M y wife and I had accepted a call to be church planters in Turkey. We packed our bags and left suburban America for somewhere that certainly wasn’t Kansas anymore.

Almost instantly, we fell in love with the chaotic and wonderful menagerie that is Istanbul. There, almost every form of transportation crosses multiple continents to locations that have their histories dating back thousands of years ago. Mosques and churches line the shores of the Golden Horn, all of them built before Columbus had sailed the ocean blue. We settled into a home in Chalcedon of all places—city of the fourth Ecumenical Council!

Galata, Istanbul

Istanbul’s people seemed as diverse as her landscape. From the talkative taxi drivers spinning yarns of yesteryear to gossiping mothers hanging out on balconies overhanging the narrow cobbled streets, it seemed the city was full of people who richly inhabited their relationships—both healthy and broken. Their hospitality was unrivaled compared to anything I had previously experienced in America.

Related: What did hospitality look like in the Bible, and what does it look like today?

We joined a small Turkish house church and set to learning the language and lives of our brothers and sisters. We saw in their faith how an already vibrant culture can be even more abundant with the gospel of grace.

“How, God, can we reach so many people?”

After a few months of acclimating, we had an experience we’ll never forget. April 23 in Turkey is National Children’s Day, a public holiday, but also the Feast of St. George, an important Christian Orthodox celebration. Each year thousands and thousands of people take a boat from the city over to the Princes’ Islands and climb the steepest hill to the Monastery of St. George to offer a prayer (or wish) and tie a ribbon on a tree.

The interesting thing about the pilgrimage is that most of the pilgrims are not Christians.  Despite its deeply Christian heritage, Turkey is one of the world’s least Christian countries—only .005% of the population. You would have to meet several thousand people before even meeting a Christian, let alone understand what they believe.

We climbed the hill with a small band of fellow Christians. We listened to many and offered up prayers for them. After what seemed like a long day, we started heading home, but as we stumbled down the rocky trail, I took a moment to lift up my eyes to a vast scene of either harvest…or wilderness. As far as I could see, east and west, were innumerable stacks of massive concrete apartment buildings. That is what 12 million people in one city looks like. I knew there were only a handful of small churches in the city, and I thought, “How, God, can we reach so many people?” Our small band had connected with a mere fraction of those seeking prayer on the island.

Integrating Church Planting with Web Resources

After a few years of learning the ropes in Istanbul, we moved to a remote but large city in Turkey with no church at all. Together with a believing family from Turkey we started a church. The Lord blessed it and added to our numbers. It was not a Pentecost of thousands, but in the next four years, we grew to a group of around 40 people.

We were thrilled with what felt like a huge blessing from the Lord. It is more the norm that individuals labor for decades, see few people come to faith, and often fail to establish a congregation that lasts more than a few years after the departure of a missionary.

An internet ministry in Istanbul heard about our small and distant congregation. They had been running a web page that offered to send people a free Bible. Some of those people had questions, expressed interest in fatih, or wanted to meet a real Christian. They asked if we would be willing to meet with internet contacts. Of course!

Little did we know it would lead to roughly 600 contacts per month who wanted to know more about Christ. It seemed to be the springs in the desert that Isaiah talked about. As the congregation grew, we started to reconsider how we were supposed to fulfill our call to reach those whom God was already calling.

Related: What is the mission of the church today?

Not This or That but Both

Western people, like me, tend to think in dichotomous terms. It is either this or that. It was a success or a failure. Either you are with me or against me. There used to be an old debate about mission projects: they should be evangelistic or diaconal, but nobody seemed to think you could be both.

I used to have dichotomous thinking concerning sharing the gospel. Either you believe only in the power of local congregations or you go straight for online resources for maximum spread. Be it from a theological conviction, quality vs. quantity, or whatever reason, Western people tend to think you can only have one model or another. At the time, I struggled with the question, “Will following up with all these people we don’t know diminish the work of church planting?”

In struggling with this question, I went back to some of my missional training. In the Reformed tradition, we believe that God has called certain individuals. Our job is to share the gospel and see who responds—to find those who have been called. So, web resources were an excellent tool to help us to find those who were being called. Furthermore, we believe that the proper place for a believer to grow as a disciple is in the church. We had to do both, not just one or the other!

Related: Simple outreach ministry ideas and tips for getting started

Since then we have started four fellowships in pioneer places with plans for more. We began to send mature families to these remote locations as evangelists. They follow up on internet contacts as well as “traditional” sorts of evangelistic activities. As people start to believe, they begin to gather until the group is ready to announce themselves publicly as a church. God calls individuals and we as the church respond!

Next Steps: AI?

In the Lord’s providence, our time in Turkey came to an end: I was put under close observation by the intelligence police and eventually deported from Turkey. It broke our hearts.

