Terms of Use

Last modified: August 30, 2026

Acceptance of the Terms

Engage Lostness is a website and service developed and operated by the Innovation Team of the International Mission Board (IMB) ("we," "us," or "IMB"). These Terms of Use, together with our Privacy Statement, govern your access to and use of Engage Lostness. By using the service, you accept and agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

Changes to the Terms

We may revise and update these Terms from time to time in our sole discretion. All changes are effective immediately when posted. Your continued use of Engage Lostness after changes are posted means you accept them, so please review this page periodically.

What Engage Lostness is — and isn't

Engage Lostness is a practice tool. You choose a worldview, read a briefing, and have a conversation with an AI character who holds that worldview. Afterwards you receive AI-generated coaching on how the conversation went. It exists to help you become a better listener and a more thoughtful witness before you are in a real conversation with a real person.

It is not a replacement for actual relationships with actual people, for your local church, for training and accountability, or for the work of the Holy Spirit. It is a rehearsal room, not the thing itself.

The characters are not real people

Every character in Engage Lostness is fiction generated by an AI language model. They are not real individuals, they do not speak for any religion or community, and they are not representative members of the group they portray.

The characters are built from research-based worldview material, but a model can still be wrong, dated, or unrepresentative. Real people are more varied, more surprising, and more particular than any simulation. Specifically:

Do not treat a character as an authority on what Muslims, Catholics, Hindus, or anyone else actually believe. Learn that from real people and reputable sources.
Do not assume the next real person will respond as the character did. If practice makes you expect a script, it has done you harm rather than good.
A character conceding a point is not evidence that an argument works. It is one model's output on one occasion.

Respect for the worldviews portrayed

This tool asks a machine to portray the sincerely held beliefs of real communities, many of whom face genuine hostility. That carries an obligation. You agree not to use Engage Lostness to produce, capture, or circulate content that mocks, demeans, or caricatures any religion, culture, or group, and not to present anything generated here as the words or views of a real person or community.

Signing in and account security

You must sign in with a Google account to start a practice session, so that your conversations and coaching can be saved for you to look back on. You are responsible for activity under your account and for keeping your access secure. We may withdraw or amend the service at our discretion, and we do not guarantee it will always be available or uninterrupted.

Prohibited uses

You agree to use Engage Lostness only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You agree not to:

Violate any applicable federal, state, local, or international law or regulation.
Exploit, harm, or attempt to harm minors in any way.
Attempt to make a character produce sexual content, real instructions for harm, or material that demeans a real person or group.
Use the service to generate content presented as the authentic voice of a real individual or organization.
Impersonate another person, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or organization.
Transmit spam, chain letters, or unsolicited promotional material.
Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the service, other users' data, or any connected system; probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the service; or interfere with its operation.
Use any robot, scraper, or automated means to access the service or extract its content.

AI has limits

Both the characters and the coaching are produced by AI language models. They can be inaccurate, inconsistent, or simply wrong, and the same conversation run twice will not go the same way.

The coaching feedback is a training aid, not an assessment of you. It evaluates one conversation with a simulated person. It is not a measure of your faithfulness, your calling, your competence in ministry, or your standing with God.

Ratings and progress

Alongside the written coaching, each finished conversation is rated on three things the AI can observe in the transcript — whether you asked about the person and used the answer, whether you engaged the objection the character actually raised, and whether you spoke to that particular person rather than running a script. Each is scored from 1 to 5, and those numbers are what the progress charts are drawn from.

They describe the conversation, not the person. A low number means that exchange went a certain way. It says nothing about you.
They are never added together. There is no overall score, no percentage, and no ranking against other users — deliberately. The three are shown separately because a single number would claim more than this tool can honestly support.
They are generated by an AI model and you may well disagree with one. That is a reasonable reaction, and the conversation facts shown next to each rating — how many turns, how many questions you asked — are there so you can judge for yourself.
They must not be used as a performance evaluation. Ratings and debriefs from this site are not to be used in any decision about appointment, assignment, support, discipline, or standing, by IMB or anyone else.

Your progress is normally visible only to you. The exception is a leader: an administrator can assign learners to a designated leader for coaching purposes, and that leader can then see the progress and past debriefs of the learners assigned to them. If someone is assigned to you, or you are assigned to someone, that is a coaching relationship — not a review, and not an evaluation. See the Privacy Statement for who can see what.

Engage Lostness is not professional medical, legal, financial, or mental-health advice. If you are in crisis or danger, contact your local emergency services or a trusted person right away. This is not an emergency or crisis service.

Sensitive contexts

Conversations you type here are transmitted to and processed by third-party AI providers and stored on our servers (see the Privacy Statement). Do not enter the names, locations, or identifying details of workers, contacts, or communities in sensitive or restricted-access settings. Practice with the character you are given; keep real identities out of it.

Intellectual property

The service and its original content, features, and functionality are owned by IMB and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws. Scripture quotations displayed in the coaching are provided by their respective publishers and carry their own attribution and terms. You may use the material here for personal, non-commercial ministry training.

Disclaimer of warranties

The service is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, or that any content will be accurate or reliable.

Limitation on liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, IMB, its affiliates, and their respective officers, employees, and agents will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising out of or relating to your use of, or inability to use, the service.

Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-law provisions. Any legal action arising from these Terms will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Virginia.

Waiver and severability

No waiver by IMB of any term or condition is a further or continuing waiver of that term or of any other term. If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining provisions will continue in full force.

Entire agreement

These Terms and our Privacy Statement are the sole and entire agreement between you and IMB regarding Engage Lostness, and supersede all prior understandings and agreements regarding it.

Your comments and concerns

Questions about these Terms, or about anything a character said, should go to the Innovation Team, International Mission Board, via imb.org/contact-us. If a character produced something you believe crosses a line, please tell us — that is a bug in the prompts and we want to fix it.