In the Sandbox Season 3 : Episode 5 | Jeremy Steele, the "Skeptic Pastor"

Hosts Matt Rawle and Rachel Billups interview Jeremy Steele, creator of Skeptic Pastor on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, about how an experiment to study church use of TikTok unexpectedly grew into a 260–270K follower audience and a smaller intentional community called “Not Church.” Steele, a self-described deep skeptic and pastor, avoids institutional church language because many members have religious trauma, and he focuses on relational pastoral engagement, progressive takes on biblical texts, exposing corruption, and addressing current issues of injustice. He discusses authenticity, research-heavy content production, making retraction videos, being doxxed, and building a creator-economy “pay for what you get” model that avoids donations and includes free options, supported initially by a declining grant. He argues digital space is full, real ministry, offers cohorts and coaching to help others launch, then ends with a lightning round and a closing prayer. 00:00 Meet Skeptic Pastor 01:58 Accidental TikTok Growth 04:32 Not Church Community 06:31 Authenticity And Safety 09:07 Pastor Discernment Filter 13:40 Entrepreneurship Value 17:36 Risks And Funding Model 21:40 Innovation Means Failing 24:00 Unglamorous Content Grind 27:18 Retractions and Credibility 28:34 Deep Skeptic Mindset 30:14 Starting Digital Community 31:05 Online Ministry Is Real 35:31 Distance Ministry Argument 36:08 What Audience Should Gain 38:04 Lightning Round Fun 43:55 Prayer and Sendoff