Learning to use AI faithfully — without losing the Word, the language, or the people.
This is where cautious leaders and curious believers bring their hardest questions about AI — and treat asking them as a faithful act, not a threat. No hype, no silver bullets. Clear, theologically-serious teaching from people doing the work.
The questions about AI aren't technical. They're pastoral.
"Can the Spirit work through a machine?" "Are we trading the Word for speed?" "Whose data is it, really?" These aren't feature requests. They're fears — and they deserve teaching, not a sales pitch.
Avodah Academy exists to teach the questions before the tools: what faithfulness requires, where AI genuinely helps, where it doesn't belong, and how to tell the difference for your team and your context.
Holy curiosity is the conviction that asking the hard question is an act of faith, not a failure of it.
We ask the questions the rest of the field sells around.
Most voices on AI and faith are either selling adoption or preaching caution. We do the harder, more useful thing: teach discernment — out loud, with our own scars showing.
We'll tell you when AI is the wrong answer.
Not every team should adopt, and not every task should be automated. We teach "not yet" and "not here" as faithfully as we teach "yes."
We teach our own mistakes.
The honesty isn't a slogan — whole sessions are about what we got wrong in the field and exactly how we fixed it. Confession over promotion.
We protect the vulnerable, not the vendor.
Minority-language communities and their data come first — always. Where speed or funders pull against that, we say so.
Five convictions, taught through real questions.
Everything in the Academy ladders to one of these. We don't teach tools in the abstract — we teach the decisions you're actually facing, grounded in what we hold to be true.
Faithfulness over speed
Never trade the Word, the Spirit, or community ownership for velocity.
Protecting the vulnerable
Technology serves minority-language communities — never extracts from them.
Equipping people
AI raises the floor for translators; it doesn't replace them.
Doing it together, honestly
We teach our mistakes too — what we learned, and how we decide.
The courage to innovate
Naming and defeating the inner blocks that stop God-honoring work.
Holy Curiosity
Holy Curiosity is a series of honest conversations on faith and AI. Each one explores one of three threads:
Three tracks. We lead with what you're trying to do.
Whatever seat you're in, we start with your outcome — then teach the content that gets you there. You choose your track when you register.
Lead your church through AI change with confidence
Change leaders — church & ministry. Story-led, pastoral teaching on fidelity: what faithfulness requires, where AI belongs, and how to carry your people with you.
Make AI decisions your board and funders can trust
Organization & NGO leaders. Frameworks, evidence, and risk: data sovereignty, capacity-building, and defensible calls under donor pressure.
Make sense of AI and your faith in plain language
Laypeople & curious believers. No jargon, no hype — the questions everyone's asking about AI and faith, answered clearly and with care.
Show up once a month. Leave with something every time.
A monthly rhythm designed to change a position over a season, not in a single sitting — the way a congregation comes to trust a teacher.
Join live — or on replay
A 45-minute conversation with live polls. Can't make it? The replay lands within two hours.
Keep the resource
Every episode comes with a guide, checklist, or framework you can use with your team.
Bring your hardest question
A moderated Q&A where the difficult, honest questions are the ones we want.
Belong
A private community and monthly office hours — a room to keep thinking this through together.
Start before you subscribe.
Every episode lives on as a video and a podcast, with short clips for the questions people search most. No sign-up required — see how we think, then decide.
Holy Curiosity on YouTube
Full episodes and short clips — the searchable front door to the whole program.
Coming soonHoly Curiosity — the podcast
One honest hour, wherever you listen — Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music.
Coming soonPractitioners, not pundits.
The people teaching in the Academy are the people doing the work — translators, consultants, and ministry leaders who've made the hard calls themselves.
Hency Varghese
Executive leader at Avodah and researcher on the Bible Translation Consultant gap. Teaches at the intersection of theology, AI, and the realities of field translation.
Abbie Piette
Facilitates the live conversations — keeping them honest, warm, and moving, and making room for the hard questions.
Kristin Westbrook
Leads Bible translation work — exegesis, quality, and the realities of the work in the field, with field-tested experience closing the consultant gap.
Teach with us
We're opening the Academy to guest speakers — consultants, field linguists, theologians, and practitioners with something honest to teach on faith, AI, and language. If that's you, we'd love to hear from you.
Apply to be a guest speaker →Join the list — and get New Wineskins.
The program opens with Episode 1, "The Religious Spirit." Join now for the free guide — New Wineskins: A Guide to Faithful Change — and an early invitation before we promote the launch anywhere else. Tell us your seat, and we'll send what's actually useful to you.
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