BLOG 2026
MARCH 2026 | BLOG
Q&A with M.King: Behind The Gallery - 'Easter Around the World'
In this special Q&A, we sit down with M.King to discuss the 'Easter Around the World' gallery on CrossFirstNews.com. This project was a massive undertaking, covering ten distinct cultures and exploring the unique ways they celebrate the resurrection of our Savior.
Q: What made you want to move beyond common Western symbols and highlight these specific global rituals for an "Easter Around the World" gallery?
M.King: You know, when it came down to what we were going to do for April, I really started thinking. I felt like the story of what Jesus went through—the Passion Play and the journey to the Cross—has been done so many times. I wanted something I could look at with fresh eyes, and something our audience could see through a new perspective.
It made me wonder: How do other countries celebrate Easter? My curiosity was just piqued. I wanted to go beyond the traditional Passion Play and see how other cultures celebrate. We know there are so many ways people celebrate Christmas, so I wanted to see that same variety for Easter. At the end of the day, that’s how we stumbled upon this project.
Q: From the "Exploding Cart" in Italy to the "Sawdust Carpets" of Guatemala, was there one tradition in particular that "shocked and surprised" you personally during the research phase?
M.King: There was a lot that took me by surprise! One was the kites on Good Friday in Bermuda; I didn’t know a schoolteacher originally came up with that tradition.
Another one I loved, which I thought was really beautiful, was in Guatemala. They make these colorful sawdust carpets in the streets. It’s funny because over here we enjoy sand art, but they take different colors of sawdust, flowers, and fruits to make these massive, beautiful designs. That was a real surprise for me because it’s like their version of street art, but it’s how they celebrate Holy Week.
Q: How does a digital gallery format help a modern audience bridge the gap between ancient traditions and living hope?
M.King: I think it reminds us that we don't have a "claim" on Easter. We didn't start it. Sometimes, here in the United States, we tend to feel like we’re the center of every modern celebration—like the red-suited Santa Claus, which came from a Coca-Cola ad.
But with Easter, we have to understand it was being celebrated long before America was even founded. Instead of thinking Jesus died for "them" and we need to go tell "them" about it, maybe we need to understand that Jesus died for all of us. These other cultures have something to teach us, too.
Q: As people scroll through these ten slides, what is the one thing you hope stays with them when they finally reach the end of the journey?
M.King: As people scroll through, I want them to realize there is always something new to learn. We don’t know it all. God has so much He wants to share with us, and learning can actually be fun! You never stop learning. I believe the more we learn as believers, the better we can share our faith with other cultures—and the better they can share their faith back with us. It’s a family thing. We’re one big family celebrating the resurrection of our Savior all over the world.
FEBRUARY 2026 | BLOG
Q&A with M.King: The AI Coordinator Initiative
In this exclusive Q&A with M.King, M.King opens up about The AI Coordinator Initiative, the "why" behind these eight new positions, and the specific roles they play in preparing M.King Media INC for its future.
M.King Media has always been about storytelling. What inspired the decision to formally launch the AI Coordinator Initiative now?
M.King: You know, God has always been encouraging me and moving me forward. The era of me wearing so many different hats is shifting. My desire to learn hasn’t reached its end, but the season of me trying to handle marketing, social media, operations, and administration all by myself has.
I don't think we can continue doing God’s will the way He wants—and the way He’s planned—with me trying to do it all alone. Logically, people often try to do everything themselves, but I’ve been praying for more time. The Lord spoke to my spirit about using AI. We’ve been implementing it slowly into M.King Media INC., but then God told me to create these 8 AI Coordinator positions literally. It’s exciting to use technology to help expand our scope and mission.
Adding 8 new AI Coordinator positions is a significant investment! Can you tell us about the specific roles these coordinators will play in the organization's daily operations?"
M.King: So, as far as it goes for these eight new AI Coordinator positions, these are the roles they’re pretty much going to play in the daily operations of our organization to help us do God's will:
-
Strategic Coordinator: This is a higher-level position to help us create strategies that are simple to understand. They look at a project and apply tasks to the various coordinator roles below to meet our corporate goals.
-
Marketing Coordinator: They come up with the practices for us to implement—assisting in brand strategies, keeping us consistent, and identifying new, creative ways to increase our brand awareness.
-
Scheduling Coordinator: This role creates our weekly schedules to ensure our time and efforts are being invested and used in the best way possible.
-
Grants & Fundraising Coordinator: Their job is to seek out financial opportunities (non-lending) to help us further the mission of M.King Media INC.
-
Social Media Coordinator: They coordinate the precise types of posts, hashtags, and ideas to get the most spiritual ROI and impact, while developing and curating engaging content.
-
Board of Directors Coordinator: This role comes up with the best practices on how we handle and maintain our relationship with the Board of Directors.
-
Financial Data Coordinator: They observe and analyze our financial data to identify trends and ensure we are using the best practices.
-
Project Research Coordinator: This role provides deep research for our productions, whether it’s historical or news-centric—responsible for fact-checking, finding stories, and locating archival footage and photos.
