How Digital Missionaries Can Use TikTok

[Tom Pounder] Today we're going to talk about what digital missionaries can do on TikTok to reach people for Christ. Are you ready? Because it's time. [SPEAKER_02] You're listening to the Church Digital Sidekick Podcast, part of the TCD Podcast Network. [Tom Pounder] hey heroes my name is tom pounder and this is the church digital psychic podcast this is the podcast where i bring on ministry leaders and we talk about how you can do ministry more effectively in this very digital and online world and today we're talking to megan carter megan is a digital engagement pastor at church anywhere she works with tyler sampson who's been on the podcast before but I'm not talking to Tyler. I'm talking to Megan. And we're talking about how she is using TikTok as a digital missionary. She's using it to minister to people. And we're going to talk about what is she doing, how she's doing it, and what kind of engagement and interaction she's getting as she is a digital missionary on TikTok. But before we get into the interview, I want to mention about The Church Digital. At The Church Digital, we've got lots of different podcasts, blogs, coaching, and cohorts that are going on right now to help you do digital, fidgetal, and metaverse ministry more effectively. So if you've never gone to thechurch.digital, go there today, thechurch.digital, and then you've got all the content and coaching there. It's really simple, really easy. I hope you go there today. All right, you ready to get in an interview? Let's have this conversation with Megan talking about how she's a digital missionary on TikTok. Okay, with me right now is Megan Carter. She is the digital engagement pastor at Church Anywhere. Megan, how are you? I'm doing well. [Megan Carter] How are you? [Tom Pounder] I'm doing great. We're in the same time zone. I actually thought where you lived, you're in a different, I thought you were in central time zone, but you're eastern time zone. [Megan Carter] No, Eastern time zone, although it just switched not too many years ago, I used to have some family that lived in Central and Eastern, all in Indiana. It was really weird going to family gatherings. [Tom Pounder] Okay, so wait, is all Indiana now one time zone? [Megan Carter] Almost. If you get over towards Evansville, that's when it starts to change. So it just kind of slowly worked its way over. [Tom Pounder] Oh, that's interesting. Okay. Well, Megan, I met you at the Exponential Conference, and I've heard about you, though, before. Tyler Sampson, he just sings your praises all the time about what you're doing at Church Anywhere. So why don't you just tell people, for anybody who may not know who you are, just a little bit about yourself. Where are you at? What do you do? [Megan Carter] Yeah, so like I said, I am the digital engagement pastor here. Just moved into that role. I say just, but when the pandemic hit, basically, We shifted from, I was doing youth worship at our church and so shifted into this new position. And so that's kind of how that happened in a really short story. It was a lot more into it to that, but so that's what I'm doing now. And we got to kind of dream and like, think about what would we do with digital ministry? Like, what can we do? How can we make this effective and to reach a whole bunch of different people than just right here in our community? So that was kind of like a big starting point and it's launched from there and it's super exciting. [Tom Pounder] that's awesome that's awesome well again I've heard about you through Tyler and the the term digital missionary and you are a digital missionary and you're using TikTok as a platform so this is what we want to talk about today how are people especially digital missionaries how can you use TikTok for ministry purposes how can you reach people for the kingdom of Christ and so just to kind of get us started off like why did you choose TikTok of all the different Why TikTok? [Megan Carter] Very odd, right? Most people, when I say that, they're like, what? Like, they only think of the negative side of, and every social media platform pretty much has a negative side. It can go that way. But there's a lot of good things there too. So it actually happened by accident. So it's a really funny story. but you know everything was shut down we went through this pandemic and we're in the middle of this and i'm at home with kids and like they're going crazy because they need an outlet and need to do things and um so i was like i need a personal outlet like i need something that i can just kind of be creative and a time moment for myself just a few minutes away And so I was like, all right, you know what? I know this is probably, I'm way too old for this, but I'm just gonna jump on TikTok and nobody I know is on there. And so I was like, I can just have fun with it, make silly videos, make fun of myself. And no one around me is gonna know kind of thing. Like no one's gonna see it. It's all gonna be good. And we're just, I'm gonna have fun. And probably if I'm the only one who watches the videos and gets a laugh, like that's fine with me. So that's where it started. And I actually, We went on a vacation out into the Smokies because still everything was shut down. But we're like, let's go in the mountains. No one's there. Just enjoy this moment. So we did that right before we left. I made a video of I have really bad vision. And so I had my glasses and I was like, you want to see what I see and put my glasses in front of the camera and locked the autofocus and pulled them away. And everything was super blurry. So people just resonated with that. And we came back from not having cell service and all that. And I had like 250,000 views. And I was like, hold on. [Tom Pounder] Wow. [Megan Carter] Hold on. I was like, this is from a girl from really small town. Like no one knows where I graduated 47 kids in my class. We knew them all like super small. I was like, what