Mission today: TikTok pastor clocks up online flock
Nicola Laver
An evangelical church minister has headed for the spiritual harvest fields of TikTok, one of the latest and most popular social media platforms, to evangelise a new, younger audience – and he’s starting to reap success.
David Sims, vicar of St Thomas’ Church in Aldridge, Walsall since 2021, has amassed more than 10,500 followers on his @ tiktok_vicar profile where he runs virtual church services, reads the Bible and raises controversial subjects.
Social media ‘vitriol’ warning
Iain Taylor, Anglican Church
In his
latest address
to
the Provincial
Council, Archbishop Foley Beach of the
Anglican Church
in North America has
warned Christians, especially clergy, that
they need to behave better on social media.
Noting
that
the pandemic has
led
to
people’s
fears,
frustrations,
anger,
and
concerns overflowing onto the streets and
the
internet, Archbishop Beach
is most disconcerted by
the vitriol and
lack of
Christian
character
displayed
among
Christians on social media. He insists that,
as followers of Jesus, we should be appalled
by
the broad
labelling, assumptions, and
condemning of whole groups of people,
together with the mean and personal attacks
on individuals.
Rebecca Chapman
Graham Nicholls
John Woods
Milla Ling-Davies
Abortion, prayer – and my revealing Twitter chat
A little while ago, the Oscar-winning actress Julia Roberts posted a captioned picture of herself on Facebook in response to the leak of the US Supreme Court’s draft opinion on Roe v Wade (the landmark 1973 decision that conferred a constitutional right to abortion).
She wrote: ‘Happy Mother’s Day. May we be mothers when we want, how we want and IF we want.’ [Mother’s Day in the US is on a different date to the UK.]