Dear Church, Beware This TikTok Trend

I was shocked when I saw this.

However, a disturbing trend is only getting worse on TikTok. Here’s what you need to know:

As social media has evolved, different generations have claimed platforms as their own.

The Stratification of Social Media: Generational Divides

And I've begun calling this the “stratification” of social media.

Boomers: Facebook
Millennials: Instagram
Gen Z: TikTok
Gen X: Scattered across platforms (on brand for them, of course)

For decades, generations have had their own music. Their own fashion.

Now, they also have their own social platforms.

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TikTok: The Uncharted Territory for Churches

Recently, I polled you all asking: “Is your church on TikTok?”

To my surprise, just ~10% of you answered ‘Yes.’

Comparatively, more than 80% of you said your churches are active on both Instagram and Facebook.

Now, don't get me wrong, I’m sympathetic to the concerns of TikTok. The thing is...it’s also only getting more popular.

Especially with Gen Z.

And so I worry about the consequences of churches ignoring the next generation's platform.

The Urgency of TikTok for Church Engagement

The disturbing trend I'm worried about?

Well, it's been five years or so since TikTok's rise to prominence.

It's been five years (and my audience is mainly comprised of churches passionate about social media), yet, despite that, just 10% of your churches are active on TikTok.

If we extrapolate that to all churches, it’s reasonable to assume that number is less than 1%.

Why does this matter? Well, let's look at some data.

Namely, the Digital Global Statshot Report.

Below is the 2022 edition - and it includes two separate charts on time spent using social media apps: one that uses data from DATA.AI to show the average time per month and another that uses data from Sensor Tower to show the average time per day.

(These are worldwide averages outside of mainland China.)

DATA.AI’s analysis indicates that the average global TikTok user now uses the platform for almost a full day (23.6 hours) each month.

The report goes on to say:

"For context, assuming that the typical person sleeps for between 7 and 8 hours per day, these latest numbers suggest that TikTok users now spend close to 5 percent of their waking hours watching TikTok videos."

Meanwhile, Sensor Tower’s figure suggests that TikTok users now spend more than two days – 48 hours – per month using TikTok, which is even higher than the figure identified by data.ai.

These numbers are staggering.

Especially when you consider that these aren't just findings from Gen Z.

These are worldwide TikTok users outside of mainland China.

And yes, TikTok skews younger.

But let's imagine that the platform's users are ONLY Millennials and Gen Z.

Well, that still makes up roughly half of the population in the world. And if you look at most churches today, are our sanctuaries overflowing with Millennials and Gen Z?

For most? No.

So perhaps considering where they spend their time and being active there ourselves as churches is worthwhile.

From Social to Search: The Evolution of Social Media

But I get it...if you look at these numbers and they just don't compute with you - like,

"How could people be spending that much time on these platforms? This can't be right. There must be something wrong with the data."

Here's the thing - even if we assume these numbers are inflated slightly, for whatever reason, they're still not baseless.

So, if they're not making sense, it might be because your understanding of social media - your definition of social media - no longer exists.

Here's the truth: Social media, as we’ve known it for 15 years, is dead.

It’s no longer just about following friends, family, or influencers.

Consider this: (and this comes from the Global Web Index) Of the time Gen Z spends online, 41% is on social media.

An all-time high.

Why? Because what we use social media FOR is growing.

The “Social Graph Era” - where what we saw on our feeds was primarily our friend and family connections, AKA your social graph - is gone.

The “Discovery Era” is here now.

The New Social Media Era: Beyond Entertainment

TikTok’s president of global business solutions, Blake Chandlee, who spent 12 years at Facebook before joining TikTok in 2019, said this in 2022: 

“Facebook is a social platform. TikTok is an entertainment platform.”

What does this mean?

TikTok helped usher in a new era of social media. Because every platform copied their innovations.

And in 2024, social media is just as much about entertainment as it is about connecting with friends and family.

That's not all, though.

Not just entertainment, because in 2022, a Google VP made this statement at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference:

“In our studies, something like almost 40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search … They go to TikTok or Instagram.”

Now, if that sounds strange to you - you're not alone.

When I posted about this on Facebook, Rob replied by saying:

"I'd like to see some of those searches. That doesn't compute in my millennial brain."

