How Candice Grace Jones Turned TikTok Into a Global Pulpit and Built a Movement Around Prayer, Leadership, and Purpose
There was a time when ministry was largely defined by a church building, a Sunday morning service, and a pulpit. Candice Grace Jones is helping redefine what that looks like. As the Founder and CEO of Uplift LeadHERship, preacher, prophet, leadership mentor, TikTok LIVE host, and FinTech innovator, Jones has built a powerful intersection of faith,…
Black News 
There was a time when ministry was largely defined by a church building, a Sunday morning service, and a pulpit.
Candice Grace Jones is helping redefine what that looks like.
As the Founder and CEO of Uplift LeadHERship, preacher, prophet, leadership mentor, TikTok LIVE host, and FinTech innovator, Jones has built a powerful intersection of faith, technology, leadership, and community proving that purpose does not have to live within traditional walls.
Known across social media as “Uplift with Candice Grace,”Jones has transformed TikTok from a scrolling platform into a digital sanctuary. Every day, people from around the world gather for prayer, biblical teaching, encouragement, leadership development, and the kind of authentic connection that has become increasingly rare online.
For Jones, however, the ability to connect with people from all walks of life began long before social media.
Born and raised in Flint, Michigan, she grew up alongside nine siblings and attended an astonishing 24 schools before the age of 17. Constantly entering new environments forced her to learn how to navigate different personalities, communities, cultures, and circumstances.
What could have broken her instead built her.
By 17, Jones had earned her GED, moved into her own place, and started college at Baker College. At 18, she became a mother. By 19, she was married.
Those early years were filled with responsibility, transition, and lessons that would ultimately become part of the foundation of her ministry.
Today, Jones speaks openly about healing, restoration, resilience, leadership, and new beginnings because she has lived them.
Her journey has never been one-dimensional.
Long before becoming a full-time ministry leader, Jones spent nearly two decades climbing the ranks of executive retail leadership, working with nationally recognized brands including Bath & Body Works and Chico’s. The corporate world sharpened her understanding of organizational leadership, team development, customer experience, and the ability to lead people through change.
She was being prepared for leadership before she fully understood where that leadership would take her.
Jones also committed herself to education. She earned an Associate Degree in Human Resources from Baker College, a Bachelor’s Degree from Liberty University, a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership from Columbia College, completed theological studies at Agape Bible College, and is currently pursuing doctoral studies in Strategic Leadership. But even with the degrees, titles, and corporate experience, there came a season when Jones knew something had shifted.
She began seeking God for what was next.
The answer came through an unexpected platform: TikTok.
Rather than jumping online without direction, Jones spent an entire month studying the platform—how people engaged, what created connection, and how digital communities were formed.
Then she went LIVE.
The beginning was humble: 17 people.
Within three days, that online prayer community had grown to more than 400 participants.
That moment became the seed for what would eventually develop into a thriving hybrid ministry.
Jones understood early that digital ministry could be more than inspirational clips and scripture captions. It could become a real community. A place where people could pray together, grow together, heal together, and find encouragement in real time.
And she leaned all the way in.
Through CDJ Ministries, Jones has expanded that vision into multiple initiatives, including Uplift LeadHERship, The Gathering Space, the Uplift Leadership Summit, wellness retreats, leadership experiences, and faith-centered gatherings designed to develop the whole person.
Her work lives at the intersection of spiritual transformation and practical leadership.
She is not simply asking people to believe.
She is challenging them to become.
To heal.
To lead.
To walk boldly in purpose.
To recognize that faith can move beyond inspiration and become strategy.
On June 5, 2026, Jones pushed the possibilities of digital ministry even further.
She completed a historic 24-hour continuous LIVE broadcastfilled with prayer, worship, encouragement, counsel, biblical teaching, and ministry.
For an entire day, the digital pulpit remained open.
During that broadcast, an extraordinary 624,511 people were shown the stream in real time, extending the message of faith and hope to more than half a million people.
The number is impressive.
But the impact behind it is even greater.
In an era when social media is often criticized for fueling comparison, division, and distraction, Jones is demonstrating another possibility: technology can also become a tool for transformation.
A smartphone can become a sanctuary.
A livestream can become an altar.
A follower can become a community member.
And an algorithm can unexpectedly become a vehicle for evangelism.
That understanding sits at the core of what makes Candice Grace Jones’ ministry distinctive.
She is not attempting to recreate church online.
She is building something uniquely designed for the digital generation.
Her ministry reaches the person sitting in traffic.
The mother awake in the middle of the night.
The entrepreneur needing encouragement before a major decision.
The believer struggling privately.
The leader questioning their purpose.
The person who may never walk through the doors of a traditional church but will stop scrolling long enough to hear a word that changes their life.
That is the power of accessibility.
And Jones recognizes it.
While faith remains the center of Jones’ work, leadership is the framework surrounding it. Through Uplift LeadHERship, she has cultivated a global movement focused on helping people deepen their relationship with God while developing the courage, discipline, and confidence required to lead.
Her corporate leadership background gives her ministry a distinct practicality.
This is not leadership built only on motivational language.
It is leadership grounded in lived experience, organizational knowledge, spiritual discernment, and personal transformation.
Jones understands that before people can effectively lead companies, ministries, families, or communities, they often have to confront what is happening internally.
Healing and leadership, in her world, are connected.
Faith and strategy are connected.
Purpose and preparation are connected.
And perhaps that is why her message continues to resonate.
Candice Grace Jones represents a generation of faith leaders who understand that ministry is evolving without losing its foundation.
The message remains Jesus Christ.
The method simply looks different.
Today, whether she is preaching from a physical stage, mentoring emerging leaders, hosting a summit, developing new initiatives, or looking directly into a phone camera while thousands listen from around the world, Jones continues to carry the same mission:
Help people encounter God, embrace healing, discover purpose, and lead with courage.
From 24 schools in Flint, Michigan, to more than half a million people encountering a single digital broadcast, her story is evidence that sometimes the very instability you survive becomes preparation for the people you are called to reach.
Candice Grace Jones is not simply building a ministry.
She is building a movement.
And in a digital age searching desperately for connection, she is proving that faith still has the power to stop the scroll.
