[Note: This online version of the article has been altered from the print version by the author.]

Imagine a desperate young mother in a rural region typing “Is there hope?” in her heart language into her phone at midnight. In an area where sharing faith can spark persecution, her search leads to a safe, AI-driven audio conversation in her mother tongue that God uses to change her life and her family. In this article, I'll share our approach to combining search engine optimization (SEO)1, multilingual content, and conversational AI—like AllAboutGOD.ai—to connect with local heart-language speakers in high-risk areas.2 Drawing on over 20 years of digital outreach experience, we've developed an approach using AI that gathers valuable data while keeping local believers safe through household-level gatherings. Let's look at the practical implementation, ethical considerations, and potential impact across diverse cultural landscapes.

The Challenge We're Facing

Some regions present significant challenges for traditional missionary work like anti-conversion laws,3 growing religious nationalism,4 and/or restrictions on foreign funding that create substantial barriers.5 However, where traditional doors close, digital windows open.

Our proof of concept framework adapts to these realities by using search engine optimization, artificial intelligence, and partnerships with local believers to create scalable digital outreach. This helps overcome legal constraints and geographical limitations while protecting those working in environments where faith can come at a high cost.

What We've Learned So Far Still Applies

The data on digital outreach effectiveness is compelling. Between 2002 and 2023, I led All About GOD Ministries (now, The Way of Adonai) and we documented over 384 million gospel presentations resulting in over 3 million indicated decisions across 14 languages from every country in the world6 thus, this strategy will work in regions known for anti-conversion laws and religious nationalism, if we make some technology adjustments to mitigate risk.

The approach leverages what digital marketers like me call "pull versus push" dynamics—instead of pushing content to disinterested audiences like is done with an ad on Facebook, it makes biblical content discoverable via SEO (search engine optimization) to those already searching for answers to their questions in Google.7

The cost efficiency is notable as well. Analysis shows that the cost per gospel presentation decreased from $2.26 in 2002 to less than one cent by 2008. Similarly, the cost per indicated decision fell from $673 to less than a $1.00 by 2014—significantly more efficient than most outreach methods.8 This demonstrates that digital outreach via SEO delivers substantial value for the resources invested.

The Four Big Ideas

Here are the four key concepts powering the new approach to reach challenging regions safely.
    1.    Intent and Engagement: Content that meets a person’s intent creates higher engagement than interruptive content vying for attention.9 Simply put, people engage more deeply when they find what they're looking for already.
    2.    Conversation and Conversational AI: People respond better when spiritual conversations start with a topic they're already curious about. Rather than imposing an agenda, we meet people where their interests already lie, build trust through interaction, gather people group data passively and use sentiment analysis to understand if they are sincere seekers or impostors trying to infiltrate a gathering.
    3.    Household-Based Discipleship: In high-risk environments, household gatherings provide both safety and cultural relevance. The home becomes a natural setting for spiritual growth.
    4.    Risk Mitigation Through Separation and Decentralization: Because the organization that owns the technology is not in the country there is no legal ability to force us to stop the outreach. By keeping content production local and, yet, decentralized, indigenous workers remain hidden, but have contextualized impact.

How It Actually Works

Creating Content That Connects

We begin by gathering local tech-savvy believers and training them in doing keyword research for their language(s). They are trained to identify spiritual questions people are actively asking through search engines.10 These team members then develop multilingual content using AI writing tools with doctrinal "guardrails"—parameters ensuring theological accuracy by referencing established biblical content.11

The human element remains essential: Believers with solid doctrinal understanding review all AI-generated content for cultural relevance and theological accuracy. AI provides the first draft in less than one minute, while local believers add contextual understanding and wisdom to each article. This human-AI collaboration allows us to scale content effectively while maintaining quality. This process can be accelerated by taking the edited articles and using them to train the content production AI thus improving accuracy and decreasing editing time.

The domain names, AI technology and websites are owned and hosted outside of the region, creating a legal buffer that mitigates risk from anti-conversion law enforcement. This separation prevents local authorities from shutting down the outreach. While content censorship is still possible, this, too can be mitigated by using multiple smaller websites instead of one large centralized website.

Building Relationships Through Technology

When users discover this content through search engines like Google, they find relevant spiritual information with opportunities to respond to the gospel or ask questions. Those who show interest can interact with conversational AI in their heart language through audio or a text chat.
This technology serves several important functions:
    1.    Accessibility: Doctrinally sound responses in the user's language can be given without requiring human availability 24/7 and without risk of breaking anti-conversion laws.  
    2.    People Group Data Collection: Through conversation, the system gathers people group information, contributing valuable data to missiology research. At scale, it could enable the tracking of people group data in real time updating people group databases.
    3.    Sincerity Assessment: Voice-based interaction enables sentiment analysis and emotional evaluation, helping distinguish sincere seekers from potential impostors trying to infiltrate local gatherings.12 In high-risk environments, this is crucial.