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And so I'll tell you what I told Rob.

Right now, I'm in the middle of planning a trip to Scandinavia in the fall. All of my searches for local restaurants are starting on TikTok.

Similarly, I needed an orzo recipe the other day, and my search for one started on Instagram.

I didn't go to Google first.

Why? Without even thinking about it, I trusted TikTok and Instagram to do a better job of surfacing the solutions to my problem.

And the more I thought about this, the more I realized:

I didn't wanna wade through Google's promoted posts >>> then read some soulless listicle compiled by AI >>> or some content farm about 'The best places to eat in Stockholm' >>> then have to dodge video banners about the new Ford F150 >>> or scroll past what feels like five hundred page sections on a typical recipe website in 2024 >>> just to get to the ingredients, except the page won't load because there are so many pixels loading in the background, so much javascript, so many third-party pop-ups and ads that I'm just getting a white page with no content whatsoever because it's all trying to load at once.

The alternative?

Just watch a video some person shot on their phone as they were actually in Stockholm recently.

Watch a nice person make some orzo from scratch and then read the comments to see what people say about the recipe when they make it themselves.

And I'd do the same thing if you dropped me off in Oslo right now, and I needed lunch in the next thirty minutes.

Maybe you wouldn't.

That's alright.

I’m not saying you should change, but simply emphasizing that you need to know about the changes around you.

Young people especially are beginning to favor social platforms for search instead of traditional search engines.

This shift is a massive one.

So, add “search engine” to the modern definition of social media.

Finally, social media is the top source of brand discovery and product research for Gen Z - this comes from the Global Web Index again.

Social is becoming a one-stop-shop for how we make purchases.

If you think about it this way, in the previous era, our time on social media was primarily consumed by interacting with friends and family.

Today?

It has expanded dramatically to include:

• Entertainment

• Search

• Commerce

• Education

The old social media is dead.

A new era has begun.

And so when you evaluate through that lens?

Yes, 5% of waking time spent on TikTok is still alarming, but it's not just watching funny cat videos.

• It's finding recipes.

• It's keeping up with the news.

• It's getting inspiration for outfits.

• It's tracking with friends and family.

• It's searching for dinner spots this weekend.

• It's planning trips.

Social is becoming increasingly ingrained into the fabric of our lives because it's expanding.

Which makes the Church's absence on a platform like TikTok all the more concerning.

Of course, this leads us to the big question we're all asking - is TikTok safe?

Safety Concerns and Ethical Considerations

Here are a few things I’ll hit in this section:

• Safety and data privacy issues

• Ethical implications of content

• Comparison with safety concerns on other platforms.

Recently, I got a DM from a church asking it this way:

"Is Tiktok safe? I've seen your posts about Gen Z and we want to be able to reach anyone possible to have an extra chance to hear the Gospel or even hear the name of Jesus. The hesitation is from our marketing team leader who feels like TikTok might be unsafe from a government standpoint / cyber security."

Look, I get it. TikTok has very real concerns.

Consider the two-year Guardian investigation suggesting TikTok has struggled to prevent criminals from using its platforms to buy and sell children for sex.

It led to the head of TikTok apologizing in front of Congress, saying,

"I’m sorry for everything you have all been through. No one should go through the things that your families have suffered, and this is why we invest so much and we are going to continue doing industry-wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer."

Except that wasn’t the head of TikTok.

It was Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, earlier this year.

That being said, it is an election year in the US. A foreign government interfering in the American election would be awful.

Many think TikTok is the biggest concern there.…right?

Well, this quote is from detailed disclosures sent to Congress in 2017 on the heels of the 2016 election - and spoiler alert - the disclosures were not from TikTok:

“Russian agents intending to sow discord among American citizens disseminated inflammatory posts that reached 126 million users on Facebook, published more than 131,000 messages on Twitter, and uploaded over 1,000 videos to Google’s YouTube service.”

Alright. Enough of me being glib.

The intent of this blog is not to convince your church to use TikTok.

Truly.

At its core, this blog is about values.

Because a value only has weight when applied consistently - not selectively.

Consistency in Values: The Decision Framework for Churches

If your church opts not to use TikTok, I get it.

So long as we’re not selectively applying our values.

