‘I’m going to where people are’: the viral priest using TikTok to start a church

His videos were designed to draw Austinites to religion but have made him a star of the new social media app that most of his age still don't understand

• 'It just takes off': how the short-video app TikTok has caused a global stir

David W Peters has been set a unique task: travel to a growing suburb in Austin, Texas, and get the people there to join him in starting a church. "I'm sort of making it up as I go along," says the author, Episcopalian priest and one-time marine. "I've never done it before."

The practice is officially known as "church-planting" and is not easy, least of all in a divided country and an age defined by mainstream suspicion of organised religion. But modern problems call for modern solutions, and Peters has struck upon one of the most modern of all.