Former Wall Street finance veteran Alicia Lee says it was the Lord who gave her the idea to create a LinkedIn-style social media platform for professionals “who serve the Church.”
Designed for ministry leaders, staff and volunteers, Lee and her team launched the Faithly mobile app at the Sing! conference in Nashville, Tennessee, last week. They believe they’ve reached the point in the platform’s development where they can start to really “get the word out” about what they have created.
The platform is designed to help pastors, chaplains, ministry leaders, volunteers, worship directors, seminary educators and professionals in related fields find opportunities and each other. The platform enables users to search for others in the faith community, advertise and search for job postings, create events and groups and provide encouragement and support for one another.
“The Lord gave me this idea to create something like LinkedIn for those who serve the church,” Lee, Faithly’s co-founder and CEO, who serves as an elder at Lower Manhattan Community Church in New York City, told The Christian Post.
Specifically, Lee said she was motivated to start the company after having a “vision from the Lord.”
“I don’t really have a background in something like this,” she added, noting how she “worked on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs for almost 20 years.”
Unlike other social media platforms that market themselves to Christians, Lee said that her platform stands apart because it is not “traditional social media.”
“It’s not people sharing photos with their family or making social connections,” she said. “On Faithly, we’re connecting on the basis of ministry, on serving the Church.”
While Faithly has been around since 2022 and available for use on desktop and laptop computers as well as on mobile browsers, the launch of its mobile app marks a new era for the platform.
“[We] were really kind of intentionally quiet in our first couple of years because we’re building something that we don’t think has ever been built before, and we wanted to do it really thoughtfully, and we wanted to build something that would really serve the kingdom,” Lee continued.
“We finally reached the stage where we do want to get the word out,” she said. “So we are starting to have a presence at important ministry events like the Sing! conference in Nashville, which just happened.”
Lee feels Faithly received a “very warm” reception at the conference.
“[P]eople were surprised there wasn’t anything like this,” she said. “There was a lot of excitement to start engaging,” she added.
Three years after its initial launch and a week after the rollout of its mobile app, Lee estimates that Faithly has around 3,000 users.
Launching a mobile app, she says, will generate more engagement, such as enabling things like push notifications.
“It makes chat possible and easy to use,” she said.
Lee highlighted the reason for starting the new company in the statement previously shared with CP.
“For nearly twenty years, LinkedIn has been the go-to professional network, while industries like medicine, education, and law now have platforms built specifically for their needs,” Lee stated.
“Yet ministry — one of the most relational and trust-driven callings — has been left without a dedicated digital space,” she lamented. “Faithly was created to change that.”
Such a platform, she contends, is necessary in light of pastors “facing unprecedented pressure,” which has caused many of them to experience “exceedingly long hours” as well as depression and “chronic sleep deprivation.”
“These are the people carrying the spiritual weight of communities — and they deserve better infrastructure,” she said.
“We believe the Church deserves the same caliber of digital tools that have helped other professions thrive,” she asserted. “Faithly is more than a platform — it’s a movement to uplift, connect, and sustain those who pour themselves out for others. When ministry leaders are healthy and supported, the impact reaches every pulpit, pew, and community.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
