send the stream from YouTube Live. Confirm the Fluger dashboard shows you live. Glance at your phone five minutes before service to confirm playback.

Sit down. Worship.

When service ends, stop the stream. The recording will appear in your sermon library automatically within an hour.

Sunday afternoon — soft launch to your members

Send a single text or email to your members' list:

We launched our own streaming app this weekend. Search for "[your church name]" in the App Store on your iPhone — should be live within the next week. Watch this morning's service, browse past sermons, or just leave the 24/7 worship channel running in the background. Roku version coming soon. Questions — reply here.

That's it. You did it.

Monday — review, plan week 2

Open the Fluger dashboard. Look at the viewer count for Sunday. Send a quick did the stream work for you? message to two or three members. Ask the homebound members specifically — they're the people this is for.

Whatever you learn, note it. Next Saturday afternoon, you have one hour of polish: better camera angle, second microphone for the worship band, branded artwork on the app cover. Each week, you fix one thing.

By the end of month one, your church has its own branded streaming presence on iPhone, the web, and (with the App Store / Roku Channel Store listings now approved) on Roku — built on a Saturday afternoon by a volunteer with a consumer camcorder.

When to ask for help

If you get stuck — the camera won't connect, the apps aren't publishing, the audio is silent — reply to any Fluger email and a real person will help you through it. We've helped enough volunteer-run churches to know where the snags happen, and we want week 1 to ship.

Try it free

The 14-day free trial is at fluger.tv/registration. No credit card to start, no Apple Developer account, no AV degree.

You volunteered for this because you love your church. Now you have the playbook. See you Sunday.