Missional AI Podcast

In 1999, a Michigan entrepreneur sensed God calling him to India. He started a business there with one purpose: to fund missional work. Twenty-seven years later, EC Group's purpose hasn't changed, but its business has, from medical transcription to software development, and now into the age of AI.

Recorded live at the Missional AI Global Summit in Santa Clara, Stuart sits down with Mike Sudyk, who has led EC Group since 2018. Mike shares why EC Group chose to pull its teams and clients toward AI tools rather than wait for them to ask, and how safe-space sharing sessions and volunteer hackathons helped senior developers move past resistance. He explains how a people-centric, long-term business can embrace efficiency without treating people as expendable, and why both the "AI will replace everything" crowd and the skeptics make for difficult conversations.

Mike also gets candid about his own wake-up call: realizing that fear about AI's threat to his business had quietly shut down his creativity, and how stepping away to build hands-on changed that.

A thoughtful, practical conversation for any leader navigating change.

This episode is sponsored by EC Group, a business-as-mission software company that has served as a missional software partner to faith-based and mission-driven organizations for 27 years, supporting Scripture engagement, discipleship, outreach and ministry innovation worldwide. Learn more at ecgroup-intl.com.

Join us at Missional AI SFO27, March 30–April 1, 2027, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport. Super early bird pricing ends October 8, with early bird pricing continuing through the end of the year. Register at missional.ai.

Table of contents

(00:00) Cold open(01:07) Introduction and sponsor: EC Group(02:52) Join us at Missional AI SFO27(03:31) Origin story: a call to India and a business built to fund mission(06:03) Why employee retention became EC Group's core value(08:22) Adapting the team for an AI future(09:39) Guiding clients through the noise(11:38) Two unlocks: safe-space sharing and hackathons(13:15) Staying people-centric while embracing automation(16:27) Finding the honest middle between hype and skepticism(19:56) Making time to learn, and Mike's personal wake-up call(22:20) Fear of obsolescence vs. a vision for resilience(23:33) How technology is reshaping opportunity for mission(26:11) Early bird registration for MAI SFO27

Money is one of the most uncomfortable conversations in the faith and mission world, so we went straight at it. Recorded live at Missional AI SV26, this panel with Henry Kaestner, James Cham, and Jess Chin tackles financing, investment, and building things that last at the intersection of mission and marketplace.

Henry argues that the first question isn't how to raise capital but whether you should raise it at all. James makes the case that the best source of financing is a customer, not an investor. And Jess shares a surprising insight: the next generation doesn't value free things. They want to pay for what they believe in.

We also explore how AI is forcing investors back to first principles, why trust networks may be the one moat AI can't replicate, and a bold vision for the Body of Christ pooling its data to tackle foster care, hunger, church planting, and human trafficking.

🎟️ Super Early Bird for Missional AI SFO 2027 is open until October 8! It's the lowest price of the year, and we'd love for you to join us in San Francisco, March 30 – April 2, 2027. Register at https://missional.ai

Chapters:
(00:00) Highlights
(01:07) Welcome & episode overview
(02:44) Missional AI SFO 2027 Super Early Bird
(03:24) Where do you start? On your knees
(04:57) Three routes to funding
(07:32) The best source of financing is a customer
(09:39) Gen Z doesn't want free
(11:43) Philanthropy isn't "easy money"
(14:01) AI and the investor's deal box
(16:56) AI that accelerates human care
(20:06) Trust networks: the moat AI can't replicate
(22:06) Pooling Kingdom data to solve the world's biggest problems
(23:57) Closing

