In 2018, a study by the UN revealed that mobile dating apps increasingly open up opportunities for spontaneous casual sex and that users of the apps were getting younger in the Philippines.1 The same year, 54.3% of the total registered births in the Philippines were children born out of wedlock .2 Young adults in the country have increasingly reported a high difficulty of finding a quality and authentic person in existing apps that matches their non-negotiable values in a relationship.
The same year, the digital strategies team at Cru Philippines was thinking of doing something on social media. As they worked on their strategy and tried to understand their audience, they realised that many young people were dating through Facebook, and hook-up dating was popular. They sought to tackle the issue.
So, they launched a social media page in 2018 focused on promoting biblical-based relationships and encouraging healthy, Christ-centered dating. But they needed to be relevant to Millennials and Get Zs.
Jomer Gallana is the Digital Strategies Team Leader at Cru Philippines. He describes the team as ‘a bunch of crazy, fun-loving guys who are into memes’. They are quick to use common issues and turn them into relational conversations. That started it all. They started to put up memes. Their strategy back then was just simple. From the social media meme posts, those who responded wanting to have a conversation would be directed to keyboard warriors.
‘We started receiving all kinds of feedback. I remember having a conversation with a guy who was talking about his relationship with another guy, and he wanted to break up with him. So imagine me, a missionary, wondering how to speak the truth to the guy. But of course you have to entertain the person first for them to feel safe,’ Jomer says.
‘As he got comfortable, I talked to him about basic values to have in a relationship, asked what he meant by breaking up, and eventually I was able to find a window to share the gospel with him. But that conversation was cut short because he was not ready for that.’
The seed was planted regardless.
The main platform is their Facebook page, which has over 2.2 million followers. When the memes are posted and users engage in the comment section, an AI bot filters comments that indicate people who need counseling or extended talk. They are paired with the keyboard warriors, who start conversations with them via Facebook Messenger.
Initially the keyboard warriors were Cru disciples, but as the messages increased (50-60 a day), they trained volunteers from different churches. They now have 100 volunteers who are responding and chatting with the users. Anonymity is a key feature of the program. Users are assured of privacy. They don’t know the admins behind the page, which makes them more open to having conversations.
Keyboard missionaries are trained to start having easy conversations with users as they look for an opportunity to present the gospel.
The memes are created in line with trending topics in the Philippines, which helps in building interaction and engagement and then leads to deeper conversations. Keyboard missionaries are trained to start having easy conversations with users as they look for an opportunity to present the gospel. If they are interested in being connected to a church, that’s done through a network of churches in different cities. They also connect users to partner ministries who do premarital counseling.
Jomer shares the story of Anna, one of the many people they connected with online. ‘Two years ago, she reached out to us. One of our team members engaged with her, and just last month, Anna shared that she had been baptized at her local church.’
Boiling waters
Another platform they have is BoilingWaters.ph, where they have different stories of dating experiences and challenges and how they were resolved or overcome.
‘So it’s becoming not just us speaking, but the community talking to one another. The website content is mostly user-generated. People submit their stories, and a group of us will review if it meets our standards and post,’ says Jomer.
Why boiling water? Because they don’t want to be lukewarm.
Podcast and dating app
After all this experience and getting many questions of people asking how to find the right person, they decided to do some more social listening, which led to the decision of developing a dating app.
‘In the Philippines, people have become more open to dating apps, but there’s no Christian dating app,’ Jomer reports. ‘And even if you have a Christian dating app, it most likely won’t be too safe. So our team is working hard to develop the app. They are in phase two now, and they have 3,000 in the app testing the features, but it’s not fully launched yet.’
They hope to connect people with the right partners and make sure they have some security features to protect users. One feature they are thinking about is users being referred by their discipler in order to use the app.
Their podcast, which has ranked in the top 5 for the past two years, continues to expand its reach.
They have a combined reach of 40+ million a month through podcasts, live streams, memes, blogs, and email subscriptions. 67,721 people have been exposed to the gospel, and 1,938 are currently in online discipleship.
Their Instagram videos have over 250,000 views, with hundreds of comments and leads from across the Philippines. They have a combined reach of 40+ million a month through podcasts, live streams, memes, blogs, and email subscriptions. 67,721 people have been exposed to the gospel, and 1,938 are currently in online discipleship.
For Cru Philippines, it’s never been about the numbers. It’s not about the likes, views, or comments. It’s about something far greater—helping people take their next best step toward following Christ.