Missional AI Podcast
Join hosts Joshua Seale and James Poulter weekly as they explore the intersection of mission work and AI. Featuring exclusive interviews with innovators using artificial intelligence to expand global impact, this podcast brings you insights from the frontlines of the Missional AI community. Discover how AI is transforming outreach with thought-provoking conversations and practical applications. Where faith and technology converge to create new possibilities for mission work in the digital age.
Episodes
Between Hype and Fear: Leading a People-Centric Team Through AI | Mike Sudyk, EC Group
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 Sud
Should You Even Raise Capital? Faith, Funding & Building in the AI Age | Henry Kaestner, James Cham & Jess Chin
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 sh
Gaylen Washington: YouVersion Platform, AI & Leading Through Disruption
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 conversatio
Andrew McLuhan: AI, Consciousness & Why AI Is Only an Echo
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
CV's Nick Parker: "Just Because We Can, Should We?" — AI, Evangelism & Reaching 500 Languages
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 eth
God in a Box? AI, the Church, and the Next Five Years | Live from Wildfires Festival
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,
Gareth Russell: Your Reputation Now Lives in ChatGPT
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
Inside Anthropic's Faith Convenings — Live from Premier Christian Radio
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'
It's Not a Conference, It's a Movement — Geof & Mark (Biblica) on Last Mile First
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 organiza
Hello Bible: The Story Thus Far — 5 Million Conversations with an AI Bible Companion
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 conversatio
AI Isn't Taking Your Job — It's Taking Pieces of It | James Poulter on "AI at Work"
Is AI really coming for your job — or just the parts of it you never wanted in the first place?We turn the tables on one of our own: innovation strategist and futurist James Poulter (JP) joins host Josiah to talk about his first book, AI at Work (out August 20, 2026). They dig into the "full stack organization," why the future belongs to creative generalists rather than specialists, agen
Building AI for the Persecuted Church | Lana Silk (Transform Iran) on KAIROS
Tens of millions of Iranians consume gospel media — but only thousands ever make the phone call. Fear of punishment, fear of shame, no safe person to ask. How do you bridge the gap between curiosity and connection at scale?Stu Cranney sits down with Lana Silk of Transform Iran to talk about KAIROS, a free AI-powered evangelism and discipleship platform built for Farsi and other right-to-left langu
From NASA to the Kingdom: Inside Gloo AI's Mission to Build Faith-Aligned AI | Missional AI Podcast
What does it look like to shape AI for the glory of God?In this episode of the Missional AI Podcast, guest host Josiah sits down live from Silicon Valley with Steele Billings (President of Gloo AI) and Nick Skiltin (former NASA technology and innovation leader, 25 years) of Gloo — the Boulder, Colorado technology company serving the faith and flourishing ecosystem.They unpack the unconventional jo
"Pray Before You Prompt" — James Kelly on Building AI Redemptively
What does it look like to build technology redemptively in the middle of war, an industry-wide identity crisis, and the fastest technological shift of our lifetime?Recorded on-site at the Missional AI SV'26 Global Summit in Silicon Valley, James Poulter sits down with James Kelly — founder of FaithTech and a global leader of the faith-and-technology movement. Now active in 50 cities worldwide,
Spirit Led Intelligence: What AI Can Never Replace | Natchi Lazarus | Missional AI Podcast
Recorded live from Silicon Valley at the Missional AI 2026 Global Summit, Josiah sits down with Natchi Lazarus to discuss his brand-new book Spirit Led Intelligence — released just days before this conversation.Natchi has been at the intersection of faith and technology for nearly two decades. Based in Chennai, India, he and his wife began helping their local church with digital ministry in the mi
Bobby Gruenewald: A Billion Bibles & the AI Moment
A billion Bible app installs. Sixteen AI agents. One uncomfortable insight about fluency vs. intelligence. Bobby Gruenewald joins JP on the Missional AI Podcast.What does it look like to lead a ministry through its biggest technological shift in a generation — right after crossing a billion installs?Bobby Gruenewald, Founder of YouVersion, sits down with JP to talk about what the billion-install m
The Question Isn't How to Use AI — It's How Not To" - Joshua Seale & Yvonne Carlson
"The question isn't how should I use AI — it's how I shouldn't." That insight from Yvonne Carlson sets the tone for our Silicon Valley summit debrief.Recorded at the Missional AI SV'26 Global Summit in Santa Clara, James Poulter sits down with Joshua Seale (Missional AI / Biblica) and Yvonne Carlson to unpack why Silicon Valley felt like the right place to gather this yea
Dr. John Lennox | What does the AI revolution mean for what it means to be human?
