Christian influencers on Instagram: 36 creators with measured engagement (2026)

This is a list of 36 Christian creators on Instagram, grouped by size, with numbers we measured ourselves. For each one you get the follower count, the engagement rate of their typical post, how often they post, one recent post and a note on which brands they suit. We picked them from 625 Christian creators that Virev's crawler read between July 1 and October 2, 2026, then opened every profile by hand on October 2.

Most Christian influencer lists name the same famous pastors and worship leaders and give a follower count. Brands with a small budget need the 2,000 to 100,000 follower band, and they need to know what a normal post gets. So 20 of the 36 creators here have fewer than 100,000 followers.

How to read the numbers

• Typical ER is likes plus comments on the creator's median post, divided by followers. We use the median post because one viral post can lift an average far above what a sponsored post will get. Six creators below have an average at least five times their typical post.
• Posts/wk is the pace across their 12 most recent posts.
• Recent post links to a post close to their typical numbers and shows its date and likes when we read it.
• Followers and posts come from Virev's last read of each account, between August 29 and September 26, 2026.

To check a creator who is not on this list, paste their handle into the Instagram engagement rate calculator. It shows the average and the median-post rate side by side.

For context, the median Christian creator's typical post ER is 2.90% for nano, 1.26% for micro, 0.62% for mid and 0.23% for macro accounts. 31 of the 36 creators below beat the median of their tier.

Nano Christian influencers (1,000 to 10,000 followers)

• Chine McDonald (@chine_mcdonald), UK. Director of the Theos think tank and author of Unmaking Mary. Talking-head Reels and festival posts on theology, motherhood and culture. Fits UK publishers, festivals and podcasts that want a thoughtful voice, not a product demo.
• Samuel Lemos (@jesus_and_harleys), US. Bible verses over motorcycle Reels, Harley spotlights and ride meetups, 3.5 posts a week. Fits motorcycle gear, men's devotionals and Christian biker events.
• Gabriel Bogue (@gabe_bogue.2003). Speaker with Prodigal Young Adults. Journal-style carousels and stage clips from revival nights. Posts less than once a week, so plan one post, not a series. Fits young-adult ministries, conferences and journaling products.
• Blake Niemann (@blakes_take2), Phoenix. Multimedia journalist at FOX 10 Phoenix who tells the faith stories of athletes. Mostly Reels. His average rate (46.6%) comes from one Reel with 9,010 likes; the typical post is the number to use. Fits faith-and-sports brands in Arizona.
• Kaylee Bullman (@kaylee.bullman), US. Singer with Liberty Worship Collective. Tour diaries from Bryce Crawford's tour, outfits and comedy clips. Fits Christian music, modest fashion and college audiences.
• Jacob Holmberg (@officerdelicious), Arizona. Runs Blur Fitness and films testimony interviews in the gym, including baptisms in a cold plunge. Fits fitness, supplements and men's ministry.
• Brooke Taylor (@1brooketaylor), US. Relevant Radio host and pilgrimage leader, mother of five. Family and Catholic devotion posts. One post with 113,254 likes inflates her average to 142%; her typical post is 2.37%. Fits Catholic travel and pilgrimage operators.
• Bonnie Engstrom (@bonnieengstrom), US. Author of 61 Minutes to a Miracle, about her son's recovery, the miracle approved for Fulton Sheen's beatification. Baking, homemaking and Sheen news. Fits Catholic publishers, Sheen events and baking brands.

Micro Christian influencers (10,000 to 100,000 followers)

• Archbishop Alexander Sample (@archbishopsample), Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon. Diocesan Masses, vows and events. A church leader, not a paid creator. Approach him for event or charity co-promotion only.
• Stacey Walker (@stacey.speaks.life). Daily prophetic encouragement Reels that end with "comment AMEN". 5 posts a week and the highest comment counts in this tier (318 on the example). Many comments answer the prompt, so read the comment text before you count it as interest. Fits devotionals and prayer apps.
• Rachel-Ruth Lotz Wright (@rachelruthlotzwright), US. Bible teacher and author, coach's wife, mother of three. Bible study teaching, family and football weekends. Fits women's Bible studies and Christian publishers.
• Mackenzie Hunter (@acaffeinatedcatholic), US. Catholic daily life, pilgrimages to Italy and Ireland, and a season of EWTN's Seeking Beauty. Twelve paid-partnership posts this year, mostly with Catholic companies (see the case below). She hides like counts on many Reels, so ask for insights. Fits Catholic apps, books and travel.
• Jeffrey Bruno (@jeffreybruno), US. Photographer and journalist who covers religious life, such as the Sisters of Life profession of vows in New York. Long captions, few posts. Fits Catholic organizations and camera or print brands that want documentary work.
• Liam Dieckhoner (@liamdieckhoner), US. Catholic comedy skits and church history Reels, 3.7 a week. Fits Catholic events, apps and youth audiences.
• Haley Williams (@haley.kindled), US. Host of the Kindled podcast, "Christianity plus culture" with opinion posts on parenting and gender roles. Fits Christian parenting and homeschool brands that are comfortable with strong opinions.
• Connor McLaughlin (@connormclaughlin__). "Low cortisol Catholicism" Reels, 6.4 a week. His bio says "powered by @truthly.ai" and a recent Reel promotes the Catholic dating app Sacred Spark. Fits Catholic apps and World Youth Day travel.
• Isabella (@the.joyfulcatholic). Traditional Catholic posts on femininity, books, outfits and campus life. One post with 167,429 likes lifts her average; the typical post is 4.78%. Fits Catholic colleges, modest fashion and devotional goods.
• Jon Akoko (@iamjonakoko), Florida. Bible-story Reels with his baby daughter, short prayers and ministry appeals. Nine paid-partnership posts between May and September. Fits brands that want a creator with a sponsor history (see the case below).
• David Funk (@thedavidfunk), US. Worship leader and producer. Acoustic performance clips and Bethel Music worship school. His bio carries a Valor Coffee discount link. Fits music gear and coffee.
• Nadia Louise (@itsnadialouise), Dallas. Faith, friendship, mental health and Christian books, almost all Reels. Highest typical-post rate in the micro tier of this list, 8.18% on 86,297 followers. Has promoted a Harlequin faith thriller. Fits Christian fiction, beauty and fashion.