Gaylen Washington of YouVersion joins the Missional AI Podcast to talk about the YouVersion Platform, the next chapter in the YouVersion story. The platform opens up the Bible app's content, licensing, and infrastructure so developers anywhere in the world can build their own faith experiences: Bible readers, Scripture-infused apps, and even Bible experiences inside Roblox.But this conversation goes well beyond the tech. Gaylen shares how AI is reshaping the way he leads a team of over a hundred engineers, what direct, gospel-centered conversations about disruption and fear look like inside a ministry, and what kind of people are thriving in this AI-first season. Hint: it's not about the degree, it's about curiosity and humility.In this episode:- What the YouVersion Platform is, and how anyone can start building within minutes- The road to simpler Bible licensing for builders- How agentic AI workflows help a product leader stay across a large engineering org- Naming fear and disruption openly in a ministry team- The traits of people who thrive in an AI-first organization- Practical advice for believers navigating corporate workplacesRecorded live at Missional AI SV26 in Silicon Valley.Get started with the YouVersion Platform: platform.youversion.comMISSIONAL AI SFO27Global Missional AI Summit | March 30 – April 1, 2027 | Hyatt Regency SFO

Super early bird registration opens September 24 and closes October 8. Book your hotel room with your registration and the price drops to just $399, the lowest we've ever offered. Register at missional.ai.

AI isn't just changing what you do — it's changing what you believe you're capable of. 🎙️

James Poulter talks with Andrew McLuhan — poet, teacher, and grandson of media theorist Marshall McLuhan — recorded live at the Missional AI Summit. They dig into whether AI can have consciousness, why that's not the same as having a soul, and why reason and resonance are two totally different things.

Plus: the real myth of Narcissus and Echo — and what it says about every AI chat window you've ever opened.

🗓️ Missional AI 2027 hits San Francisco March 30 – April 1. Super early bird registration is coming soon at missional.ai.

Chapters:

00:00 Cold open — "AI is only an echo"

01:13 Welcome & intro

03:17 The biggest risk AI poses right now

06:29 Can AI actually have consciousness?

10:03 "The medium is the message" & AI

13:55 The illusion of depth in language models

18:46 "The artist is the antenna of the race"

22:43 AI, sycophancy & loving our own voice

23:45 The real myth of Narcissus and Echo

25:07 From reason to resonance

27:23 AI's strength — and its cost to human reasoning

29:23 What AI is displacing right now

31:40 Closing thoughts

Nick Parker from Christian Vision (CV) joins the Missional AI Podcast to unpack how a 35+ year evangelism ministry — not a tech company — is using AI to scale content creation and translation toward an ambitious goal: reaching 500 languages spoken by unreached people groups.

Nick and host JP talk through CV's journey from shortwave radio in 1988 to today's digital and AI tools, the hard ethical questions around AI chatbots and discipleship, and the guiding question behind it all: "just because we can, should we?" They also get into reaching unreached places like Somalia, CV's annual Digital Day event in London, and why mission work today is showing up in subreddits, Roblox, and Fortnite.

Learn more about CV at cvglobal.co, and register for early bird tickets to Missional AI 2027 in Silicon Valley at missional.ai.