Dr. John Lennox on AI, the image of God, and the return of Christ. Recorded in Oxford as foundational content for the Missional AI 2026 Global Summit.What does the AI revolution mean for what it means to be human?This conversation was foundational content for the Missional AI 2026 Global Summit. We deeply wanted Dr. John Lennox's voice shaping the room in Santa Clara, but travel wasn't pos
Is Responsible AI the Brake or the Engine of Innovation?
What if responsible AI isn't a brake on innovation — but the engine that drives it?In this episode, Joshua Seale sits down with Maria Luciana Axente, founder of Responsible Intelligence and one of Europe's foremost voices on AI governance. With a decade of experience advising organizations like UNICEF and NATO, Maria brings rare clarity to a conversation the faith community desperately needs to ha
Missional AI 2026 Global Summit: Everything You Need to Know
The Missional AI 2026 Global Summit is almost here. In this episode, host James Poulter is joined by Joshua Seale (Senior Director of Digital Products, Biblica) and Yvonne Carlson (CTO, Global Media Outreach) to give you the full inside track on what's coming in Silicon Valley this April.They unpack why the community is making the move to the epicenter of global AI innovation, walk through the bra
Vibe Coding for Mission: Building AI Tools on a Flight with Don Barger of IMB
What if you could go from idea to working prototype on a single flight — no developer, no team, no budget? For Dr. Don Barger, that's just a normal Tuesday.Don is the Director of Innovation and AI at the International Mission Board, one of the largest evangelical mission organizations in the world. With 27 years of mission experience across Peru, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and beyond, he joins
AGI Is 5-10 Years Away — Is the Church Ready? | Dr. Richard Susskind
Dr. Richard Susskind has spent four decades studying the social, legal, and ethical implications of emerging technology — and he's sounding the alarm. In this episode, we sit down with Richard to explore why leading AI researchers now believe AGI is just five to ten years away, what that means for society and the church, and why the window to act is now. From the problem of AI control to the need
"This AI Moment Is a Gospel Moment" — Conversation with Yvonne Carlson
What if the greatest barrier to sharing the gospel — language — was suddenly no longer an issue?In this episode, we sit down with Yvonne Carlson, Chief Technology Officer at Global Media Outreach and board member of Faith Tech, about how AI is reshaping digital evangelism and discipleship.Yvonne shares how GMO is deploying chatbot technology and AI-powered messaging assistants to connect seekers w
The Biggest Barrier to Innovation Isn't Technology — It's Fear
Alfred Biehler spent 13 years at Google London, finishing as Head of Innovation — a title he created for himself and simply used until it stuck. But his most powerful innovation habit had nothing to do with tech: before advising any organization, he'd ask God what He wanted to say to them.In this episode, Alfred and the Missional AI team explore why the church is scared of AI when it should be ene
Scripture for the Last Mile: Reaching the Unreached with Simple Tools
What if the most powerful innovation isn't about bleeding-edge technology, but about using what you already have in new and strategic ways?In this episode recorded live at CV Global Digital Day in London, Joshua Seale shares Biblica's remarkable journey of digital Bible distribution—230 apps, 7 million users, half a billion Scripture engagements, and zero lines of code written by their team.But he
The Ethics of AI: Could We, Should We, Would We? with James Poulter
In this thought-provoking episode recorded live at CV Global Digital Day in London, James Poulter challenges us to move beyond asking "What is AI?" to wrestling with the more critical questions: How should we use it, and why?As we stand at the threshold of agentic AI—where artificial intelligence doesn't just respond but actually does the work for us—James explores the profound ethical implication
The Crisis in Nonprofit Missions: How AI Can Solve the Donor Retention Problem
What if the greatest threat to your nonprofit isn't lack of funding or passion—but a quiet crisis happening in your donor database right now?Most nonprofit CEOs claim they have "good retention," but when you peel back the onion, the reality is sobering: organizations are losing 40% or more of their donors every single year. It's nearly impossible to build a sustainable mission when you're hemorrha
From Event to Movement: Vision Casting for Missional AI 2026