Otherwise, those aren’t values at all. That’s just personal preference masquerading as principle.

I said the same thing to this person on Instagram who commented:

"The concerns about what can be posted on TikTok scare me. And if we post there, we invite our young people onto the platform, and who knows what else they will see when on there because it won’t just be our content."

But can't that be said about every platform?

This comment was made on Instagram. Instagram is the springboard for most OnlyFans accounts.

Are we concerned about that?

Or do we turn a blind eye to that?

Do we downplay that concern because we're already active on the platform?

"My TikTok Feed Is Just Girls Dancing!"

Have you ever heard a pastor or church leader say something like that?

Here’s the truth: your social feeds are a mirror.

Want an honest, sober look at yourself?

Hit the screen record on your phone, then open your social apps and start scrolling.

Then watch it back.

There was a saying I heard a lot growing up: “Show me your bank account, and I’ll show you your values.”

You don’t need bank statements for this anymore. Your #ForYou Page is even more honest.

Remember, the #1 goal of any social platform is to keep you in the app for as long as possible. The longer you spend on the platform, the more money they make.

So, they have zero incentive to show you content you don’t want to see.

The question becomes - is your feed REALLY full of content you don’t like?

Or do your watch habits not match your stated values?

Look, I know this isn't going to be a popular article.

Again, my goal isn't to convince your church to start using TikTok.

If nothing else, I'd just love for you to evaluate your church's decisions on social media through a consistent lens.

Success Stories: Churches Making an Impact on TikTok

I want to show you some churches doing great things on TikTok to encourage you on the possibilities.

#1. @iamonechurch

Posting their preaching clips, they've been active on TikTok for several years now.

They have close to 300,000 followers on TikTok.

And after their TikTok growth came their growth on Instagram.

They have over 100,000 on Instagram now.

We did an interview with this church last year to talk about how their efforts online have translated to in-person - that podcast is linked HERE.

#2. TikTok as an Invitation

Here's a comment from user Amreitha on Instagram on one of my posts dedicated to TikTok:

"We are getting more and more non-Christian TikTok users visiting our church! It’s amazing. Yes, there are scary things on TikTok, but when they see an invitation to come to church, it grips some of their hearts enough to take the step to visit church! It’s about the invitation."

#3. Gateway Church

Last year, we started working with Gateway Church in Winterville, North Carolina.

They signed up for our custom social media service for churches, SocialSermons.

(Which you can do too! Head to SocialSermons.com and sign up for the personal, full-service social media team your church deserves. No big budgets required.)

They weren't active on TikTok at the time.

We were creating some sermon clips for them, so I told their pastor, John, "Look, we might as well post these on TikTok and just see what happens."

Pastor John wrote back about a month later, saying, “I was at work last week. I’m a bi-vocational pastor. And someone that I work with about once a month came up to me, and they said, “Are you a minister? You showed up on my TikTok feed.”

Then it happened again:

“I was picking up a grocery order at the supermarket. And a guy comes up to me and says the same thing, “Are you a pastor?” And when I said yes, he responded, “You showed up on my TikTok feed. My wife and I are looking for a church and we're gonna be checking yours out.”

You can see the entire case study on Gateway Church at SocialSermons.com.

Bottom line - Pastor John said it this way:

“People are seeing us. Knowing that our church is here. And we're getting The Gospel in front of people that we otherwise wouldn't be able to reach.”

Conclusion:

So, back to the main question -

What is this trend your church needs to watch out for?

We’re five years into TikTok in the mainstream, and our churches have neglected it even as Gen Z has claimed it as their number one platform.

We, as churches, did not neglect Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube like this.

Does TikTok have real concerns? Yes.

Are those concerns exclusive to TikTok? I would argue no.

The percentage of people who claim religious affiliation in the United States is declining across every generation.

And so I worry about the consequences of churches flatly ignoring THE platform of the next generation.

A generation that is already the least religious in the country's history. As the social media landscape evolves, so must our outreach methods.

The question isn't whether TikTok is perfect but whether we're willing to venture into new territories to share an unchanging truth.

Are you ready to take that step?

If you want to dive deeper into the state of social media, watch my recent video titled What Every Church Must Know About The YouTube Algorithm.

Thanks as always for your time, attention, and trust. We'll talk soon.

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