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Rachel Mosher

by Christina Dillabough, Director of Communications

Meet Rachel Mosher, the Youth and Common Grounds Coordinator at St Mark’s UMC in Tucson. She’s also one of the newest Methodism bloggers on TikTok! She says, “I tend to jump in with both feet.”

Rachel has a degree in Religious Studies but no marketing experience. She manages a TikTok account for the church Youth Ministry and started a new TikTok account as a suggestion from her son. Managing two accounts, @stmarksyouthgroup, and @methodistminute, Rachel started using TikTok for church with instructions from a Google search and a leap of faith. Rachel says, “I’m not an expert. I’m just trying this. What is going to happen if it fails? No one will know or care. I’m enjoying this, and it seems like I’m reaching people, so it’s worth it.” She says she didn’t have a marketing or communications strategy, but she did. Read this post and see if TikTok is in your church ministry future.

Rachel started with @stmarksyouthgroup for fun and informational posts. She does popular TikTok challenges and engages her Youth Group with weekly trivia. Rachel shares short videos of their gatherings and announcements of upcoming events. By doing this, she can connect with the Youth Group members outside their scheduled meetings and provide examples of what it looks like to be in the youth group at St. Mark’s. The kids can share her posts with their friends, and because they interacted with her videos, their followers might see the account too.

Rachel Mosher @methodistminute

Screen capture of Rachel Mosher  @methodistminute

Her newest account, @methodistminute, is a more serious TikTok account with a young adult target audience in mind. It is an evangelism tool in simple language and bite-sized segments. Her goal is to keep each video at one minute or less but admits sometimes it’s tough to stick to one minute. She hopes others will learn about The United Methodist Church through her blog and discover The United Methodist Church is a place of welcoming and inclusivity. She started it by answering questions that people asked her about Methodism. Rachel professes she’s winging it, but some of her strategies include planning posts that will explain insider language and background on the specifics mentioned in a video.

For example, she posted a message about the Dobbs vs. Jackson case and mentioned the Social Principles. So she planned future videos to explain what the Social Principles are. Rachel plans on using @methodistminute as a tool for her confirmation classes and says churches are welcome to do the same if they need a resource library or a place to ask questions, but she also cautions, “I’m no expert. This is a lay person’s response. Posts are a mix of my personal understanding and research from official UMC sites.”

Methodist MinuteAnother step in her communications strategy is to open up her topics to whatever people ask her within TikTok about a specific @methodistminute video. She shared, “It’s been nice and less threatening to tell my friends about my faith. Non-Methodists have responded too. I’ve had a few people reach out saying, ‘Wow, thank you for sharing! I had no idea that a church could be so open-minded.'”

Thinking about starting a TikTok for your church?
Rachel says, “Try it. Google how to make a TikTok video, find what you want to emulate, and try it.” But, if you have a question for Rachel, please send it to her via email at rachel@umcstmarks.org or check her out on TikTok and post the question there.

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Author: Christina Dillabough

The Desert Southwest Conference is a diverse and loving organization with open doors to a variety of people and partners in ministry. Celebrating our connection and diversity, we offer various resources. Content on this site includes information from other organizations that may not reflect the official policies or Social Principles of The United Methodist Church or the Desert Southwest Conference.

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