Join us for a special episode recorded in Paris, where Joshua sits down with James Poulter and Éric Célérier for an intimate planning session about the future of Missional AI. Fresh from exploring the spiritual renewal happening across Europe, the team shares their vision for the 2026 summit in Silicon Valley and the evolution from an annual conference to a year-round movement.In this episode, you
Divine Intelligence with Éric Célérier
What if the key to building transformative AI isn't just technical prowess, but divine intelligence? In this compelling conversation, Joshua sits down with Éric Célérier a French technologist and ministry pioneer who's spent decades at the intersection of faith and technology.Eric founded jesus.net, a global cooperation of 130 ministries operating in 40 languages, and is now building Hello Bible,
Building Together - The Power of Open Innovation in Faith Tech
Here's a reformatted version with better structure and flow:What if the secret to keeping pace with AI isn't working harder, but working together?In this builder panel episode, host James Poulter sits down with three pioneers of open innovation in the faith tech space: James Kelly (Founder, Faith Tech), Ali Llewellyn (Gloo Open), and Nick Skitland (Gloo Open).As new AI models drop on Saturday afte
Turning Language Data into Kingdom Impact: AI-Powered Bible Translation
What if the biggest barrier to Bible translation isn't time or money—but capturing the right data? In this episode of the Global Missional AI Podcast, we explore how two organizations are revolutionizing Bible translation for the world's lowest-resourced languages.Jacob Bullock from SIL Global and Daniel Wilson from XRi Global share their groundbreaking approach to collecting and optimizing langua
Shaping AI as a Force for Good with Pat Gelsinger
In this episode of the Global Missional AI Podcast, host James Poulter sits down with Pat Gelsinger, retired CEO of Intel and now Executive Chair of Gloo and Head of Technology. Pat shares his perspective on why AI represents the biggest technological shift yet—one where computers finally adapt to humans rather than the other way around.Drawing parallels to the Gutenberg printing press and Martin
From 25 Years to 5: How AI is Revolutionizing Bible Translation" Geof Morin
How do you reduce a 50-year Bible translation project to just 5 years? In this episode of the Global Missional AI Podcast, host Joshua Seale sits down with Geof Morin, CEO of Biblica—a 216-year-old Bible ministry serving 6 billion people through over 100 translations.Geof shares how Biblica pioneered AI-assisted Bible translation four years ago and became a rallying point for ministry leaders thro
Introducing the Global Missional AI Podcast
Every week, hosts Joshua Seale, James Poulter, Josiah Palusky and Stuart Cranney speak with world leading experts in the space of Christian Mission and AI. This conversation is an extension of what takes place at the Global Missional AI Summits. Join us for these insightful and fascinating conversations. Find out what is actually happening and going on in the redemptive use of AI.
David Kinnaman on Christianity's Surprising Surge and AI's Role in Faith (Part 2)
After decades of documenting Christianity's decline in America, Barna Group CEO David Kinnaman brings unprecedented news: Christian commitment has surged from 52% to 66% in just four years, with 30 million more Americans now identifying as followers of Jesus.In this eye-opening conversation, Kinnaman reveals three shocking trends reshaping American faith: young people are leading this spiritual re
Five Trends Shaping Faith in the Digital Age with David Kinnaman (Part 1)
After decades of tracking declining faith in America, Barna Group CEO David Kinnaman brings unprecedented good news: Christian commitment is actually growing again, and young people are leading the charge. In this exclusive presentation from Missional AI 2025, Kinnaman reveals five critical trends reshaping faith in our technologically saturated world.The surprising findings include:Why Gen Z and
Leading in the Age of AI - Biblical Principles for Innovation
Episode DescriptionWhat happens when faith meets cutting-edge technology? In this compelling conversation, Dr. Michael Arena shares insights from his remarkable journey—from studying AI at MIT's Media Lab 10 years before it hit mainstream consciousness, to leading talent acquisition at Amazon Web Services, to now revolutionizing business education at Biola University.As Dean of the Crowell School
Digital Bible Engagement Summit Conversation
Global Missional AI PodcastSeason 1, Episode 11: "Digital Bible Engagement Summit"In this episode, recorded live from Switzerland, host Joshua Seale brings together three leading voices in AI and faith to explore the rapidly evolving intersection of artificial intelligence and biblical engagement.Featured Guests:Éric Célérier (France) - Creator of Hello Bible and developer of open-source AI tools
