Building the evangelistic influencer

The
Red
Thread
Project

There are Christian influencers. There are content creators. We are building something the church does not yet have. The evangelistic influencer: consecrated, trained, and sent to proclaim the gospel where the church cannot physically go.

World map with the 10/40 Window highlighted and training locations pinned
The 10/40 Window. Where physical access is hardest and digital access is widest
30 max

Evangelistic influencers per training. Invite-only, referred, and vetted.

Under 5 hrs

One session. One video made, one spiritual discipline learned, one commitment to post.

1 month

Of gospel content that flows out of the discipline, not out of a content calendar.

The term

The evangelistic
influencer

Every other effort in this space is trying to reach creators, platform creators, or borrow their audiences. Red Thread is doing something different: we are forming a category of leader. Not a Christian with a following. Not a creator who happens to believe. An evangelist whose assigned field is a feed.

Evangelistic influencer
noun
The Evangelistic Influencer is a believer consecrated and sent by the church to reach digital audiences for Jesus Christ. Accountable to it, formed by it and creating from that formation.
Consecration
Set apart, not simply skilled.

Consecration is what separates an evangelistic influencer from someone with a platform and good intentions. It is the part of this work that cannot be taught in five hours, and it is the reason a church can trust who we send back to it.

  1. Every participant is vetted before they are ever invited.

  2. Everyone arrives with a pastoral reference from a church that already knows them.

  3. Everyone is connected to a local church before they enter and stays connected the whole way through.

  4. Red Thread does not replace the local church. We do the formation and digital equipping most churches do not yet have the capacity for.

Selective is not about status. It is about protecting the depth of what happens inside.

The Christian influencer

Has a platform and a faith. The two coexist. The audience is the point, and the gospel appears when it fits.

The content creator

Has craft and reach. Trained by the algorithm, accountable to the metrics, formed by whatever performs.

The evangelistic influencer

Consecrated first. Trained second. The platform is not the ministry. It is the mission field they were sent into.

The formation gap

Influence is arriving faster than formation

Discipleship is the ongoing, intentional process of following Jesus. Scrolling is the ongoing, intentional process of following culture. The mechanics are nearly identical. What differs is who is doing the leading.

A generation is gaining real spiritual influence online without any trusted pathway for what to do with it. Their audience is growing. Their content is growing. Their formation is not keeping pace.

Having influence and being equipped for influence are two completely different things. The core problem Red Thread exists to solve

What unformed influence produces

Left alone, the pattern is consistent enough to name in advance.

  • Performative faith
  • Burnout
  • Theological shallowness
  • Isolation from real community
  • Influence without accountability
  • Content disconnected from formation
  • Drift from the local church
  • No one to call when it goes wrong
The church has a pathway for pastors, missionaries and church planters. There is no pathway for the evangelistic influencer. So we are building one.
Why the red thread

Why the
red thread?

Because we are all connected whether we know it or not. By design, we all lack the same thing. Jesus. Without Him we are lost.

By training evangelistic influencers, using the platforms people already live on, and traveling into the least-reached districts, we are connecting regions and people groups to Jesus with an invisible thread.

The model

Discover.
Equip.
Multiply.

We are not recruiting audiences. We are forming evangelistic influencers the church can actually send. Consecration first, craft second, platform last.

01 / Discover

Referred, not recruited

Pop-ups in the U.S. are invite-only. In each location we identify three or four trusted creators who know the scene, and they recommend the people worth inviting. Reputation travels through people who have something to lose.

  • 3–4 trusted creators refer per location
  • Pastoral reference already in hand
  • Existing mentorship already in place
  • Character and hunger over reach
02 / Equip

Form the person, then the post

Every training pairs one spiritual discipline with one piece of real work. The discipline is not the warm-up. It is the engine. A month of content comes out of it because a month of formation went into it.

  • One spiritual discipline, taught to be kept
  • One video made in the room
  • Hooks, calls to action, Scripture with clarity
  • A commitment to post before leaving
03 / Multiply

Send them back to disciple others

The goal is not a roster of great creators. It is people who reach thousands and then form the next wave themselves: refer the next cohort, review the next batch of content, carry the next location.

  • Evangelistic influencer
  • Referrer
  • Local content reviewer
  • Multiplier
For the church. With the church. Back to the church. Everyone arrives carrying a pastoral reference and a mentor they already answer to
What a training actually is

Up to thirty.
Under five hours.
One video that
gets posted.

A Red Thread training holds up to thirty people and runs under five hours. Every person leaves having done three things: made one video, learned one spiritual discipline, and committed to posting what they made.

The discipline is what carries the month. It is a practice they can keep after we leave the room, and the content follows from it. Formation producing output, not a content calendar demanding it.

Videos run 60–90 seconds and land in one of three formats: a prayer, the gospel message, or Scripture taught plainly. Strong hook, clear call to action, no Christianese. Trainings run on what people already own: a phone, a ring light, free editing software.

Nothing ships unreviewed. Each location identifies two to four local leaders who oversee content and meet monthly with regional coordinators, which is also how the model survives any one person leaving.