is happening? So then I brought that back to our team and I was like, okay, maybe there's something to this. Maybe there's a way we can use this. to reach people in a new and a unique way, very untraditional. That's really how it started, was kind of by accident, but it's been really cool to see how that's progressed and grew. [Tom Pounder] Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, so let me ask you this question. How long did you start using TikTok before you started creating videos for TikTok? [Megan Carter] so i had heard about it and had seen it obviously like it was all over the news and stuff too and so i had i think we did it once for like when i was doing worship with the youth and we did like a tick tock night and i was like what is this app and i was like oh you mean like vine like that's where i came from and i was like oh okay like this is a silly app and so it wasn't until that like shut down and just like okay well you know i'm just gonna try this out and use it so i started creating pretty quickly just because i was like [Tom Pounder] might as well like just see some silly stuff and so um that's when just kind of jumped in like both feet okay did you ever go through the conflict of maybe saying well does church anywhere have a tick tock church account at all you do not no you do not okay so did you ever think hey i should do this for the church rather than i should do this for megan um no it was really just that creative outlet especially at that time like just [Megan Carter] getting like doing some cool transitions and doing some different things like that and being silly like the glasses piece so that's really all it was at first and i really did not think anything of it and i was like it's just gonna be fun i can do a little bit and then obviously got that idea and i was like this could be more than what it is [Tom Pounder] No, that's awesome. Okay. So as you started experimenting and creating different videos, would you say that you have a niche right now or a niche, however you want to say? [Megan Carter] I never know how to say that word. Man, I, so anxiety, that sounds really weird, but it is, um, that's part of my story. So that's where I started taking it. Um, I, before all this, I was writing a blog through our church website, talking about anxiety and through my experiences and just being a mom and guilt and shame and all the things that come with that. So I was already doing that piece and I was like, okay, if I can take this and like almost promote the blog. So like, it's just taking them into a deeper step and. So that's really kind of where it went to like right after was like, okay, let's, we'll talk about these things, but I don't, I don't know. I post a lot of different videos too. Like I feel like I probably should have a niche. Um, but I don't, I do those in all kinds of different videos. [Tom Pounder] Okay, so let me ask you this question, because obviously you're making an impact. Currently, as we're recording this right now, you have over 30,000 people following you and over almost 280,000 likes. so obviously you are doing something right here as you're uh using this app so what are some things that you would encourage people like like like myself i use tick tock and i i use it kind of for ministry purposes as well uh me as tom pounder um but what what would you encourage people like me or other people listening about how to use tick tock properly is there are there some good things that you've learned over time yeah the biggest thing is just be real [Megan Carter] like people can see fake a mile away and they'll call you on it it's like the kids say cat You know, like they will call you on it. And so that's the biggest piece. And so for me, I think the way that it's made an impact is being able to talk about that. Like I say, yeah, I am a pastor and I deal with anxiety and I've dealt with depression and I've dealt with these different things that didn't overcome me, but through God and through people and all these different things, like I've been able to come to a place where, you know, it's still a daily struggle. It's something I work through. and kind of make those choices. And so that's the biggest thing is being able to be real with people because that's what they're going to see. And they want something and they kind of, they want to be feel like they belong to people, like have an identity. And so letting people know they're not alone is huge in that they're not the only one struggling with this. And so that's always my kind of thought process behind is like, okay, even if it's a silly video, or whatever it may be, or a prayer video, I hope that somebody sees this that needs to see it. And that's really like where that leads into. [Tom Pounder] Yeah, I would agree with you 100% because every night I tend to sit in my bed and scroll some TikTok and I scroll some Twitter because I love both those apps. But you can tell who are the real ones and who are ones who are trying to be polished and professional with it. And it just doesn't seem to resonate as well with other people. Has that been your experience as well? [Megan Carter] Yeah, for sure. And like, I'm a perfectionist through and through. I like, when I first started doing videos, I was like, shot it, I don't know how many times to get it just right. And now I will most likely be like, all right, one take, if it's not perfect, that's okay. And honestly, that's what the best thing about TikTok is compared to other platforms is because like, there's ones that you spend no time on and they will reach a lot of people, which is awesome. And then there's ones that you do spend a lot of time on. And like, it's like, here's 10 views. And you're like, all right. but i think that's another thing too is like not to let yourself get weighed down by how many people see it because if just the right person sees it that needs to see it that's all that matters it doesn't matter if you're getting