Mid-tier Christian influencers (100,000 to 500,000 followers)

• Torrie Lancaster (@torrielancaster_). Hydration and lifestyle coach who posts faith encouragement Reels. A typical post of 22,204 likes on 101,067 followers is far above every other mid-tier account here, so ask for audience and reach insights before you book. The bio link page has a peptides section; check that against your brand rules.
• Gabe Poirot (@gabe_poirot). Author of 18 Days in Heaven, about a near-death experience. Book Reels with "comment free" prompts and opinion posts on abortion and church politics. Fits publishers; check the opinion posts against your brand first.
• Fr. Simon Teller, OP (@fathersimonteller). Dominican friar and Providence College chaplain who plays in the Hillbilly Thomists. Funny campus Reels. Two Reels with 183,278 and 318,889 likes lift his average to 58%; his typical post is 2.10%. Fits Catholic colleges and music.
• Full of Eyes (@fullofeyes). Christian animation studio. Illustrated Bible verses and music videos, including one with Lacey Sturm. Fits Bible apps, publishers and music labels.
• Fr. Leo Patalinghug (@platinggrace). Priest, TV and radio host and award-winning cook. 5.9 posts a week mixing food, faith and church news. Fits food, cookware and Catholic family brands.
• Phylicia Masonheimer (@phyliciamasonheimer). Founder of Every Woman a Theologian and owner of a bookshop. Theology teaching for women. Low likes (0.47%) but long comment threads: 262 comments on the example. Fits Bible study tools and books.
• Annie F. Downs (@anniefdowns), Nashville. Author and host of That Sounds Fun. Seven posts a week: books, podcast, home and her wedding. Her paid post for a wallpaper brand got 2,435 likes; her typical post gets 1,733. Fits home, lifestyle and publishing.
• Jonathan Pokluda (@jpokluda), Texas. Pastor at Harris Creek, author, Becoming Something podcast, recently on tour with Forrest Frank. Short sermon clips. Fits books and young-adult audiences.
• Fr. Hyacinth Marie Cordell, OP (@benedictusesdomine), Philadelphia. Dominican pastor who drums. Drum covers and parish life. Fits drum and music brands; he already films with professional drummers.
• nobigdyl (@nobigdyl), US. Christian rapper, director of the Holy Smoke festival and founder of Indie Tribe. Performance and festival posts. Fits streetwear, audio and festivals.

Macro Christian influencers (500,000+ followers)

• Jennie Allen (@jennieallen), US. Author, podcaster and founder of IF:Gathering. Testimonies, teaching and family. The example post, a story about a former drug dealer, got 13,076 likes. Fits women's ministry products and books.
• The Walls Group (@thewallsgroup). Grammy-nominated gospel group of siblings. Tour dates and studio clips; a City Winery tour runs in November. Fits tour and venue sponsors.
• Dennis Gorcea (@dennisgorcea). Short sermon Reels and a Christian dating podcast. At 651,015 followers his typical post (2.80%) is the highest in this tier, but he posts under once a week. Fits Christian dating apps and singles events.
• Israel Houghton (@israelhoughton). Grammy-winning worship leader on a world tour through Europe and Brazil. Fits tours and brands with Latin American audiences.
• Sarah Jakes Roberts (@sarahjakesroberts), Dallas. Pastor and founder of Woman Evolve. Sermon clips and tour posts with high comment counts (959 on the example). Fits large women's events and brands for women.
• Joyce Meyer (@joycemeyer). Ministry account that posts 19 times a week. Typical post 0.10%. Reach comes from volume, so treat it as a ministry partnership, not a creator post.

Christian creators against all creators

We compared the 625 Christian creators with the 53,934 individual creators in our Instagram engagement rate benchmarks. Both groups use the same rule: likes plus comments, averaged over the 12 most recent posts, divided by followers.