Recorded live in a packed tent at Wildfires Festival 2026, this Missional AI lab brings together Joshua Seale (Executive Director, Global Missional AI) and James Poulter ("JP," author of the forthcoming AI at Work) for an unscripted, audience-driven conversation on what it means to follow Jesus in the age of artificial intelligence.From Bible translation timelines collapsing by decades, to a leaked "escape" from an AI sandbox, to Sam Altman's own language about "building God in a box" — Joshua and JP range across theology, technology, geopolitics, and pastoral care. They talk candidly about AI as therapist and companion, the risk of a lost generation of young workers, what international AI governance might actually require, and why the church may be better positioned to respond well to this moment than it was to social media.Huge thanks to the team at Wildfires Festival for creating space for a conversation like this — in a tent, in a field, with hundreds of people lining up at the mic with hard questions. Labs like this are exactly why Wildfires matters, and if you've never been, put it on your calendar.Recorded as part of the Missional AI series. Find more at Missional AI's events, the weekly Missional AI Podcast, and the upcoming Build Hackathon in London.IN THIS EPISODE02:03 Welcome from World Vision & Wildfires03:16 Intros: Joshua Seale & James "JP" Poulter05:18 Is it too late to control AI?07:20 Beginning, middle, or end of the AI cycle?09:16 Implications for the church10:29 AI's #1 personal use case: therapy & companionship12:20 People turning to AI to study Scripture12:44 Bible translation timelines collapsing14:35 Biblica's chatbots: 1M+ conversations, 92% non-English18:16 AI, government, and policy18:40 Andy Burnham's new AI minister19:31 The OpenAI "sandbox escape" & AI 2027 predictions22:01 Sovereignty, infrastructure, and integration31:19 Q: Ken Coster on governance and sovereignty33:21 A: International cooperation & sovereign AI35:41 Missional AI's Ethics & Standards initiative37:42 What road safety campaigns teach us about AI38:37 Q: Model bias and secularism39:58 Q: AI in defense40:05 Q: Open licensing — doesn't that cost revenue?40:26 A: 300% revenue growth after opening licenses42:05 Anthropic vs. OpenAI's defense deals44:53 Claude's Constitution & practical AI guardrails45:34 Grading AI models on theology and spirituality47:42 Q: Deterministic AI and safety standards48:25 Q: Did the AI really "escape," or was it PR?49:10 Q: Energy, water, and kingdom warfare49:57 A: The Mythos leak & the chair-and-throne analogy53:21 "Seemingly conscious AI" and moral agency55:06 Q: AI dependency among young people55:47 Q: Preparing the church for job loss and meaning56:19 Q: Policy, human rights, and AI literacy59:43 Closing charge: investing in young people1:02:18 Building AI-ready roles for the next generation1:03:56 Wrap-up: where to find Missional AI1:04:52 Closing prayer

Most of what an AI model says about your ministry doesn't come from your website. It comes from what other people have published about you — and that changes almost everything about comms strategy.

Recorded at Premier in Central London on the eve of Missional AI London, host James Poulter sits down with Gareth Russell, founder of Jersey Road, an integrated comms agency working exclusively with Christian organisations across the UK, Australia, and the US — including YouVersion, Gather, and Come and See.

Gareth explains why authority beats volume in the new generative-engine landscape, why that's unexpectedly good news for smaller ministries with modest budgets, and why he'd rather talk about reputation governance than reputation management. Christian organisations, he argues, shouldn't be protecting a brand — they should be building trust. Handled well, even a public crisis can leave an organisation stronger.

The conversation also covers AI impersonation and misused imagery, the generational divide that leaves leadership teams too slow to respond, what ABBA Voyage and Tim Keller's enduring reach suggest about teaching legacy, and why outsourcing your thought leadership to AI is the fastest way to sound exactly like everyone else.

(00:02:22) Who Jersey Road are, and why they dropped "PR"
(00:03:58) GEO, AEO, AIEO: the new optimisation landscape
(00:06:13) Why earned media drives what the models say
(00:08:39) Volume, recency, or authority?
(00:10:45) Reputation management to reputation governance
(00:13:30) New categories of AI risk
(00:16:18) William Booth, brass bands, and meeting people where they are
(00:18:35) The generational block in leadership teams
(00:19:33) Legacy and posthumous teaching content
(00:22:49) Live translation and global reach
(00:27:44) Don't outsource your thought leadership
(00:30:16) Authenticity is overdone — credibility is the new currency

Newsletter and upcoming global gatherings: missional.ai

What happens when the companies building the most powerful technology in history start inviting faith leaders into the room?

Recorded live in front of a studio audience at Premier Christian Radio in Central London, on the eve of the Missional AI London Summit.

Paul Taylor joins us fresh from Anthropic's faith convenings and describes the posture in those rooms: we feel the burden of what we're creating, and we want you to share it. From there the conversation opens up — why researchers are still working out what they've actually built, why AI is a shift in what it means to be human rather than another leap in distribution or connection, and why writing an AI policy is where the hard conversation starts rather than ends.

