A young Anglican minister from Walsall near England’s third biggest city of Birmingham has become something of a sensation on social media.
Reverend David Sims is so popular he’s widely known across the UK as the ‘TikTok Vicar.’
He claims “evangelism has never been so easy” after giving away more than three thousand Bibles in less than a year, thanks to a TikTok video.
It shows him dancing in his office waving a Bible, and saying “If you want one, I’ll send you one for free”.
HUNDREDS OF REQUESTS FOR BIBLES
He was used to sending out two or three free Bibles a week, but after the video he had hundreds of requests.
He now has a team of volunteers to help send out the Bibles, which he said mainly go to non-churchgoers in their 20s, 30s and 40s.
The vicar of St Thomas’s, Aldridge told Premier Christianity Magazine last year that his phone had lit up with messages.
MESSAGES VICAR RECEIVED
One said: “Hi Vicar, I don’t know where to start, but maybe reading the Bible would be a good place.”
Another read: “Can I request a Bible? I need some verses to help me know that I am not alone.”
The Bibles are usually the New International Version (NIV) and are sent with an accompanying “Why Jesus?” booklet produced by Alpha International.
Reverend Sims told Church Times: “I’ve never seen evangelism be this easy.”
“But there is also a sense that I am becoming a bit bolder.”
“We are not going out doing big evangelistic campaigns. It must be a work of God, which is really exciting.”
HOW HIS TIKTOK EVANGELISM BEGAN
In an article for the Diocese of Lichfield he writes: “My journey into TikTok started a couple of years ago, when my housegroup encouraged me to give it a go!”
“They were convinced that my personality, cheesy dancing, and love for silliness would be perfect for that platform. So Revd_Tiktok began!”
“When I started, my main aim was to tweak videos that were trending with a Jesus slant.
“For example, one of the first ones I did was the trending song Blinding Lights dance in church.”
HOW HIS TIKTOK MINISTRY GREW
“After this, I took a trending sound and recorded a video with it with the simple message of Jesus loving you no matter what.”
Around 2.6k people saw it. And this is one of the most exciting things about Tiktok.
“2600 people heard the news that Jesus loves them — people who might never have stepped foot into church, or even thought about faith.”
“More recently, I did a video about ‘Should Christians celebrate Halloween’ which had around 2k views, and over 100 comments – some agreeing, some disagreeing.”
“But what a great opportunity to talk about Jesus’s light in the darkness and victory over evil to people who might never have heard the Gospel before.”
THOUSANDS OF FOLLOWERS TUNING IN
A few weeks ago I recorded a really short video asking people if I could pray for them.”
“Eight thousand people watched it, and I had around 250 requests for prayer, mostly from people who weren’t Christian.”
“A final example is my first Tiktok Church service on a Sunday night.”
“Nearly 2,000 people tuned in for some of it when we regularly had numbers of between 80-100 watching.”
“We sang some worship songs, had a Bible reading and talk, and I led a time of prayer.”
“As a result of this, 10 people asked for Bibles to be sent to them, one person has asked to be linked in to a local church near them.”
“GOD WORKS ON HEARTS THROUGH A SILLY DANCING VICAR”
“Visitors are turning up church after seeing a couple of videos on TikTok.”
“Imagine how excited you would be if someone came up to you at church and said ‘I’m interested in faith – do you have a Bible I could have?”
“I’d be jumping for joy, and rushing to get them one.”
“And here I am, with piles of Bibles in the hallway ready to go to the post office.”
“All because some people saw a silly dancing vicar on Tiktok, and God’s Spirit started to work in their hearts. Praise God!”
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