millions of views um which is awesome to have that reach but if you're not like there could just be one person that sees it that that it needed to see that that day [Tom Pounder] Yeah, I agree with you 100%. I mean, you don't need to have that blue check mark or you don't need to have all these followers to make an impact. I mean, again, I feel like my videos that I do, they get seen by a few hundred people and I'm like, okay, well then hopefully... you know, God's going to use that in some way. God can use us to reach people. That's what I love about technology in this idea of digital missionaries that through our simple phones right here, we can be used by God to share his message of hope and encouragement. And I see that what you're doing. And I think it's just fantastic. um as you do videos let's talk about um real quick are there things that you do and include in your videos that as you're editing like well how long does it take for you to like put together a whole video um it depends on the video so if like tick tock's really big on sounds [Megan Carter] So if I use a sound from someone else and like lip sync, which I'm really not good at, so it's just somehow off, but I just post it anyways, is like, those are kind of just when I get the shot done, I do it right in the TikTok app and I'm good. So those don't take super long. A lot of times I'll kind of create those and then have those so I can disperse throughout to kind of separate some content. Other ones, like if I do a prayer one, usually it's one or two takes just because I'll ask people for prayer. And a lot of times I'll pray right there. And sometimes I forget my time limit. So you kind of have to go back and refocus how you're doing it. I try not to spend a crazy amount of time editing because that's what I said. And one of the good thing about TikTok is like, it doesn't have to be the best quality. Like you can have your phone and just shoot on the camera and still like impact people. And so it's, yeah, I try not to spend, cause I have a lot of other things on my plate and So the quickest I can do it pretty much. [Tom Pounder] Do you do all your editing on your phone or will you take it and edit on some other like a version on your computer? [Megan Carter] I pretty much do all of it on my phone. There's an app called, I believe, Premiere Rush, and I think it's a free app. And so it'll do vertical videos, which is sometimes hard to find. And that's exactly what TikTok is, all vertical videos, which is everything against what I've ever learned growing up. Like it's supposed to be horizontal. And so now everything's vertical. But that's a really easy one because you can kind of splice and put in. And if you want to put in music and then just export it. So if I do something like that, I'll usually, but that doesn't take [Tom Pounder] whole lot of time once you kind of get the flow of how that that works yeah oh that's good i i've never heard of premiere rush before so i'm gonna i'm gonna check that out yeah yeah you're you're exactly right with video we're always told it's got to be horizontal and it's always gonna you know do that but now with you know tick tock you you do that um do you take your content at all and share it on reels at all or or even on youtube shorts [Megan Carter] Not YouTube. I'm not really branched out into that at all. I do have an Instagram that was really linked to my blog. So sometimes I will put it on Instagram, but I find that if you have one platform and you focus on that one platform, it works a lot better. So my Instagram is more of like almost a landing page of here's a way to get connected to all the other things I'm doing or I'm a part of. So, yeah, that's. [Tom Pounder] That's awesome. Again, I'm big into creating the content and trying to share it on multiple platforms. But I think it's encouraging to hear that you're like, I want to be good on TikTok and I want to use TikTok as my platform. And that's what you're doing. And so anybody who's listening to this. Just know that you don't have to do it on Instagram, on YouTube, on Facebook. You don't have to be everywhere. Focus on one area and be really good at it and see what God does with it. How have you seen what you've done make an impact? Have you gotten stories? Do people DM you encouragement? [Megan Carter] Yeah, which is like the best part. So like when I first started, I've been doing it. think about two years now which is crazy to say too um so when i first started when i started going a little bit deeper than just like the silly videos and all that i would ask people for prayer and i'm like if you have a prayer request please drop it in the comments. And if you don't like go in the comments and pray for somebody. And the biggest thing I would try to write out a prayer in like that 150 characters you have just real quick to hit on what they were asking prayer for. So they see that I'm really praying for them. It wasn't just, I'll be praying for you and leave it. And so at that time I was writing down all their like handled their names. And I was keeping those on one my whiteboard that was in my office, and then I ran out of space. So then I started writing them even smaller on canvases. And I had thousands of people that I had prayed for like I kept a list and now it's like too much to count so it's just there um but so i kept this list of these people and then i would look at it and i would continue to pray for them so it wasn't just like a one-time thing which was really cool to like see kind of coming out as like on the wall yeah and the cool thing is i did have a couple people reach back out to me and and that's not always common like that's not always what you're gonna have um you have to just hope and pray that god is you know working on the hearts of people and that you know whoever needs to come in contact with them next to get them along their journey you hope that that's what's happening but i have heard back from a few people on