Missional AI Podcast

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