Bringing bright ideas into dark spaces
Brilliance Ignited
Brilliance Labs is a Christian nonprofit innovation lab based in Portland, Oregon.
Where faith, technology, and entrepreneurship meet.
Our Mission
We equip Christian leaders to discover and deploy upstream solutions to hard and neglected problems.
Our lab is where it all comes together. Research surfaces a hard problem. Consulting and grants put solutions into practice. Media spreads what worked. The network brings the next problem to our door, and the cycle turns again.
As freedom technology like Bitcoin and open-source AI reshapes how money and information move, we’re building the trusted bridge that carries the best of it to the global Church, especially where it’s needed most and where traditional systems fall short.
Our aim is simple: to be the people Christian leaders turn to when the problem is hard, neglected, and upstream, and the place the freedom-tech world turns to when they want their tools to serve the vulnerable and advance the gospel. We scale upstream work for the sake of what flows down: strong families, flourishing communities, thriving churches, and the good news of Jesus carried from our own backyard in Portland, Oregon, to the ends of the earth.
Bringing bright ideas into dark spaces. We call that Brilliance — Ignited.
In the Field
Design Labs in El Salvador, Kenya & India
In 2023, a $50,000 innovation grant from Missio Nexus asked us one question: how might Bitcoin be used to advance the Great Commission? We answered it in the room with missionaries, technologists, and national leaders.
Our
Initiatives
What We're Building
Thank God for Bitcoin (opens tgfb.com in a new tab)
Books, a podcast, and an annual conference that help Christians understand Bitcoin. Led by Jordan Bush.
BL—01 Consulting · StrategyFrontier Finance Consulting
We help missions agencies send money into countries where wires get blocked, using Bitcoin and dollar stablecoins. It starts with a free 30-minute call.
BL—02 Community · GrantsPortland Grants & Community
Micro-grants of $1,000 to $7,000 for churches, nonprofits, and grassroots projects in the Portland metro area.
BL—03 Training · Community · ResearchBitcoin for Missions
Design labs, training, grants, and a practitioner network for missionaries who use Bitcoin in the field.
BL—04 Research · IdeasBright Ideas Think Tank
Research on the theology of money, the ethics of AI, and how Bitcoin works in missions.
BL—05 AI · IntegrationIgnite AI Consulting
We help churches and ministries decide where AI fits, write a policy for it, and build tools their own staff can run.
Next · Tampa Bay · February 17–18, 2027
A hope and a future
Two days of hands-on AI workshops for leaders of churches, ministries, nonprofits and companies. Short talks, then you build, with coaches at your table. Saving a seat is free, and nothing is charged today.
With Ligonier, Pioneers, Humble Beast, ViaForge and Bitcoin Bay Foundation.
From
the Lab
All Posts From the Lab →
Announcing Hopeful 2027
Two days of hands-on AI workshops for leaders of churches, ministries, nonprofits and companies, February 17–18, 2027 in Tampa Bay, Florida. Saving a seat is free.
Read the Announcement →Fall 2026 Micro-Grant Round
Our tenth round is open to nonprofits, churches, and grassroots projects across the Portland metro area. Applications close Friday, October 23, 2026.
Apply by Oct 23 →A Christ-Centered Framework for Using AI
Our living guide to using AI faithfully in ministry. It keeps prayer, discernment, community, and the people God made at the center of the work.
Read the Framework →Support the Work
Give
to Brilliance
Labs
Our endowment and consulting revenue cover part of the work. Gifts from people like you pay for the rest: grants, design labs overseas, research, and training for ministry leaders. Tell us which initiative you care about most and we’ll honor that whenever we can.
Choose How to Give →Card · Bank Transfer · Check · Stock · DAF · Bitcoin