Mission today: TikTok pastor clocks up online flock

Nicola Laver  |  UK & Ireland
Date posted:  1 Feb 2023
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Mission today: TikTok pastor clocks up online flock

Top: some videos from David Sims on TikTok Above: David recording (L)

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.

By January 2023, TikTok – which was launched in 2016 – had around 17.5 million UK users a month. In 2026 this number is expected to have grown by 20 percent, according to digimind.com.

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