In late September 2026, the Africa Digital Faith Influencers programme, run by the Pan African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network, graduated its second batch of 109 influencers drawn from 21 countries across the African continent.
The participants were trained in using WhatsApp, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and X to further their messages of faith and humanitarian goals.
Training Africa’s Digital Faith Influencers
The influencers learned that a post can change a village, but a completed project changes lives. The graduates were urged to continue spreading their message while making use of digital tools to support real-world humanitarian and community activities.
Like other faith influencers, they balance their time between promoting their message and completing projects on the ground so that they can impact audiences both offline and online.
The programme reflects the growing importance of social media in religious communication. Platforms that were originally developed mainly for entertainment and personal communication are increasingly being used by religious organisations to reach younger and geographically dispersed audiences.
What Digital Faith Creators Can Learn
The key lessons for aspiring digital faith influencers include adhering to their core beliefs, consistently creating short-form content and completing projects that have a real-world impact.
These influencers typically operate on relatively small budgets, but some can leverage their status to acquire equipment, partnerships and sponsorships from organisations.
The number of graduates and the range of countries represented also shows the importance that institutions place on training digital communicators and missionaries at an organisational level.
The programme demonstrates that digital faith communication is becoming a specialised area where creators need both religious understanding and practical knowledge of modern social media platforms.