Christian creators sit a little below the all-creator median at every size. The gap is small up to 500,000 followers and large above it: 0.35% against 0.92%. Several of the biggest Christian accounts are ministries that post every day, such as Joyce Meyer's account at 19 posts a week, and each post reaches a smaller share of followers.

Two more differences matter when you plan a campaign:

• They post more often. Mid-tier Christian creators post 3.3 times a week against 2.0 for all creators. A short campaign can get several posts without asking the creator to change their pace.
• Few of them run paid deals. 2.1% of Christian creators had an Instagram paid partnership label in their last 12 posts, against 6.6% of all creators. At 100,000 to 500,000 followers the figures are 0.8% and 11.4%. Expect to explain how a paid post works and how Instagram labels it.

A sponsor inside a Bible story series

Jon Akoko (@iamjonakoko, 83,700 followers on October 2) started a Reel series called "Craziest Bible Stories" on August 18, 2026. In each episode he tells a Bible story to his baby daughter. Episodes 1 to 5 were unsponsored. Episode 6, posted on September 4, carried the Paid partnership label and the tags #ArtzaBox and #sponsored. Artza sells a subscription box of products from Israel tied to Bible stories.

The sponsored episode got 3,277 likes and 87 comments. Episodes 2 to 5 each got between 8,802 and 9,507 likes. So the paid episode got a little over a third of the likes of the episodes before it. It still beat Jon's typical post: across 50 posts with visible likes from May 10 to September 5, his median unlabeled post had 2,301 likes.

Artza had worked with him before. On June 25 a standalone Reel about Queen Esther, King David and olive oil, with a discount code for the box, got 5,054 likes. Between May and September Jon labeled nine posts as paid partnerships, for seven partners: Magen David Adom, BAGSMART, Artza Box twice, Prison Fellowship's Angel Tree Camp, Gospel For Them twice, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem and RightNow Kids. His best paid post, a Magen David Adom appeal on May 30, got 10,277 likes. The travel bag post for BAGSMART got 1,144. The median paid post got 2,069 likes, close to his unlabeled median.

What a brand can take from this:

• Compare a sponsored post with the posts it sits between, not only with the account median. Against the account, episode 6 looks like a win. Against the series, it lost most of its audience.
• His best paid post was for a cause close to his audience: the Magen David Adom appeal, 10,277 likes. The one product with no faith link, a travel bag, got 1,144, about half his typical post.
• Test one sponsored episode before you buy a run. One episode does not tell you why the likes fell.

Mackenzie Hunter (@acaffeinatedcatholic, 28,296 followers) shows the other half of the picture: Catholic companies that came back. Between January and September she labeled 12 posts as paid partnerships, mostly with Catholic companies: unboxings for the My Catholic Library book box (her April 18 caption calls it her fifth box), the Ascension app during her Italy pilgrimage, the St. Paul Center app, and Word on Fire's film Heaven in Stone and Glass. The book box appears in labeled posts in February, April, May and June. She hides like counts on 7 of the 12 posts, so the public numbers do not show results. The repeat bookings suggest the brand saw enough to come back.

How we built this list

1. Find candidates. We took every public Instagram account with 1,000 or more followers that Virev read between July 1 and October 2, 2026. We kept accounts whose Virev creator profile is an individual creator and whose niche or content tags name Christian faith, for example "Christian worship music" or "Catholic faith and evangelization". We excluded profiles tagged for other religions.
2. Measure. For each account we used up to 12 recent posts from its own feed, at least three days old when read, not pinned. 625 creators had six or more such posts. We checked a random 30 of them by hand: 23 post mainly faith content. The other 7, such as a politician, a drummer and a wedding creator, name their faith in their profile but post about other things.
3. Pick. From the 258 English-language creators we kept active accounts with a clear Christian focus and no brand safety flag in their Virev profile, and spread them across the four tiers.
4. Check by hand. On October 2, 2026 we opened every profile on Instagram and read the bio and recent posts. Two accounts were removed. One profile was no longer available. One worship singer's bio says her voice and visuals are AI-generated.
5. Example posts. We re-read one post per creator and one full series on Instagram on October 2. Some posts read with exactly 3 likes, a pattern we see where creators hide like counts. We left those posts out of the creator figures.

Limits: Instagram does not show saves, shares or story views, so they are not in these rates. The 625 creators are the Christian accounts that Virev crawls, which lean toward accounts brands search for, not a random sample of Instagram. 293 of the 625 write in Portuguese, mostly from Brazil; this list uses English-language creators only. We list only public business details. Contact the creators through the channels on their profiles.

Find more Christian creators

The 36 creators above are a starting point. Virev creator search with the religion niche filter lists every Christian creator we track, with the same engagement numbers, and lets you filter by follower count, country and engagement rate.

Before you send an offer, check each creator's past sponsors with the steps in check a creator's sponsorship history. If you are building a list of small accounts from scratch, see how to find micro-influencers beyond hashtag lists.