‘We’re being bold on our social media channels’

Digital Faith Engagement Manager Lauren Westwood talks about her role within the digital faith and membership communications team.

Tell us a bit about yourself

I’ve worked with The Salvation Army for almost seven years now. After university, I worked in the editorial department at International Headquarters, before joining the communications and Women’s Ministries teams at a time when my spiritual life was finding new depths. I became aware of how my unique combination of skills and personality traits could be used to honour God. I realised the interests and loves I had for writing and communicating were something God could use, wanted to use and was already using. I did a course led by the Centre for Cultural Witness, and that was a transformational year for me. It felt like God was preparing me for something – then the job advert for this role came up!

Six months in, how’s the role going?

It’s great! There’s something pioneering in the Army’s investment into faith communications. Whatever your role or job is, Jesus can be at the centre of your work, but there is something encouraging about our organisation having a team of five people at Territorial Headquarters – led by Digital Faith and Membership Lead Bethany Gibson – whose roles are dedicated to digital faith engagement. The expansion of our team has come at a time when people really are searching – figuratively, in a spiritual sense, and literally on Google. People are asking questions about how to pray or become a Christian in digital spaces, and that is being responded to in several ways across this territory. I’m reminded of a prophetic image that somebody spoke over me about two years ago: a public square with a small fountain springing up that’s fresh, life-giving and unexpected, and people who are thirsting for more and better. I really feel that’s a call God has put on my life: to work with him to meet that need with sincerity, passion and conviction, and to communicate in ways that don’t hold back and encourage others not to hold back. The digital landscape can often be weighted down with cynicism or despair, but I think that’s even more reason to increase our presence in those spaces.

What does that look like for us on social media?

We want to go where people are and be relevant. So far for us, that has looked like an increase in video content on Facebook, trying to build opportunities where people are seeing a real person professing real faith in Jesus. Working with Audio Content Editor Sam Davidson, we have released various podcasts with a video excerpt and are seeing a lot of engagement. Also, taking the opportunity to bring people together in a united prayer as we did for Covenant Sunday. Prayer content often sees high engagement, and I think that speaks to the wider searching and responsiveness in people’s hearts at the moment.

And faith engagement includes both discipleship and evangelism, doesn’t it?

Faith engagement is for all people, not just for people who have never engaged with faith. There’s always more to discover, there’s always more discipling to be done. Our digital team straddles the worlds of Salvationist, Kids Alive! and War Cry, and we work in proximity with all the people producing that content.

What excites you right now?

The people I’m working with are passionate about telling a better story for society and for the Army, and for finding new ways to bring people into that story. I’m excited by the collaboration that Digital Faith Engagement Officer Jess McKie, War Cry Editor Major Andrew Stone and I are taking with digital colleagues in the wider organisation, as there is such an openness to prioritise and platform faith. We’re being bold on the Army’s social media channels and unpacking questions about faith. The search engine optimisation work that Website Manager Tim Davies is doing on our Explore Faith pages is also so exciting. Thousands of people are coming to our website with big questions. Finding ways to answer some of those is extremely exciting.

What’s next?

The Co-Founder Catherine Booth said: ‘Adapt your measures to your circumstances and to the necessities of the times.’ We want to continue engaging with people in that spirit of innovation and creativity. One of the ways we’re doing this is exploring email to create opportunities for people to have that extra nudge to connect with Jesus. It’s not about adding more noise to our lives, but more of a tap on the shoulder during key moments in the year – the vision is to invite people to pause, pray and reflect, to deepen their walk with Jesus. The first opportunity is during Holy Week. You can sign up to our Holy Week emails at A journey through Holy Week.