Start with Soul

Derrick Scott III

When I meet with students, my very first question is always the same: How’s your soul? Not how are classes, what’s next on your calendar, what’s your five-year plan—but how is your soul? I’ve been asking that question for twenty years, and I can’t imagine beginning anywhere else. Nothing else really matters if the soul is not tended.

So when we launched the Phygital Fellows, I knew we couldn’t start with tools or platforms. We couldn’t begin with AI, or social media metrics, or the changing world of emerging digital ministry. All those things are important and have their place, but if we began there, we’d be replicating a broken model: cultivating technologists and content creators who might know the mechanics, but lack depth and sense of calling. I needed us to begin with soul.

That conviction doesn’t come out of nowhere. Many of us carry a deep skepticism of the preacher who sounds holy in the pulpit but lives a different story outside of it. We’ve seen sermons turned into products, ministry reduced to brand-building, and “influence” measured in sales instead of integrity. And if that temptation is strong in a pulpit, how much more from behind a screen? Technology only magnifies the gap between image and reality. In this space, the danger of projecting a persona while hiding the truth of who we are is multiplied.

That’s why we had to start differently. When we gathered for the first time in Atlanta, many of the fellows were eager to dive into tech. For most, this was their first time with colleagues who share a passion for experimenting at the intersection of spirituality and digital life. The hunger to get moving was real. But I knew we needed to start from a slower place, with an emphasis on the soul. That decision disoriented some—after all, here was a fellowship with “digital” in the very name, and our opening move was to sit in the ancient question: How is your soul?

It wasn’t about stalling the work. It was about grounding the work. Starting with soul meant intention before platform, spirituality informing strategy, integrity as the north star for influence. It meant we were going to hold space for our faith journeys before we workshopped our technological innovations. It meant asking each other to bring our whole selves—not just our skillsets—to the table.

The Fellows were a bit surprised by this direction, and I was a bit surprised by the results. This approach helped create a sense of community. By opening with soul, we laid the foundation for real connection, not just collaboration. We didn’t just ask the question as individuals; we asked it as a collective. And when you start there, with honesty about how it is with your soul, you can’t help but find yourself linked to the souls around you. In Atlanta, the Phygital Fellows formed friendships that grounded our upcoming months of exploration and imagination.

That’s why I’ll always say it again: the tools, the platforms, the metrics—all of it comes later. The first question remains the same. How’s your soul? Because if we start there, we have a chance not just to produce things, but to become whole people together. And that, to me, is the real work.