Building AI for the Persecuted Church | Lana Silk (Transform Iran) on KAIROS

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 languages. Lana shares her own story: born in Tehran on "Black Friday" in 1978, raised by pastor parents who felt called toward the persecuted church, and shaped by a family friend's martyrdom on the day of her own baptism. Together they explore why Transform Iran has spent 35+ years preparing for what they call "Open Iran," how AI solves the problems of access, scale, and safety, and the safeguards behind KAIROS — emotional intelligence, risk red-flagging, 24/7 human oversight, and the moment the tool started praying for people. Lana also looks ahead to trauma support in the wake of recent events, and makes a candid ask about keeping the platform free as demand surges. A conversation about laying track for a train that hasn't arrived yet. Explore KAIROS: kairoschat.ai Learn about Transform Iran: transformiran.org This episode is brought to you by Transform Iran & KAIROS, and by Gloo — helping the faith and flourishing ecosystem build technology with innovation and trust in mind. Learn more at studio.ai.gloo.com. Missional AI London is coming July 15 at Plaisterers' Hall, Westminster — one day of real conversations on how we use this technology with wisdom, not fear or hype. Tickets £99. Register at missional.ai. Chapters (00:00) Praying but not preparing (01:57) Sponsor: Transform Iran & KAIROS (02:49) Why this episode is different (05:09) Meet Lana Silk (05:33) Born on "Black Friday," 1978 (07:01) Leaving Iran and a ministry for the underground church (07:55) Baptism day and the cost of faith (09:34) How the current conflict shapes Transform Iran (11:04) Rethinking the impossible with AI (12:12) The real problem: access, scale, safety (13:41) Surveillance, privacy, and tools for good (14:23) Why a machine removes fear and shame (15:36) Emotional intelligence and human oversight (16:28) What is KAIROS? (17:19) From 7,000 articles to a discipleship tool (18:14) Training on Scripture (18:41) Sponsor: Gloo (19:47) How the crisis changes who engages (20:44) "I've had Jesus on my mind for a year" (21:24) Can God work through technology? (22:10) The day KAIROS started praying (23:46) Dreaming bigger: scale and trauma support (25:09) Getting involved and keeping KAIROS free (26:28) A picture of the Iran to come (29:11) Outro: Missional AI London

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 journeys that brought a team of major-league technologists together at a faith-driven organization, including the arrival of former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and former Intel CTO Greg Lavender, and why Gloo chose an open rather than closed AI strategy. The conversation digs into: • The origins of the Gloo Hackathon and why 2026 is "the year of the builder" • Flourishing AI (FAI) — Gloo's benchmark for grading frontier models like Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, and others on how well they support human flourishing, built on research from Harvard's Human Flourishing Program, Baylor, and Gallup's Global Flourishing Study • The seven dimensions of flourishing — and why models score lowest on meaning and faith • Safety, accuracy, hallucinated Scripture, and theological alignment • Gloo AI Studio — production-grade, values-aligned AI infrastructure for ministry builders Whether you're a developer, ministry leader, or simply curious about the intersection of faith and emerging technology, this is a conversation worth your time. 🔗 Explore the FAI benchmark: gloo.com/fai 🔗 Build with Gloo AI Studio: aistudio.gloo.com 🔗 Join the Gloo Hackathon — Boulder, CO, October 6–8, 2026 🎟️ Missional AI London is coming July 15 — gather with a global community at the intersection of faith and AI. Tickets are going fast: missional.ai #MissionalAI #FaithAndTechnology #AI #Gloo #HumanFlourishing #ChristianTech