one person um her name's jess and i actually got to talk with her over zoom and kind of counsel her through some different situations she was struggling with some anxiety and depression and she had a lot of life situations that were going on. So being able to talk with her and pray with her was, was a really cool moment. And then I had another lady that just a couple of the stories, but one, she contacted me and she said, I just wanted to let you know, like you prayed over me a while back and she wrote back and she said, When I went to the doctor today and she was pregnant, she was like, they told me before that my baby had a hole in its heart and all this stuff. And I just want to let you know, my baby's born and is completely well. And like, there was no issues and there was nothing, um, that was a problem. And so like, she was just like, thank you for praying. And like, God works and God does miracles. And like, in that moment, I was just like, Ooh. i'm like i'm like wiping away tears every time i tell that story i start to tear up because like she didn't have to go out her way and say and find me and say you know you prayed for me and i know it's not me it's not me at all i'm like give god the glory for for working in your life but it's like those are the the stories that keep me going and and push me on to you know there's other people out there there's a lot of hurting people and that's why i was able to pray for so many people is They were really open to say, you know, this is what's going on. And I was honored and kind of humbled that they opened up to me in that moment. And so I've been able to have a couple different conversations with people and try to stay in contact. And that's the biggest thing that we tell any people who are doing our digital ministries. our missionaries is it's relationship over technology and it's really more than that it's relationship over everything else um and that's that's where our biggest thing and and i know that a lot of people use their church and like as a platform and doing that but doing it as a person like me personally and being real and sharing who i am i can relate so much more with the demographic that relates to me. So moms and women my age that struggle with anxiety or struggle with different things, I'm able to talk with them on a different level and start to build that trust so that I can have these deeper conversations with them in a lot easier way. And so that's why we love that kind of non-traditional way of doing ministry. [Tom Pounder] I love everything about what you just said. I mean, again, it's the thing I... For anybody who says online relationships are not real relationships, this just kind of squashes all of that. And I just see it time and time again that if you invest in online relationships, it's a relationship. It's a friendship. I know there are people, because I'm highly invested in Twitter, there are people I know on Twitter that I know better than some of the in-person people I know, in real life people I know. Right. know and it's like those things happen and you can have relationships you can help lead someone i love how you you did some counseling with that one lady and i just think that that happened because of online it didn't you would have never met that girl probably if it wasn't for online and so god used that in a powerful way and i like how to again you're using you megan carter and not church anywhere because people respond they're more open to people than churches again the church does a lot of great work but also there's a lot of people who are hesitant at first to the church By you serving them and sharing your life with them, your real life with people, it makes an impact and you can have really positive impact. Again, relationships over everything else. I love what you just said there. And I will say this, I am older than you, but I know you're not 18 years old either. And so the reality is TikTok is for anybody. There are people in their 40s, 50s, 60s in there sharing their life stories. And so if you're thinking about getting involved with TikTok and you're like 50 years old, still get involved. I mean, there are people on there. What has been an encouragement, maybe one of your biggest encouragements as you've just been playing around with it and exploring what's happening? What have you been seeing that really just makes it a good ministry opportunity for you? [Megan Carter] Yeah, I think really those conversations that I've been able to have with people, like that's the biggest thing. and building those relationships and those friendships have been the most encouraging because there are times when I know I can be down and those are people that I've started like building that relationship and I can talk to them and say you know what I'm struggling and they can they'll pray for me or when i'm asking for prayer i'll have people say i don't really need any prayer right now but what do you need prayer for and it's like right at that right moment and you're like i really do need some prayer i really do need somebody um you know just concerned for me um as i'm pouring everything out to others too that's that's awesome um we don't need to talk about this very much but let me ask you this question as we're getting close to wrapping up is have you had to experience any issues with trolls or anything like that Yeah, so I was actually at a conference and this was probably one of the funniest moments because I opened, I was talking about digital missionaries and what we do. And somebody asked the question like, well, what do you do when people like throw hate at you and do all this stuff? And I was like, delete the comment. But honestly, like a lot of times, if they want to have a conversation, I will definitely have a conversation. I've had lots of conversations with different people about me being a pastor and being a female. And that comes sometimes with hate and that's not fun, but I will have a conversation. But