Where we are working

One movement,
two fronts

The same pathway, proven close to home and pressure-tested where access is hardest. We name the places we have actually committed to and nothing else.

Front one / North America

Prove the pathway

Invite-only pop-up trainings in least-reached U.S. cities, building toward a select cohort. Small on purpose: the first group is not the market, it is the proof.

Participants are referred by trusted local creators and arrive already carrying pastoral and mentorship references, then are sent home to multiply.

New York CityPhoenixMore as partners open doors
Front two / International

Reach where no one can go

Many unreached people groups have almost no access to the gospel through physical ministry, yet are highly active online. Digital borders are open today; regulation and censorship are closing them.

We prioritize native and near-native evangelistic influencers who know the language, the culture, and what is safe to say. Thailand is the proving ground; Europe is next.

Thailand, pilotEurope next
The challenge is not access to technology. It is access to equipped, supported, native believers who can share the gospel online.
The roadmap
Yr 1
Discover + prove
  • Invite-only pop-ups
  • Build the referral network
  • Test the curriculum
  • Collect outcome data
  • Develop testimonies
Yr 2
Equip
  • Launch the first full cohort
  • Formation and theology
  • Local content review layer
  • Monthly regional calls
  • First multiplication wave
Yr 3+
Multiply
  • Additional locations
  • International track
  • Church partnerships
  • Alumni referral pipeline
  • A connected network, built one proven location at a time
Proof

This is not
theoretical

The pilot is already funded, already flown, already run.

Participants at the Thailand pilot training holding the scripts they wrote, under a screen reading Let's change the world one thread at a time
Pilot

Thailand, self-funded

The founder personally funded the first Thailand pilot with local leaders rather than wait on a budget. A first collaboration with the Global Network of Evangelists.

People gathered at a prayer night to pray over specific digital spaces
Prayer

One night. 125 people.

We put together a local prayer night where about 125 people gathered to pray over specific digital spaces: named platforms, named audiences, not a general appeal.

Students on the Liberty University campus
Track record

Trained in the room

The curriculum draws on real experience training students in Liberty University's influencer department and seven years of building an audience from the earliest days of Christian short-form video.

Cia Cloud, left, with Kailah Christie in front of a paper wall where people wrote prayers
Cia Cloud, left, with Kailah Christie
Cia greatly impacted my life as she was willing to walk alongside me during our trip to Thailand and I got to see what it looked like to walk in the fullness of truly allowing yourself to be a living sacrifice through the proclamation of the Gospel in new settings, while sleep deprived, but filled with joy as we watched the Holy Spirit call people to Himself.
Kailah Christie  ·  Thailand pilot team
Founder
Cia Cloud, founder of The Red Thread Project

Cia Cloud

In July, God asked me a direct question: would you give your life for my mission? I said yes. Thirty minutes later I was hit by a drunk driver going around 130 miles an hour. The car was totaled. I walked away with a concussion and nothing else.

Cia Cloud has spent seven years creating across social platforms, building an audience of roughly 1.2 million followers and around 35 million monthly viewers, and was part of the early wave of what became Christian short-form video. She leads the influencer marketing team at Liberty University and is completing a master's in theology and Bible ahead of a PhD.

Red Thread is what happened when years of praying Matthew 9:37–38 met a front-row seat to how algorithms actually shape belief.

Partner with us

Fund the people
who will be there
when they ask

People are already searching, already watching, already asking questions online. The only open question is who will be ready and formed enough to answer.

$50/mo

Keeps one evangelistic influencer in gear and editing tools: the phone, light and software a training runs on.

$275

Sponsors one evangelistic influencer through a training: their seat, food, materials and share of the team's costs.

$8,000

Underwrites one full pop-up training: travel, venue, food, gear and local coordination for up to thirty people.

$19,000

Opens a new location: two trainings, the referral network, the local review layer and a year of coordination.

Draft figures, from the cost model and not yet from receipts These come from the Red Thread cost model: travel for two, lodging, ground transport, food, venue, participant gear, local coordinator pay, the prep hours spent gathering people, and contingency. Every input is still a placeholder. Replace them with the Thailand pilot receipts and these numbers become defensible.
Financial transparency

Every dollar
accounted for

The 2026 Thailand mission is closed and reconciled. Red Thread training was one part of that trip, alongside community outreach, a youth rally and a three-night festival.

$28,441.72
Raised
$28,441.72
Spent
$0.00
Unaccounted
Where it wentAmount
Air travel$16,379.19
Team support and reimbursements$3,606.46
Lodging, meals, ground transport and cultural experience$3,499.79
Media and equipment$1,783.03
Petty cash and incidentals$1,159.79
Carried forward to the next Red Thread training$1,097.55
Sponsored meals and ground transport$726.98
Communications and parking$188.93
Total$28,441.72

Cost per team member was $1,325.84 in airfare and parking, or $1,744.03 including lodging, meals and ground costs. Gifts are received by Faith 2 Faith Ministries, which is accredited by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability and files a Form 990 annually.