CHICAGO — A fast-growing new social platform called ePray.com is connecting users searching for inspiration. If people visit Twitter for news and celebrities, Facebook to connect with friends, and LinkedIn to build a career, they can now visit ePray to grow their faith. It’s crowdsourcing for the spirit.

On May 4, 2015, ePray.com officially launched its mission to “connect the world in love and prayer through social media and provide support in times of joy and pain.” The platform functions similar to Twitter and enables users to connect, like (pray), share, and comment – all in 150-character posts with pics and inspirational images.

The company reports tens of thousands of user sessions during the Q1 soft-launch, while thousands of new users flocked to the platform over the past weeks. Tom Freiling, the company’s co-founder and CEO, says “The platform’s quick ramp-up is evidence that this generation has moved everything online, even religion and spirituality. Smartphones are an extension of people’s lives today, and ePray gives them a place to express their faith and join together with others in hope and prayer.”

Freiling remarked that Google fields more than 1 million monthly searches for “prayer” and associated keywords, eclipsing even searches for online dating. ePray intends to leverage the enormous organic search volume.

Freiling says the users tools on ePray are all designed to help users define, locate, and identify with other people who are experiencing similar life situations and who can relate spiritually – all in a safe environment where nobody is judged. “Finding instantaneous spiritual support is a compelling offer, in terms of a social media experience,” says Freiling.

ePray LLC was started in 2014, in Chicago, Illinois, with a small group of investors. Additional technology and media investors recently came on board with nearly 1M in financing. Freiling is the founder of Xulon Press, one of the Internet’s largest digital book publishers, which is also faith-based.

The platform is currently offered as a sleek desktop and mobile web app, powered by a custom responsive WordPress platform. The platform will roll out a native app in Fall 2015.

ePray is talking to nationally recognized spiritual influencers about social partnerships and will announce several significant relationships soon.