Oh boy…

So, this was a bit of an experiment, conducted with my on-site social media expert (aka Noah, my 18 year old son).

I've been fortunate to gather a sizeable following on TikTok in the last couple of years - 240k followers. Most of my content is carefully scripted short-form apologetics content. But, as I enter this new phase of freelance ministry, I plan to shake things up a bit. Tuesday night was my first time trying to answer questions live on TikTok.

To engage the passing traffic we flashed up a sign above me 'God is real... Prove me wrong', and waited to see what would happen.

It was a slightly surreal and relentless experience. Comments and questions kept flying on to the screen, and (being our first time) we also struggled a little with learning how to get people to join live and also disconnect them from the call!

I did my best with limited time to answer what I could. Questions asking if there’s any evidence for God, what I thought of other denominations, why suffering and disease exist etc. Some people were just there to have a laugh, but there were some memorable moments including Sophie who asked why God didn't answer her prayers (but beware of the swear at the end!) and an interesting atheist who claimed to be an 'absurdist' towards the end of the call. Hopefully a few seeds were planted along the way.

Overall around 7,000 people joined the call at some point during the hour, and we had a high of about 400 people watching at any one time. Let me know what you thought… and if you think we should try it again!

The thing with TikTok live is that once you end the call, it disappears. However, we screen recorded most of it so we have a rough-and-ready copy… I’m releasing this exclusively to all my Patreon supporters (all 5 of you!). But of course, if you’d like to see it then just support me on Patreon and you’ll get access too!

IN OTHER NEWS

Saying goodbye

I had a lovely chance to catch up with a gathering of Premier colleagues and friends at my ‘leaving do’ in London last night. I was delighted that two atheist friends - Alex O Connor (aka Cosmic Skeptic) and Phil Halper (aka SkyDivePhil) - who have featured as guests on Unbelievable? several times, were able to attend. They along with some of the Unbelievable team (Ruth Jackson and Peter Byrom) and some of my family members were among the last to leave… see pic!

Re-Enchanting charts at #2

I was also delighted to see our brand new podcast Re-Enchanting enter the ‘Religion & Spirituality’ rankings at no.2 shortly after its launch last week. Thanks to those who have listened, subscribed, rated and reviewed. There are 3 great episodes available. Subscribe on your preferred podcast platform here

That’s all for now folks.

P.S. If you can support me on Patreon or via PayPal in these early months of my transition to freelance ministry I’d be most grateful.

Justin