From Digital To Real-Life Discipleship

Digital connections are just the beginning—our ultimate goal is authentic discipleship. After thorough vetting through the conversational AI, sincere seekers connect to online groups facilitated by local believers whose identities remain protected through anonymized audio or AI avatars.

These online groups use a Discovery Bible Study approach, encouraging participants to immediately share scriptural insights with their households—creating natural pathways for family-level gatherings without requiring public identification as Christians. Only when local leadership determines it's safe do these connections grow beyond family.

Ethical Considerations and Limitations

We need to address several ethical considerations with this approach:
Transparency in AI Usage: We must ensure users know when they're interacting with AI systems rather than humans.

Indigenous Ownership: While foreign technological partnership provides initial protection, the long-term vision must emphasize local ownership and funding when safe and feasible.13

Theological and Moral Fidelity: The guardrails on Conversational AI systems must ensure responses align with sound biblical teaching as well as drive biblical morality in context.14

Security-Discipleship Balance: The tension between security measures and authentic community requires ongoing assessment. 

The Projected Impact and Scalability Metrics

The potential impact is significant. Our projections suggest this approach could effectively reach millions across multiple regions through multi-lingual content that is eventually extended to all languages.
By optimizing our websites for low-bandwidth environments we make it accessible even in rural areas15 with less optimal connectivity and smaller data plans.16 Additionally, the use of Voice AI can allow illiterate users to be better engaged. This means reaching people in remote areas often overlooked by other digital outreach efforts.
The scalability metrics are encouraging:
    1.    With only 40 trained local believers using AI to create one page of content per day for 250 working days, approximately 10,000 pages of contextually appropriate content could be developed in a single language within one year. 
    2.    AI can then be used to re-create the content into audio and video. 
    3.    AI can also be used to translate that content into other languages. 
    4.    As content volume increases online, the cost per engagement decreases due to improved search engine ranking and network effects—creating economic advantages that bolster local sustainability.
    5.    The decentralized approach of spreading content across multiple smaller websites increases resilience against censorship while allowing continuous and unified data collection on unreached people groups.

Why This Matters

Our framework reimagines mission work for today's complex realities. Several aspects are particularly noteworthy:

Bringing Digital and Physical Together

While digital engagement starts the process, meaningful discipleship requires community. The household-focused approach provides a culturally appropriate and safer pathway for this transition before expanding. This aligns with both biblical patterns and historical persecuted church models where household gatherings formed the primary expression of Christian community. The AI vetting process reduces risk by acting as a bridge between digital discovery, inline interaction and in-person fellowship.

Empowering Local Believers

The "pay it forward" model represents an important shift toward local sustainability. As new believers experience transformation they are told someone prayed for them and gave toward the effort that they could begin following Jesus. They're invited to “pay it forward” by participating through prayer and/or micro financial contributions—making the ministry increasingly independent and addressing vulnerabilities as foreign funding faces greater restrictions. This approach is both practical and empowering. New believers become active participants in ministry early in their faith journey.

AI as a Ministry Tool

This framework demonstrates how artificial intelligence can serve as a missiological tool. The AI components serve specific functions: language accessibility, data collection, sincerity scoring, risk mitigation, and scalability. Rather than replacing human ministry, AI extends our reach while creating safer pathways to person-to-person discipleship in high-risk contexts.

Wrapping Up

This framework offers a practical approach to reaching millions through digital pathways that acknowledge today's challenges while leveraging emerging technologies. By combining search engine optimization, Conversational AI and household-based discipleship, we create scalable pathways for gospel engagement while prioritizing both local ownership and security.

As anti-conversion laws and funding restrictions challenge traditional approaches, these digitally-enabled, security-conscious methodologies become increasingly essential. The framework's emphasis on gathering people group data while vetting sincere responders creates a foundation for more targeted and effective ministry across diverse linguistic and cultural landscapes.

In the end, this is about connecting people in all regions with spiritual truth and building communities of faith in challenging contexts. The tools may change, but the message and its transformative power remain the same.

We are working on three proofs of concept now and are seeking collaborative partnerships with those that want to scale outreach, discipleship and CPMs in spite of significant challenges. Together we can make sure everyone has multiple opportunities to hear about Jesus, follow Him in community and learn to make other followers until all families have heard. I would love to hear from you via email.