The Truth Changes Everything Podcast: Matthew Potter of PRAY.COM on Faith and Technology

Key Takeaways

• Future opportunities: For Christians interested in technology, promising areas include developing secure financial systems for missionaries in restricted countries, cybersecurity for places of worship, and using AI to enhance ministry effectiveness.
• Divine origins: PRAY.COM began after a providential meeting between Matthew Potter and Steve Gutina at a coffee shop, where they discussed creating "the ESPN for Christians" - a digital destination for faith content.
• Technology for good: Just as Christians have used radio, television, and other technologies to spread the Gospel, PRAY.COM aims to "take back technology for the kingdom" by creating positive spiritual content for the digital spaces where people already spend their time.
• Scientific validation: Peer-reviewed studies have confirmed that regular use of PRAY.COM (5+ days per week) correlates with reduced anxiety, depression, and other mental health symptoms, validating the spiritual and psychological benefits of prayer.
• From URL to IRL (In Real Life): While church attendance may be declining, Christian content consumption is up 52% in the last 24 months. PRAY.COM is exploring ways to bridge online engagement with local church connections.
• AI for ministry: PRAY.COM has developed AI technology that automatically transcribes and translates content into multiple languages, helping ministries reach more people globally with fewer resources.

Full Conversation

Introduction

The episode begins with Dr. Jeff Myers introducing the topic of faith and technology in today's world, noting the rise in mental health issues and how the church can make a positive impact. He introduces Matthew Potter as the co-founder of PRAY.COM, the world's number one app for daily prayer and faith-based audio content.

Matthew Potter's Personal Story

Matthew opens with a powerful personal testimony about his birth. A 15-year-old girl who was headed to an abortion clinic stopped at a church for advice. The pastor, who was new, called a seminary friend who had been counseling a couple unable to have children. The young girl agreed to give her baby up for adoption, and Matthew was that baby.

Matthew went on to attend college in Los Angeles where he had the opportunity to meet Steve Jobs, who was also adopted. Inspired by Jobs, Matthew dropped out of college when the App Store launched and started a company that built over 8,000 apps for major real estate companies in the United States.

After achieving success in the tech world, Matthew wanted to give back to the church. While praying about potentially helping open a new church campus, he providentially ran into his friend Steve Gutina at a coffee shop.

Steve Gutina's Story and the Birth of PRAY.COM

Steve came from a challenging background, growing up with a single Jewish mother on welfare. After attending the Air Force Academy and suffering an injury, he walked onto USC's football team, winning a Rose Bowl under Pete Carroll. He started a company building YouTube channels for Fortune 500 companies and eventually became CEO of the world's largest aerial production company at just 29 years old.

In September 2015, Steve's business partner died in a plane crash in Colombia while filming a movie with Tom Cruise. This tragedy led Steve on a spiritual journey. A former Navy SEAL gave him an audio sermon that changed his life, and he became a Christian.

At the coffee shop meeting with Matthew, Steve expressed frustration that there wasn't an "ESPN for Christians" - a worldwide digital destination for Christian content. This conversation on October 22, 2016, led to the founding of PRAY.COM with two other co-founders: Mike Lin and Ryan Beck.

Ryan Beck, interestingly, had been a crystal meth dealer who found Christ in prison, later earning a computer science degree and becoming PRAY.COM's CTO. Mike Lin grew up Catholic and changed his college major from marketing to finance after his mother was swindled by a financial advisor.

Technology and Faith

Dr. Myers raises the concern that people spend about 4.5 hours daily on their phones (equivalent to 70 days per year), asking how PRAY.COM fits into this landscape of device obsession.

Matthew compares the phone to earlier technological revolutions like radio and television, which also changed behaviors dramatically. He explains that Christians have always adapted new technologies for the kingdom. Rather than trying to change people's phone habits, PRAY.COM aims to be "one of the things they can do while on the phone."

