The Lord is my shepherd, but He also has a sideline as an Instagram influencer. As congregations dwindle in mainstream churches, "hipster" worshipers are spreading the word on social media, bringing a young, cool crowd to Christ.
At first glance, these Christian accounts are hardly different to anything else on Instagram. Biblesandcoffee, an account run by a 27-year-old woman from Los Angeles, posts beautiful shots of her home, bookshelves artfully crammed with hundreds of Bibles. In another picture she clutches an iced coffee, showing off a flawless gel manicure. In curling calligraphy, the cup has a message saying: "A little coffee, a lotta Jesus."
Other Christian accounts post inspirational quotes laid over images of pretty landscapes. "The Lord is my light and my salvation", says a post on daily_bibleverses, on top of a sepia-toned picture of New York. Another shows a woman with tousled hair and sunglasses slack-jawed with joy. "Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ", says the caption.
Arguably the leader of fashion-conscious faith is Hillsong, a Sydney-based church established in 1983 by Bobbie and Brian Houston, an Australian couple with almost a million Instagram followers between them. Hillsong's website and social media accounts are full of pictures of young, attractive types wearing ripped jeans – who just happen to be singing hymns. Christianity with Hillsong is aspirational, a habit to complement hot yoga. This genius marketing strategy has worked: they have built a global congregation of tens of thousands of people.
Hillsong has branches across the world, including 10 in the UK. They call their locations "campuses" in the vein of tech companies like Facebook, the Daily Telegraph reports.