By bringing these roles in, it's really about making sure we aren't just busy, but that we're being effective with what we've been given.
When looking for our 8 new coordinators, what were the 'must-have' qualities you were searching for? Was it more about technical skill or creative intuition?
M.King: To be honest, I wanted a balance of both. Initially, our first coordinator started with small technical projects—things like correcting grammar and helping us draft press releases. But as I looked at these eight new positions, I realized I wanted both technical skill and creative intuition.
One of the main reasons we started using AI for press releases was that I wanted to step away from my own voice for a moment. That isn't a negative thing, but you don't always want everything to sound like the same person; audiences can get overwhelmed by that. Using AI to generate ideas, results, and information provided a fresh perspective. That was the real selling point for this project—finding that perfect balance between the two.
Some in the creative industry are wary of AI. How do these new roles enhance, rather than replace, the human creativity that M.King Media INC. is known for?
M.King: You know, it’s funny—I think I touched on this earlier, but I truly believe AI doesn't replace creativity; it enhances it.
I was recently working on the St. Patrick’s Day featured gallery for crossfirstnews.com, and I ended up talking to the AI Coordinator. I asked if there was anything else I could do to wrap up the gallery, and it shared two facts with me that I hadn't even considered. One was about the Potato Famine—how millions died, and millions more ended up coming to the U.S. and Canada, bringing their passions and ideals for St. Patrick with them.
The other one was a real surprise: Did you know the first recorded St. Patrick’s Day parade took place in St. Augustine, Florida? That’s the nation’s oldest city, and it's just a stone’s throw away from my hometown of Jacksonville!
I think AI definitely adds elements to our projects that help us shock and surprise people. And hey, it may even shock and surprise people right to Christ.
Where do you see the AI Coordinator Initiative leading M.King Media INC. in the next 2 to 5 years?
M.King: Looking down the road from now, I see M.King Media INC. reaching a much larger audience—reaching more souls and pointing more people to Christ. I see us 'digging deeper into the soil,' if that makes sense. I don’t necessarily want to expand the organization beyond its bounds; I want us to go deeper.
I see us having the funding to take our ministry further out there and create even more compelling, deep-dive media. One of my big goals is to see Cross First News become a weekly broadcast.
The sky is truly the limit now that the walls that were hindering me are broken down. You know, AI can be a scary thing, and it definitely makes mistakes. But at the end of the day, with the right focus, the right mindset, and a willingness to learn before you tell AI what to do, I believe it’s going to be a good thing—not only for right now, but for our entire future.
JANUARY 2026 | BLOG
Q&A with M.King: The Vision Behind CrossFirstNews.com 3.0
In this month’s Q&A, we spoke with M. King about the recent upgrade of CrossFirstNews.com. We discussed his vision behind the changes and how this new version will significantly benefit the website’s viewers.
Big changes recently took place at CrossFirstNews.com. Can you tell us about them?
M.King: Yes. Just recently, we made major changes to our website. Essentially, the original site was just one news feed with a sidebar. That sidebar contained all your information—latest news from M. King Media, press releases, access to our YouTube channel, and promotions for our monthly media distribution.
I felt God leading me to move the website forward and change things around. When you looked at the site on mobile, things weren't coming together the way they should; the flow wasn't as effective as it could be. I felt the Lord leading me to study local news websites and base our layout more on that, as opposed to the news aggregator style of sites like Yahoo News or Google News.
What did it take to move CrossFirstNews into "Version 3"?
M.King: A lot had to take place behind the scenes, including a great deal of research. When you're working with only one news feed, it’s very simple and easy to maintain. We went from one feed to about eight. We now have U.S. News, World News, Opinions, History, Israel News, Entertainment, and Politics. I’m pretty sure I’m missing one, but that’s the gist of it!
We had to create different feeds for different subject matter, which was a huge challenge. We also had to realign the website to be more user-friendly. We researched local news sites to understand their flow and how to make our site easier to navigate as a professional news source.
A lot of work clearly went into this revamp. What motivated you to make this change, and do you think it will help the website have a greater impact?
M.King: I truly feel this change is going to help the website have a greater impact. The information is now easier to understand. I believe there is a market for a website that brings different Christian resources together under one roof.
There is a place for a site like this—one that not only conducts investigative research but is also a place you can visit daily to know what’s going on in the Christian faith. That is my motivation: to keep building what God has put in my heart. I absolutely believe this will continue to have a greater impact.
Now that Version 3 is live, what is next? What does M. King Media see on the horizon for CrossFirstNews.com?
M.King: Currently, we want to advertise and get the website out there more. We’re looking into Facebook ads and increased social media promotion to draw people in. We want them to see us as their "Cross First" news source.
Our goal is to push the website out, get more feedback, and get more people interested. The website, unfortunately, is a "loss leader," but as long as we can lead the lost to Christ and help people understand what’s going on in their faith—making smarter, wiser disciples—then at the end of the day, everything’s going to be alright.