Can You Vibe Code on a Plane?
When innovation starts in seat 5D
Last week I flew from DC to San Francisco for a gathering of missional innovation leaders. It was one of those meetings where the conversations feel like they’re leaning a few years into the future. AI. Formation. Global strategy. The kinds of things that stretch your imagination and make you rethink what’s possible.
Somewhere over Kentucky a colleague texted me and asked a simple question. Do you think we could build a video game based on the Oregon Trail that teaches people about global missions? A kind of Missional Trail. A game that takes people through the realities of lostness, cultural barriers, persecution, and calling. A game that makes the missionary task feel real.
I said I didn’t know. Then I said what I usually say. “How might we?”
Right there on the plane, I began to build a pitch deck and instructions for programming the game. I opened up Claude Code on the airplane WiFi and started building. No big plan. No storyboard. Just some vibe coding at 38,000 feet. By the time we touched down in San Francisco I had a working prototype. The game actually ran. Not polished. Not complete. But it worked.
Here’s the thing that is shocking. This would not have been possible a year ago. Probably not even six months ago. But now? You can take an idea that lives in the back of your mind and bring it into the world before the wheels hit the runway.
It reminded me of something I keep telling leaders. AI doesn’t just speed up your work. It speeds up your imagination. It collapses the distance between the idea and the first draft. Between the first draft and the first experiment. Between the experiment and something people can actually use.
The Missional Trail prototype is still in the works. The storyline and decision tree still need work. The mechanics certainly need refining. It’s running local and a third of the features are merely placeholders. But it exists. And a few hours earlier it didn’t.
There is something profound happening today. When tools like these remove the barrier between inspiration and execution, it changes who gets to build. It changes how quickly ministry ideas can become ministry tools. It changes what very small teams can do. It changes what a missionary, a pastor, a student, or a volunteer can try before they talk themselves out of it.
Somewhere over Kentucky I learned that you really can vibe code on a plane.
More importantly, I learned again that the future of innovation in ministry belongs to the people courageous enough to try things before they feel ready. People who are not afraid to ask…. “How might we?”
The Missional Trail is coming. And it started at 38,000 feet!