Are Megachurches, Christian Influencers, and Artificial Intelligence Breaking the Church?

This week on the Good Faith podcast, Katelyn Beaty joins host Curtis Chang to confront the church's growing addiction to celebrity culture, asking how celebrity pastors, megachurch platforms, and AI are changing the way Christians are formed. Curtis even asks Katelyn to evaluate whether his public persona and the Good Faith platform risk becoming part of the very problem they're critiquing. If faith is becoming more online, more branded, and less embodied, this conversation asks the hard question: what happens to authentic Christian community, spiritual growth, and discipleship when personality starts to outrun the way of Jesus?

02:06 - Defining Persona vs. Fame

04:14 - Embodied Relationships vs. Platform

05:17 - Curtis's Personal Experience with Platform

09:56 - Dangers of Platform Culture for the Church

14:27 - Curtis's Dilemma: Content vs. Persona

17:58 - Navigating Platform Tensions as a Christian Leader

20:09 - Case Studies: Celebrity Gone Wrong and Right

25:34 - Community and Spiritual Formation Beyond Megachurches

30:10 - Technology, Evangelicals, and the Attention Economy

33:00 - AI and the Future of Persona and Platform

36:12 - Final Hope: Embodied, Material Christian Life

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Mentioned in This Episode:

More about Katelyn Beaty
Katelyn Beaty's Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, Platforms, and Profits Are Hurting the Church
TIME: The True Story Behind the FX Documentary Series The Secrets of Hillsong
Christianity Today's podcast: The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill
New York Times: How the Willow Creek Church Scandal Has Stunned the Evangelical World
More about Eugene Peterson
Curtis Chang's The Anxiety Opportunity