What Churches Need to Know About Facebook's New Live Stream Policy
Facebook has announced a major change that will impact churches who rely on the platform for storing and sharing their sermon archives. Beginning February 19, 2025, Facebook will only store live videos for 30 days before automatically deleting them—a dramatic shift from their previous policy of indefinite storage. (You can click here to read their full announcement.)
For many churches who have built extensive sermon libraries on Facebook over the years, this represents a significant challenge that requires immediate attention. The change affects both new livestreams and your existing video archives, potentially erasing years of content if action isn't taken.
Understanding the New Policy
According to Facebook's official announcement, any new live broadcast videos created after February 19th will only remain available for replay, download, or sharing for 30 days. After that window closes, they'll be automatically removed from the platform. (Click here to learn how to download all your videos from Facebook.)
Even more concerning for churches with established video libraries is that Facebook will remove all existing livesteams that are currently older than 30 days. This deletion process will occur gradually over the coming months, with Facebook promising to notify users before their content is removed.
When you receive this notification, you'll have a 90-day window to take action—downloading your videos to local storage, transferring them to cloud providers like Google Drive or Dropbox, or converting select portions into Reels that will remain on your profile. Facebook is providing several tools to assist with these options, including both single video and bulk download capabilities.
Facebook states that these changes will "align our storage policies with industry standards and help ensure we are providing the most up-to-date live video experiences for everyone on Facebook."
TheSquad's Thoughts
While Facebook doesn't explicitly state this in their announcement, this policy change aligns with the platform's increasing focus on short-form content. For years we've observed how platforms like Facebook have been prioritizing brief, engaging videos over longer content. This storage policy change essentially forces churches to either download their content or transform it into shorter Reels—precisely the type of content Facebook's algorithm currently favors.
For churches, sermon content often has evergreen value that extends far beyond 30 days, making this policy change particularly challenging for ministries that have relied on Facebook as their primary video archive. Your Christmas message from two years ago, your baptism testimonies, and your teaching series on marriage—all potentially gone unless you take action before the deadline.
What can you do with old sermons?
An advantage of downloading your old sermon content now means you can turn evergreen messages into new Reels that point people to your full sermon library. Try clipping impactful 40 to 60-second clips from past sermons, add captions, then direct viewers to "watch the full message at [your website/YouTube]."
Since sermons tackle people’s questions and struggles, these clips can impact new viewers months or even years after they were first preached!
TL;DR: Why is Facebook deleting livestreams? Most likely because of:
Storage costs. Storing years of HD video content is enormously expensive at Facebook's scale
Engagement metrics. Short-form vertical content consistently outperforms traditional livestreams
Competition with TikTok. Facebook needs more short-form content to remain competitive
Ad revenue. Vertical videos and Reels create more opportunities for mid-content advertising
Algorithm optimization. Shorter content allows users to consume more videos per session
Mobile-first strategy. Vertical videos are optimized for how most users actually consume content
Low engagement. Data shows declining engagement with older archived content
Product adoption. Getting churches to use Facebook's editing suite keeps them in the ecosystem. Read more about this here.
Why should this matter to churches?
Unlike entertainment content that may be relevant for only a short period, sermon archives serve as ongoing spiritual resources for your church. Your people often return to messages months or even years later for encouragement, study, or to share with friends who are seeking answers. Your content represents both your church's teaching legacy and a valuable ministry tool that shouldn't disappear after just 30 days.
TheSquad's Thoughts
This change highlights a fundamental reality of building your ministry on borrowed platforms—you're always subject to policy changes beyond your control. While Facebook has provided a reasonable transition period with their 90-day notification, the message is clear: churches need ownership of their digital content, not just temporary hosting.
What Can Churches Do Now?
If you're among the thousands of churches using Facebook Live to broadcast your services, you'll need to develop a new content strategy. Here are some practical steps to take:
Check your email and Facebook notifications regularly. Facebook will alert you when your content is scheduled for deletion, starting your 90-day countdown.
Download your most valuable content immediately. Don't wait for the notification—start identifying and saving your most important messages now. Focus first on special services, testimonies, and popular sermon series.
Create a new live video workflow. Assign someone on your team to download each new broadcast within its 30-day window or immediately after service.
Consider multi-platform streaming. Services like BoxCast allow you to simultaneously stream to Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, or even your own website, creating automatic backups on platforms with different retention policies.