Matthew notes that while everything is competing for people's focus (often leading to mental health issues through comparison), PRAY.COM seeks to inject healthy habits, biblical principles, and quality faith content into the digital space. He states: "If everything's fighting for your focus, part of that should be focusing on Christ."

The User Experience

Matthew describes the typical user experience with PRAY.COM. Most people discover the app through sharing (over 152 million shares outside the app). Upon opening the app, users see a daily devotional with a prayer. After completing it, they're shown their "streak" (consecutive days of prayer) and can encourage others to maintain their streaks.

The app features Pray Radio with content from various pastors and Bible teachers, Pray TV, and podcasts. They've also created original content using a 61-piece orchestra and former Disney voice actors to bring the Bible to life in a cinematic audio format, with special versions for children and for sleep.

Matthew explains that the app encourages prayer through daily reminders, notifications, and by allowing users to schedule prayer time. He suggests that if 8 billion people prayed for 30 consecutive days and kept track, "we'd be living in a lot different world."

Mental Health Benefits

Dr. Myers references a study in the Spirituality and Clinical Practice journal that found PRAY.COM improved mental health over time. Matthew explains their "Pray Science" division, led by their Chief Data Officer Victor Harris and PhD researcher Dr. Bree Laird.

Their cross-sectional survey found that people who used the app more frequently during a week reported fewer mental health symptoms. A subsequent 8-week randomized trial confirmed that users who engaged with the app five or more days per week experienced significant reductions in anxiety and depression.

Matthew emphasizes: "We don't believe it's the app. It's God. We're just a conduit." He contrasts prayer with meditation, noting that while meditation focuses inward on the problem, prayer involves giving problems to God "who has the power over that problem."

Bridging Digital and Physical Faith Communities

Dr. Myers raises concerns about the solitary nature of apps and how PRAY.COM might encourage users to join physical church communities, especially given the number of believers with "church hurt" who aren't involved in congregations.

Matthew frames the discussion around moving "from URL to IRL" (In Real Life). He challenges the narrative about Christianity's decline in America, noting that while physical church attendance is decreasing, Christian content consumption has increased by 52% over the past 24 months.

He compares this shift to how people consume movies—fewer theater visits but more streaming content—suggesting that faith is following similar patterns. Matthew notes that people approach church selection like restaurant selection now, researching online before physically attending. The PRAY.COM team is exploring ways to recommend physical locations to users who want to take the next step in their faith journey.

The Future of Technology for God's Kingdom

The conversation turns to the future of technology for God's kingdom, particularly artificial intelligence. Matthew explains how PRAY.COM uses AI to help ministries by automatically transcribing content, creating titles and descriptions, and translating content into multiple languages in the original speaker's voice.

This technology allows ministries to reach more people groups in their native languages while providing analytics about what content resonates most with audiences. The system also allows for easy editing when mistakes are made, automatically updating all audio and video content.

Matthew draws a parallel with nuclear technology, which can either power the world with clean energy or destroy nations. He believes all technological advancements can be used for good or evil, and Christians must continually use them for good "to be able to fight back."

Opportunities for the Rising Generation

For young people interested in technology and ministry, Matthew highlights several promising areas:

1. Developing systems to get money into restricted countries to support missionaries without exorbitant taxation
2. Using AI to help ministries do more with fewer resources
3. Cybersecurity for places of worship (noting the US government is now providing funding for this)
4. Creating technologies to promote better mental and spiritual health habits

Dr. Myers compares these initiatives to how missionaries in the 1950s used linguistics to communicate the gospel in people's heart languages—now we're using the technology of our time to communicate biblical truth.

Closing Thoughts

Matthew offers listeners a special opportunity to get the paid portion of the PRAY.COM app for free by visiting pray.com/matt. Dr. Myers encourages listeners to consider PRAY.COM as a resource for those who say they "need more God" in their lives, noting how accessible it makes daily scripture study and prayer.

Matthew draws a connection to Dr. Myers' own experience of being discipled through cassette tapes as a new Christian, showing how technology has always played a role in spiritual formation, just in evolving forms.