Plus: pastoring people through layoffs, congregants falling in love with chatbots, seven-year-olds who assume Alexa is never wrong, and whether Africa's so-called adoption gap might turn out to be a leapfrog.

Host: James Poulter
Guests: Paul Taylor (Faith, Work & Tech, Silicon Valley), Gareth Russell, and Kit Powney (Tearfund)

(02:23) Live from Premier Christian Radio
(06:24) Is Silicon Valley hostile to faith?
(08:43) Inside Anthropic's faith convenings
(13:39) "They built the trellis on which AI grew"
(14:57) Why this isn't Gutenberg, and isn't social media
(16:52) Beyond the policy — finding the edges
(21:18) AI, work, and the ministry of the layoff cycle
(24:36) New pastoral territory: AI relationships
(27:12) Parenting when Alexa is the fount of all knowledge
(32:49) Audience Q: are we becoming digitally dependent?
(37:11) Sovereign AI and models that understand local context
(41:30) Audience Q: bridging the Africa adoption gap

Newsletter, Slack community, upcoming events, and the full archive from Silicon Valley and London: https://missional.ai

Six years ago, Missional AI was 45 people on a Zoom call trying to figure out what AI meant for the mission of God. This year, we recorded this conversation in a sold-out room in Silicon Valley — 650 people, 30 speakers from around the world.

In this special episode, we sit down with Geof and Mark from Biblica, the team stewarding the Missional AI movement. What happens when a 217-year-old organization decides its best move is to give its work away? Open licenses. Shared learning. "We'll make the first mistake for you."

We get into "Last Mile First" — Biblica's most ambitious initiative in two centuries — and the staggering shift from a mission once measured in hundreds of years to one now within sight in our lifetimes: every language with at least a portion of Scripture. As Mark puts it, that's not the finish line. That's the starting line.

A conversation about translation and technology, but really about collaboration, unity, and going further together.

In this episode:
• Why Biblica took on stewarding Missional AI
• From Bible translation to evangelism, mobilization, and first reach
• Why innovation isn't just digital
• Going to the hardest, least-reached places on the planet — on purpose
• The content gap facing frontline pastors
• Close the Bible Gap, and what it means to partner well
• Why Silicon Valley — and why the movement can't stay there

Missional AI returns to San Francisco, March 30 – April 1. Registration opens soon: missional.ai

Brought to you by Transform Iran and Kairos, a free AI-powered evangelism and discipleship platform designed for Farsi and other right-to-left languages, now used in more than 150 countries and dozens of languages: kairoschat.ai

Join the movement — Slack community, resources, and more episodes: missional.ai

What happens when people start talking to an app the way they might talk to God?

In this episode, we sit down with the team behind Hello Bible — the AI-powered Bible companion born in France, one of the most secular countries in the world. Founder and pastor Eric shares how a vision he first introduced in Orlando became a reality now measured in 120,000 downloads and more than 5 million conversations.

We hear from Eric on the vision, from the product and engineering team on the technology behind the app (including a squad of AI agents named after Greek gods), and from investor Reg Allett on why he backed Hello Bible as a business rather than a ministry line item — and what impact investing really means.

Along the way: how AI is reshaping the way a small team builds and ships, why a Bible companion became a safe place for people to bring their deepest questions, and where Hello Bible is headed next — from the Netherlands to a global vision of tens of millions of users.

This episode covers reaching the 5-million-conversation milestone and what those conversations reveal, how new technology is reshaping the way people live their faith, building and shipping with AI agents, the choice between nonprofit and business as the right "vehicle" for the mission, what impact investing looks like from the investor's side, and the vision for a free, global Bible companion for everyone, everywhere.

Missional AI London is happening July 15. If you care about where faith and technology meet, this is the room to be in. Get your spot at missional.ai

Learn more about Hello Bible and the Missional AI movement at missional.ai