The Future of Work in the Age of AI: From FOMO to Full-Stack Ministry
James Poulter, Head of Innovation and AI at House 337 and former LEGO executive, explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping the workplace and what it means for faith-based organizations. In this compelling talk from the Global Missional AI London event, Poulter examines the tension between AI adoption excitement (FOMO) and job displacement fears (FIRO - Fear of AI Obsolescence).Drawing from
Solving the 58% Donor Loss Crisis: AI Applications That Actually Work for Nonprofits
Join us for an inspiring conversation with Justin Wheeler, co-founder and CEO of Fundraise, as he shares his remarkable journey from viral nonprofit campaigns to building AI-powered fundraising technology that's transforming the sector.🚀 Viral Success StoryHow Kony 2012 achieved 100 million views in 6 days and raised $20 million in 24 hoursThe technology framework behind building two multi-million
Beyond Standards: Building Christian AI Ethics That Actually Work
In this episode from the Global Missional AI London event, we explore the critical question facing ministries today: How do we implement AI responsibly while staying true to our Christian values?Join our expert panel featuring Patricia Shaw (CEO of Beyond Reach and AI ethics consultant), Yvonne Carson (CTO of Global Media Outreach), and Alwyn Daniel (Engineering Lead at Christian Vision) as they t
Technology as Servant, Not Master: John Lennox on AI and Christian Mission
In this special episode from the Global Missional AI London event, we sit down with Dr. John Lennox, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University and renowned apologist, for a fascinating conversation about faith, technology, and the future of humanity.Dr. Lennox shares his personal journey from a life-changing missionary encounter in Northern Ireland to becoming one of Christianity's fo
Technology Isn't Neutral: A Theology of AI with Dr. John Dyer
Is technology really neutral? Can we just "use AI for good and avoid the bad" without deeper consideration?In this thought-provoking episode, we sit down with Dr. John Dyer, professor of educational technology and theology at Dallas Theological Seminary, who challenges the common assumption that technology is simply a neutral tool. John argues that technology is fundamentally formative - whenever
Trust, Faith, and AI Safety with Richard Zhang from Google DeepMind
In this thought-provoking episode, we sit down with Richard Zhang, a research scientist at Google DeepMind, to explore the intersection of Christian faith and artificial intelligence development. Richard shares his unique perspective on building trust in AI systems, moving beyond static assessments to understanding the trajectory of where AI technology is heading.We dive deep into the challenges o
Silicon Valley to Church - AI's Impact on Ministry Strategy w/ Gareth Russell
Guest: Gareth Russell, CEO of Jersey RoadIn this compelling episode of the Global Missional AI podcast, host Joshua Seale sits down with Gareth Russell, CEO of Jersey Road, a communications agency specializing in helping Christian organizations navigate reputational management in our rapidly evolving digital landscape.The AI Content Reality: Discover the striking statistic that 61% of AI-generated
Building Christian AI: Making AI Great Also for God's Kingdom - Eric Celerier
French pastor and AI specialist Eric Celerier shares his remarkable 16-year journey from a chance encounter involving a lost dog named Hadassah to building the first biblically aligned AI model. Speaking at Missional AI 2025, Celerier reveals how current AI systems like ChatGPT are misaligned with Christian values and presents his groundbreaking solution.🔑 Key Topics Covered:How AI alignment revea
Global Missional AI Summit - James Poulter
In this thought-provoking episode, we sit down with James Poulter (JP), Head of AI and Innovation at House 337 and board member of Christian Aid, to explore the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence and its profound implications for ministry and human work.As AI capabilities are predicted to increase exponentially in the coming years—potentially reaching 1000x current capacity by 2027—JP he
Global Missional AI Podcast - Daniel Whitenack
🎙️ AI Agents vs Workflows: The Future of "Vibe Coding" with Daniel WhitenackIn this inaugural episode of the Missional AI Podcast, we sit down with Daniel Whitenack, CEO of Prediction Guard and co-host of the Practical AI Podcast, to explore the cutting edge of AI development and its applications in ministry and Bible translation.🔥 What You'll Learn:-The key difference between AI agents and automa
