(RNS) — Nearly half a billion dollars, gone, over thirteen years.

That’s how much a company called Gloo has lost trying to build an all-in-one digital & administrative powerhouse for what it’s calling the “Faith & Flourishing Ecosystem” of American churches.

A tech company that can handle email & texting, data analytics, web hosting, podcast hosting, IT infrastructure, sermon-to-social video clips, all the way to AI-generated devotionals and study guides. That’s just a taste.

Our guest is RNS reporter Bob Smietana, and we’re asking:

What happens if it works? What happens when one for-profit company, one whose SEC filings admit it might not survive the year, becomes the back office for a huge slice of American Christianity?

Who holds that data? Who shapes that message? What happens if all of that data falls into the wrong hands?