"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, with a waiting list of over 100 more, FaithTech gathers volunteer-led communities of believers to build technology grounded in the gospel. James shares how the movement began with a simple coffee-shop gathering of 30 people, the crisis-response hackathon his Middle East community is running under the banner "redemptive technology in a time of war," and the role AI can play in guiding — not replacing — human care in trauma healing. At the heart of the conversation is a framework James has spent years developing: the movement from reckless to responsible to redemptive technology. He unpacks the "killer app trap," why a build-first instinct isn't biblical, the crucial difference between human flourishing and holiness, and how church leaders can pastor the technologists in their communities. He closes on a practice as simple as it is profound: pray before you prompt. A timely, hope-filled conversation for builders, pastors, and anyone wrestling with where AI is taking us. Missional AI is coming to London this July — a one-day gathering of a global community at the intersection of faith, AI, and calling. Find out more at missional.ai Learn more about FaithTech and find or start a community in your city at faithtech.com Subscribe to the Missional AI Podcast wherever you listen

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 mid-2000s, pioneering church live streaming back in 2007 — more than a decade before most ministries caught on. His first book, The Connected Church, became a textbook in Bible colleges and seminaries around the world. Now, with AI reshaping everything, Natchi argues the Church needs a new framework and a new vocabulary to thrive in this moment. In this conversation, Natchi and Josiah explore why AI is fundamentally different from social media — social media was attention, AI is electricity — and unpack the three challenges that have plagued churches for 2,000 years and why agentic AI may finally solve them. Natchi shares the story of a twenty-year-old at an AI conference whose question sparked the book, what intelligence actually means, the striking parallel between Genesis 1 and generative AI, and why he insists on the term spirit-led intelligence rather than spiritual intelligence. The episode closes with a vision for partnering with AI on what it does well, while protecting what God uniquely gave each of us to do. Pick up Spirit Led Intelligence by Natchi Lazarus on Amazon — available now. Missional AI is coming to London this July. Join leaders from across Europe and around the world for two days at the intersection of faith and AI. Register at missional.ai. (00:00) Why AI is different from social media(02:16) Welcome and introducing Natchi Lazarus(02:42) From Chennai marketing to church technology(03:42) Pioneering church live streaming in 2007(05:09) Social media skepticism then, AI skepticism now(07:05) Why AI is electricity, not just attention(08:27) The three challenges agentic AI can solve for churches(10:45) The origin story of Spirit Led Intelligence(13:32) Defining intelligence and the role of environment(15:23) Jesus, Adam, and the perfect prompt(17:26) Rediscover, deploy, transmit: the book's framework(19:48) What separates humans from superintelligent AI(22:55) Gifts of the Spirit and partnering with AI(27:48) Why "spirit-led" and not "spiritual" intelligence(29:45) Closing reflection: living with God on a headphone

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 milestone really represents, why AI is quietly driving a global resurgence in Bible engagement (including print sales among Gen Z), and how he's rebuilding his team for an AI-native future without shrinking it. Bobby unpacks the launch of the YouVersion Platform — now giving developers near-instant licensed access to 1,300+ Bible versions through APIs and SDKs — shares why YouVersion is opening 20+ regional hubs from Lagos to London to São Paulo, and offers a candid look inside his personal AI lab, where 16 agents and roughly a billion tokens a week are reshaping how he leads. He also names one of the most important and least-discussed dynamics of this moment: we've always equated fluency with intelligence, and this is the first technology to be super-fluent without being super-intelligent. The implications — for ministry, leadership, and our own discernment — are significant. In this episode: * Why YouVersion paused to celebrate the billion milestone * The AI moment and the global resurgence of Bible engagement * Inside the YouVersion Platform and how developers can build with Scripture * What it takes to reach the second and third billion * Rebuilding teams for an AI-native era * YouVersion's new global hub strategy * Bobby's personal AI experiments — and what they're teaching him * Boundaries, deep work, and the illusion of productivity * Why fluency is not intelligence Join us in London this July. Missional AI London brings together leaders from across Europe and beyond at the intersection of faith and AI. Register and join the community at https://missional.ai [https://missional.ai] Follow the Missional AI Podcast on Spotify so you don't miss the next conversation.