Can ministry take place on TikTok?
During a Digital Debate, a host of Elim members shared how they are using the platform in exciting ways to share the gospel
MINISTRY MARKETING: Jason Heron
Could TikTok act as a gateway to your ministry? It has for the Parenting Tools podcast that Jason Heron heads up with Jordan Piano
We have a TikTok account which is gaining traction. It’s built around a parenting podcast where two dads talk about life and parenting.
Every week, we produce an hour-long video podcast and from there we take clips and post them on TikTok. We have around 4,000 monthly listeners to our podcast and needed a way to get more eyes on it. TikTok seemed to be the way to go and it’s working so far – we have around 40,000 followers.
It’s all a game of marketing, really. You only have a short amount of time to hook people in.
We’ve found that entertaining clips often lead us into more serious ones. One time we posted a funny clip, then soon afterwards another one with the same guy talking about the struggles of managing work and being around kids and family. That video wasn’t funny, but it had more views and interaction because it hit a topic which was quite serious.
If you’re a church wanting to go on TikTok it’s really important that you decide what the win is. For us, unashamedly, we want people to engage in our long-form content because that’s where we develop community, get to know people and they get to hear more about us and our faith.
TIKTOK PASTORING: Owen Bradley
Regents student and Rediscover Church youth intern Owen Bradley connects with thousands of young people on TikTok with funny videos, thought-provoking Bible messages, live broadcasts and prayer
TikTok LIVEs are an interesting way of sharing yourself and Jesus. The premise of a LIVE is you sit there and can do anything: you can create something, you can talk to people, you can answer questions, all sorts of things. When I do a LIVE I usually set it there and wait for people to join and ask questions about faith. It’s a great opportunity for me to reach people who don’t know about Jesus.
Afterwards, you often get quite difficult questions, which is why I would definitely encourage anyone who is looking to do live videos to feel they have a good understanding of the basics of faith and their opinions on big topics like LGBT and abortion. It doesn’t have to be completely nailed and you don’t have to find every Bible verse for everything you believe in, but you do have to have a level of confidence, because people do want answers to those common questions.
Some of my followers ask questions privately and have asked for prayer. That’s amazing, because it’s someone trusting you, or someone coming to you with things they’re unsure about. It’s not directly transparent in the same sense of a pastor in a physical church, but there’s definitely some responsibility that will just naturally come if that’s the sort of thing you start doing.
BRIDGING A COMMUNICATION GAP: Darren Edwards
At Ignite Elim Church in Lincolnshire, Darren Edwards is using TikTok to teach the Bible to previously unreached local people in an interesting and accessible way
We have struggled for a while to reach particular people on our local estate.
There’s one lad – his brother is in and out of prison and we’ve been friends with him and his family for ten years. They’re one of those families who are really hard to interact with through any sort of media, even Facebook, then all of a sudden, I’m on Tik Tok and he is messaging me saying, “I’m really interested in what you said about the Bible today.” Then his cousin’s stepdad messages me as well: “Hey, I’m really interested in what you said about Jesus today. Can you tell me more about that?”
Do you need top tech? Your digital dilemma solved
You don’t have to invest in a professional kit to succeed on TikTok, says digital missioner Hannah Fleming-Hill
A lot of people or churches see YouTube livestreams of services where it’s all smoke and lights – it looks really cool, and if you have the equipment, resource and know-how to do it, that’s amazing. But many don’t.
It can be intimidating thinking you need to do the big gig of the week and create content throughout the week with a really expensive camera, and spend ages editing.
Actually, some of the best-performing stuff on TikTok is things that have been done on a phone really quickly, piggybacking off a trending audio or theme.
That’s the thing a lot of people misunderstand, saying, “Let’s just make something to connect with people.” Actually it’s that realness and authenticity which works.
There is an aspiration and attractiveness about polished videos, but there is a connection with the real clips, where people say, “Hi, I’m walking the dog and I’m just going to pray for you,” or “This is what we’re getting up to at kids club.”
People go, “Oh, that’s cool. I do that.” Or, “Oh, that’s what happens. That’s how they do it.”
This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.
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