21/10/2025
Missionaries Harness Social Media to Share Inspirational Messages
In the early days of Christianity, Jesus Christ told his disciples, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” (Matthew 28:19 – 20). And we read in the New Testament that Jesus’ disciples went throughout the world teaching and preaching repentance and baptism.
Shortly after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organised in 1830, the first missionary assigned to go out and teach was Samuel Smith (Doctrine and Covenants Stories) . He would walk many kilometres each day and would stop at homes to teach anyone he could.
Today, disciples of Jesus Christ have multiple ways to share His gospel. In the Australia Melbourne Mission, one of the ways that missionaries share gospel messages with great success is through social media.
Paul and Nadene Thomas served as mission leaders for the Australia Melbourne Mission from July 2022 to June 2025. Shortly after starting their missionary service, they read an address given at Brigham Young University by Elder David A. Bednar, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, he said, “Social media channels are global tools that can personally and positively impact large numbers of individuals and families. . . What has been accomplished thus far in this dispensation communicating gospel messages through social media channels is a good beginning, but it is only a small trickle. . . I exhort you to sweep the earth with messages filled with righteousness and truth . . . and literally sweep the earth as with a flood.” As mission leaders, the Thomas’ felt inspired to use social media as a tool to share the gospel.
To start, the Thomas’ chose 10 – 12 missionaries who were highly effective in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and had experience with social media. They were asked to spend only 1-2 hours each day producing creative messages that would resonate with everyone and that would inspire, lift, and build hope.
The social media team began to share posts about Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, family history, the eternal nature of families, the Book of Mormon, belonging, community, healing, peace, love, and invitations to worship services.
Paul Thomas shared, “We applied faith, planning, goals, and prayer to find the right inspired messages to share and connect with people. We also made it a priority to respond to all requests immediately. If they did not acknowledge the first response, then we would continue to try until we spoke to the person who sent the request. The people who made
the request felt something special when they viewed the post and we wanted to help them learn more about the feelings they experienced.”
Tennison Lighthall, a missionary serving in Melbourne, said, “We are posting things that people want to hear. We are posting them to help people, and they respond to those messages. We are not doing it for ‘likes’ but we are doing it to genuinely help people.”
Hailey Brown, another missionary, said, “When people are going through hard things, they go on their phone to look for support. When they see messages about Jesus Christ and hope and love, they automatically feel that message of peace. It helps people recognise that no matter what they are going through in life, they are not alone. They have someone there who can help them every step of the way.”
The messages resonated with people, and the mission saw social media begin to move from a trickle to a flood as people wanted to learn more about Jesus Christ. Success came through these amazing young missionaries applying their gifts, talents, and love for Jesus Christ and all people.
Jayd and David, newly baptised members of the Church of Jesus Christ, were introduced to the Church when Jayd came across a simple story on social media that caught her attention in a way she could not explain. Something in her heart stirred and she felt a powerful desire to learn more. Not long after, Jayd and David began to meet with the missionaries to learn more about Jesus Christ and His restored Church.
Nadene Thomas said, “People matter more than anything else in this world. I now have a deeper understanding of what it means to mourn with those that mourn. I felt the power of loving people. We built our foundation upon love and when there is love there is unity in the entire mission. Whether you are talking about social media or regular [traditional] missionary work.”
Paul Thomas said, “The greatest success in social media came when we ministered in love, through Jesus Christ, one-by-one, and in the process, saw others experiencing great joy.”