Create content Meta prefers. From previous statements they’ve released, we know Facebook and Instagram’s algorithms value short, vertical videos. Use software like OpusClip to help turn your long sermons into multiple short reels.
This moment presents an opportunity to reconsider your church's entire approach to video content. Rather than seeing this as just a Facebook problem to solve, forward-thinking churches will use this transition to build more robust, church-owned media libraries while also improving their short-form content strategy.
You need to own your content—Here's how a website archive can help.
The most reliable solution to Facebook's policy change is creating a permanent home for your video content on your church's own website or sites that strictly specialize in long-form videos.
By uploading your videos to a long-form video dedicated platform like YouTube or Vimeo and embedding them in your site, you get the best of both worlds. A sermon archive off of Facebook offers several advantages:
Permanence. Your content remains available until you decide to remove it, not when Facebook's policies change.
Control. You determine how content is organized, displayed, and shared, while YouTube or Vimeo handles the technical aspects of video hosting.
Searchability. Your people can find messages by topic, scripture, date, or speaker through your website's custom search functionality.
Integration. Your video library can connect with your church's other digital resources, creating a cohesive message hub.
Branding. Your content appears in your church's visual context, not surrounded by Facebook's interface and ads or random recommended videos that are sometimes inappropriate.
You can also transform your sermon transcripts into engaging blog posts, creating SEO-friendly content that extends your message's reach while providing another way for people to consume your teaching. These sermon-based articles live permanently on your website, allowing visitors to discover your content through search engines long after the original message was delivered.
A church website with a robust sermon archive is essential for your messages. It's a place where both members and visitors can explore your church's teaching at their own pace, without worrying about content disappearing after 30 days.
Here’s how Church Media Squad can help.
Website Squad
Our Website Squad specializes in creating beautiful, functional websites with sermon archives that integrate seamlessly. We build custom solutions that make organizing and sharing your video content simple, even for team members with minimal technical experience.
Each sermon archive we design includes:
Streamlined embedding from YouTube or Vimeo (recommended for optimal site performance)
Mobile-friendly playback that works on any device
Search functionality by topic, scripture, speaker, or date
→ Embedding videos? Didn't you say we need to own our content?
Absolutely! Using YouTube or Vimeo as your video hosting solution while embedding that content on your own website gives you the best of both worlds. Unlike Facebook, which is primarily a social platform with constantly changing algorithms and policies, YouTube and Vimeo are dedicated video hosting services with more favorable long-term storage policies.
Your church website becomes the central hub where all your content is organized, searchable, and presented in your branding—while the actual video files are stored on platforms designed specifically for video hosting. This approach protects your content from social media policy changes while maintaining optimal website performance.
→ But what if we’d prefer to host videos on our site?
While we can accommodate direct video uploads if needed, we typically recommend hosting your videos on platforms like YouTube or Vimeo and embedding them on your site for the best balance of performance and user experience. This approach gives you both the reliability of established video hosting services and the control of your own website.
TL;DR: We can store directly on your site, but it’s not optimal for speed and loading times. The more videos you pack into your site, the slower it becomes.
Social Media Squad
While building your website archive, you can still maximize Facebook's new reality with our Social Media Squad. Our Squad specializes in transforming your longer content into engaging short-form videos that thrive on social platforms.
Our Social Media Squad can:
Extract key impactful moments from your services for Reels
Write captions & add graphics and music to boost engagement
Schedule posts across multiple platforms
Track performance and refine your content strategy
Maintain a consistent posting schedule, even when your team is busy
With strategic social content, your church can reach people where they are while pointing people to your permanent library of your full messages.
Want to try us out? Get two weeks of free sermon reels and captions!
You must rethink your "set it and forget it" approach to livestreams.
Facebook's new 30-day retention policy is a wake-up call for churches who have relied too heavily on social platforms for their content archives. While the change requires immediate action to preserve your existing videos, it also presents an opportunity to build something better—a church-owned media library that serves your ministry for years to come.
At Church Media Squad, we're ready to help your church navigate this transition and come out stronger! Whether you need assistance building a new website with an epic sermon archive, or transforming your livestreams into engaging social media clips, our Squad has the expertise to support your ministry.
Don't let your valuable content disappear. Take control of your church's digital legacy today.
