Is Risk-Taking Biblical? | Merging Faith and AI
In this profound episode of the Anchoring Hope podcast, host David Mansilla sits down with Matthew Chang, founding partner and principal engineer of Chang Robotics. What follows is an unfiltered, deeply emotional, and spiritually challenging conversation that pulls back the curtain on high-stakes corporate leadership. Far from a typical business success story, Matthew’s testimony details how he integrated a rigorous biblical worldview into the cutthroat landscape of automation, artificial intelligence, and robotic systems. From being abruptly fired on a Monday morning to launching a multi-entity enterprise that tithes its pre-tax profits, Matthew demonstrates what happens when an entrepreneur stops viewing faith as a personal safety net and starts using it as a corporate launchpad.
Matthew Chang, PE, is an engineer, entrepreneur, and author of the Amazon bestseller Risk-Taking Is Biblical: What the Bible Tells Us About Pursuing Kingdom Building. He is the founder of Chang Robotics, a Christ-centered automation engineering firm based in Jacksonville, Florida, that serves Fortune 500 companies, healthcare systems, and government agencies. Matthew built Chang Robotics on biblical principles, and his conviction was tested when he turned down a life-changing acquisition offer to preserve the mission and independence of his team, resetting his client list and revenue to zero. That decision became the moral foundation for everything that followed. Drawing from the Parable of the Talents, Matthew believes comfort is not a Kingdom value, and that the riskiest thing you can do with your life is to bury what God has given you. He lives in Jacksonville Beach with his wife, Jamie, and their four children, and serves on the boards of Jacksonville University and Lifework Leadership.
The Altar of Debris — Rebuilding from Zero
The corporate boardroom can be a cold, unforgiving place. For Matthew Chang, that reality hit on a sudden Monday morning when an HR representative walked into the office carrying a stack of textbook firing folders. Within minutes, the thriving engineering department he had poured his soul into building was eliminated due to a shift in strategic planning. He went home confused, stripped of his corporate laptop, and facing an uncertain future.
Yet, where the world sees a dead end, God sees an altar. Spurred by his wife’s reminder of his lifelong entrepreneurial calling, Matthew stood before a youth group class just forty-eight hours later. The lesson that night was on covenants—promises made to God, not fragile contracts written by men. On a small card alongside sixth and seventh-grade boys writing down promises to do their homework, Matthew pinned his future to heaven: "Dear God, I will start a Christian engineering company.".
Within a week, the phone rang. Operating out of his pajamas using his wife’s laptop, Matthew was summoned to a factory in Iowa. He arrived completely unprepared for the specific assignment but deeply anchored in his calling. God honored that bold step, culminating in a miraculous $5,000 first check. Driven by an overwhelming sense of holy stewardship, Matthew drove straight to a church building and stuffed five $100 bills into the tithe box. Years later, he would discover the original purchase order had actually been approved for $50,000—meaning he left $45,000 on the table. But looking back, he smiles. That $45,000 gap wasn't a loss; it was the cost of tuition in learning what it means to give God the firstfruits of a kingdom-shaping enterprise.
The Logic of the Frontier — When Concrete Moves
Matthew graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in civil engineering, operating on three simple rules: water flows downhill, concrete is hard when it's gray, and if you design something, it should stay still. He deliberately tried to avoid software, electronics, and complexity. But our sovereign God loves to break our molds. Over a fifteen-year journey across global frontiers—founding offices in China, Malaysia, and Singapore—Matthew constantly found himself surrounded by the rapid proliferation of automated technology.
Today, Chang Robotics is at the cutting edge of industrial automation, designing advanced robotic systems for factories, e-commerce fulfillment hubs, hospitals, and civil infrastructure. There is a profound spiritual irony here: the civil engineer who wanted everything to stay perfectly still was chosen by God to automate things that move at lightning speed. Matthew frequently advises young entrepreneurs to surrender their rigid five-year plans. In business, your customers—and ultimately, your Creator—will dictate what you do. True operational excellence is not about stubborn rigidity; it is about building a business like a palm tree that bends gracefully in the high winds of economic change while remaining deeply rooted in the rock of Christ.
The King’s Ledger — Pre-Tax and Radical Giving
In a competitive corporate culture that worships the bottom line, Chang Robotics operates under a counter-cultural financial mandate: We tithe on a pre-tax basis directly from our profits.. The organization does not wait until the end of the year to calculate what is left over after taxes, dividends, research, or personal investments are paid out. The moment a quarter closes and profit is realized, a check is sent to Christ-centered ministries before human hands can claim a single dollar.
This is more than a tax strategy—it is a regular corporate check on greed. As temporary stewards of God's resources, Matthew and his team recognize that every atom, code block, and monetary asset belonged to the Lord before they arrived and will remain long after they are gone. This radical compliance has triggered supernatural seasons of blessing. In quarters of overwhelming windfalls, the company finds itself actively searching for ministries to support, stepping in with $10,000 or $25,000 donations precisely when a missionary or orphanage faces an impossible, make-or-break crisis. To the recipient, it feels like a direct call from heaven. To Chang Robotics, it is the ultimate act of operational worship.
Tithing Time — The Metric of Holy Culture
A corporate mission statement means nothing if it is hidden in an HR manual. At Chang Robotics, the biblical worldview is displayed directly on the home page of their website for clients, partners, and competitors to see. However, Matthew understands that affluent corporate leaders often find it much easier to write a check than to give away their most precious, limited commodity: time.
To combat this, the firm tracks and protects a baseline expectation that 10% of all corporate hours worked must be returned to local communities in service. This practice has evolved into a beautiful cultural phenomenon, with the team currently averaging an astonishing 15% of their total company time dedicated to volunteer service. Matthew leads this charge by personal example. When the annual internal audit revealed three individuals with zero service hours logged, Matthew didn't ignore it; he called them directly. He didn't reprimand them with legalism; he appealed to their shared corporate calling. All three committed to never letting their neighbors down again, ensuring that every person on the payroll understands that work at Chang Robotics is an avenue for eternal significance, not just a paycheck.
Risk-Taking Is Biblical — Stepping Out of the Boat
The crowning metric of Matthew’s servant-leadership model is an audacious target he sets every single year: zero voluntary resignations. In an industry plagued by constant talent poaching and high turnover, Chang Robotics went six consecutive years without a single employee quitting. Why? Because the team knows their leader will do absolutely anything to defend, mentor, and shepherd them. They are not merely components in an industrial machine; they are members of a flock.
This fierce loyalty was forged through fire. When Matthew chose to walk away from a life-changing private equity acquisition to protect the company's Christian identity and independence, he reset his pipeline to zero. He faced immense risk, but all 17 full-time employees voluntarily chose to follow him into the unknown, telling him, "We don’t know where you’re going, Matt, but we’re going with you.".
This historic leap of faith inspired his bestselling book, Risk-Taking Is Biblical. Mirroring the Parable of the Talents, Matthew challenges the global body of Christ to realize that the most dangerous thing a believer can do is play it safe, bury their gifts, and cling to comfort. True faith is not a safety net; it is a launchpad. When we surrender our reputations, our corporate spreadsheets, and our fears to Jesus Christ, we give the Lord room to move in supernatural ways, transforming marketplace industries into outposts for the Kingdom of God.
Author: Jovilyn Abella
“None of this on earth is ours. Whatever we are put in charge of, we are the temporary stewards. Every atom and bit that we’re in charge of, whether it’s software or robotics or anything else, was here before we got here. It’ll be here when we’re gone. But while we’re here on Earth and we’re put in charge, we are the stewards of God’s resources.”