Since then, we’ve moved to Western Europe and continue to be fascinated and involved with Turkish ministry in both congregations and online. Being here, we live the reality of global migration with millions of Turks in Europe. Borders and distance are of much less hindrance than they were even 20 years ago.

I was approached by a European ministry that had placed the Life of Jesus movie in Turkish on their Youtube Channel. They had 3.5 million views with over 8000 comments. “We have this video, but we don’t even know what people are saying. Can you help us?” Yes! We’re now in partnership and have created a website, online lessons, YouTube channel, and other resources to reach and connect seekers to a real congregation.

Is Jesus with the People on ChatGPT?

A few months ago, our tech department forwarded a graphic from the Harvard Business Review that had gone viral. It showed that the top use of AI in 2025 was “therapy/companionship” and, astoundingly, the third most popular use was “finding purpose.” Astounding! You no longer need a great faith, philosophy, or even narcissistic whim to guide your life—just a highly complex algorithm.

“How People Are Really Using Gen AI in 2025.” Harvard Business Review (HBR), April 9, 2025.

More than 50 percent of ChatGPT users are under age 34. The image of an anxious young adult sitting behind their screen came to mind—they type out, “What is my purpose?” desperate for an answer with no way to gauge if the answer is worthy or not.

Jesus pursued people. I often think of him making a journey just to heal the demoniac in the Decapolis. Or approaching tax collectors with intention: “Zacchaeus, come out of that tree. I’m eating with you tonight.” Today, in the same way, Jesus is calling the individuals seeking companionship and purpose through AI.

As Jesus’ hands and feet, we need to be involved with AI.

Related: Understanding digital culture can help the church disciple millennials and Gen Z

The Potential in Turkish Ministry

I come back to the question, “How do we connect to those whom God has called to the church?” The very first step is the search for information—and who you are asking. For good or ill, the answer that AI will generate is based on the data that it is fed. China’s AI Model, DeepSeek, will tell you communism is the best thing since sliced bread and that the Tiananmen Square massacre never happened. What goes in comes out.

Turkish speakers need an AI model that will give them a Christian perspective.

I’ve tested simple prompts in English and Turkish. English questions consistently give a more detailed and accurate answer for both Christianity and, surprisingly to me, Islam. Turkish questions receive answers that are always skewed to an Islamic perspective or frame of reference.

Interestingly I once asked ChatGPT, “The Quran says Jesus is a prophet, but the Injil (roughly “the gospels”) say he is God. Which one is right?” The question was one of truth and accuracy, but the answer I got was one of emotional preference. “If you feel that God is great and unchangeable, then you favor the Islamic perspective. If you appreciate the healing and compassion shown by Jesus in the gospels, you favor the Christian perspective.” How very Western to think truth is found in emotion!

Turkish speakers should also know what Islamic sources say.

When ISIS was crashing out of Syria into Iraq and enslaving Yazidi women, I would often ask my Muslim friends if that was a real representation of Islam. I of course knew that Muhammad himself had done the same and set an example, but my intention was not one-upsmanship. It was a quick way to help me understand their theological framework and knowledge base. (How would you respond when asked if we should stone someone for gathering sticks on the sabbath like in Numbers 15?)

What I found most surprising was most Turks didn’t know that story and many other facts about their prophet. However, it shouldn’t be surprising. Most of what we supposedly know about Muhammed was written in huge volumes of sayings, history, and theology written hundreds of years after his life. It is not from the Quran. The average Muslim can’t dive through all these books, so they often read curated booklets that leave out significant details.

AI can be fed Islamic source material to give answers based on this huge corpus of original material. It could have a Luther-like effect on the Islamic world. Regular people could have access to their common questions based on Islamic source material. However, I think most Muslims, at least in Turkey, would be surprised and a bit disappointed at what they find.

Someday I dream of an AI tool where you can ask faith questions through the filter of Bible/Quran, historical source material, and historical commentary by date. What did people believe and practice in the first centuries of Christianity vs Islam? Just put the answers side-by-side and you’ll see no one is like Jesus!

Through Him and to Him Are All Things…

I don’t know if you are a skeptic or wild enthusiast of digital ministry, but I hope that we all have a deep conviction that the Lord can use all things for his glory.

On my last trip to Turkey before being deported, I attended a baptism service. The room was packed with standing room only. I remembered when we had purchased the space—we thought filling it would take decades. Now, new believers were lining the front rows robed in white waiting for their turn to be immersed in a blow-up pool. It didn’t look sturdy enough for a 5-year-old to play in, let alone the 17 adults waiting to go under the surface of the water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

As each one shared their testimony before being baptized, I realized that 11 of them had started their faith journey online. I don’t know how the digital world will continue to develop, but I pray that God would continue to use it and that we, God’s servants, would continue to be engaged in this work.