if it gets to the point that it's not a conversation anymore and all it is, is just trying to drag me down or just... throw hate at me and not want to have an open mind and listen, then that's when I will just delete the comment and just move on. Because it's not worth that time. If they're not going to listen, I can't make them listen or have an open mind about that. And I usually will try to have an open mind about any conversation, at least to a point. But that's where I just delete them. [Tom Pounder] Now, that's that's a great that's a great idea. And again, you know, I think if you were doing this from a church account, there would be hesitation maybe to delete that. But this is your personal account. And again, it comes a time when a delete is just what you need to do. And and I would imagine you as a woman and you as a woman pastor would get so much more potential trolls than me as a as a guy. [Megan Carter] You know, it's really sad. [Tom Pounder] Yeah, it is very sad. So I have four daughters of my own. So it's like, yeah, it's frustrating. So I understand that. Well, as we wrap up, Megan, how would you encourage people as they're looking at possibly taking that step on TikTok? [Megan Carter] just do it. Just go for it. Like we have other ones, other people who are in our church that we've kind of got them started into doing digital ministry on a couple of different platforms. And I just tell them, just like put it out there, just find what you're good at, what you're passionate about, what you love to do, and then like who you want to reach. Like that's a big key, that demographic. And so who are you trying to reach and then create content that they want to see. and then that's and just put it out there and go for it and the other thing is like you have to realize it's so slow like i know you can go viral and like i know mine did on that one but like a lot of them haven't and that's okay and like just being consistent and staying through that is is a huge key to like success and seeing those stories kind of live out it's just continuing on and don't worry about all the views and all the bikes and all that stuff [Tom Pounder] Okay, so this just leads me to one last question for you about consistency, because consistency does matter with a lot of social media. What is your consistency? What do you try to do? Because I hear like, if you want to be big, you got to post like three or four times a day. And I'm like, dude, I don't have that time. So what do you do? [Megan Carter] So for about a year and a half, I posted every day, just at least once. Sometimes it was more, but I would try to post every day. Now I post probably about three times a week. So because I've already built that up a little bit to get there, but I try to stay consistent as much as I can. I've taken a couple other roles in the church, so I haven't had as much time to put into that too. So I kind of had to scale back on what I was doing, but that's normally about three times a week, sometimes more. [Tom Pounder] sometimes a little bit less but that's about average that's that's awesome that's great well i'm glad you said like you just said once one a day rather than three or four times a day because i'm like i don't know if i can come up with content for three or four times a day so either i post like not at all or like a hundred times now there you go there you go um well megan it was awesome having you on um if someone wanted to connect with you how would how would they best connect with you [Megan Carter] Yeah, so TikTok, Real Talk with Megan. It's M-E-G-A-N, the correct way to spell it. No, I'm just kidding. But so yeah, TikTok and that. And then that's the same as my Instagram handle as well. And then there's like a link in bio that you can see all the other things. We have churchanywhere.us and that's where my blog is hosted. And so there's a lot of different things on there as well and resources. [Tom Pounder] That's awesome. It's funny that you said the real way to spell Megan. I mean, there's only really one way to spell Tom basically. Well, there's T-O-M, but then there's sometimes there's T-H-O-M for people, but Megan, I've seen it so many different ways. So I get that 100%. And I'm going to include Megan's links in the show notes. So if anybody wants to do it, you can just click on the show notes and go to her TikTok or Instagram. So Megan, thank you so much for being on the podcast. I'm definitely going to have to have you back on. so yeah absolutely all right it was great talking to megan i loved having her on and again i love following her on tick tock i do follow her um and she's got great stuff and she's really encouraging really funny and really inspiring so if you've never checked her out i've got all the links on my show notes You can check her out and you can start following her and you can encourage her as well as she's reaching it. But you can also use her as an example for what you can do on TikTok. TikTok is for anybody and it's for everybody, young and old. So what can you do on TikTok as a digital missionary? I would love to hear your thoughts on it. Definitely put in the comment section below or you can go to Twitter at TAPounders by Twitter handle. Megan's not on there, but I am. And I would love to carry on this conversation about what you can do on TikTok. as a digital missionary. I would love to hear your thoughts and insights on that. And I would love to encourage you as well as you're venturing into TikTok. All right, heroes. Well, thanks so much for being with me today. As always, you can subscribe to this. This is on YouTube. This is on iTunes and Spotify. You can also go to thechurch.digital to check it out as well. I've got my blogs on there as well. So check out thechurch.digital and you can find all that content right there. All right. Well, thank you so much again for being with me today. And I hope you have a great rest of your day. And until next time, have a great one.