I boarded my flight early, found my seat, and pulled out my MacBook—ready for twenty minutes of writing before takeoff (as uninterrupted as one can hope for while hearing the safety briefing for the five-hundredth time). I secretly hoped the seat beside me in the emergency row would remain empty, offering space and quiet. Moments later, an older, well-dressed British gentleman sat down, glanced at my laptop, and asked with a genial grin, ‘Hello mate, what are you writing there?’

Providentially, I was writing this very piece on Jesus for the Curious. His question—so ordinary yet invitational—became the doorway to a 90-minute conversation about life, politics, meaning, and ultimately, Jesus. He was a tenured professor in oil engineering, self-described as ‘agnostic at best’, yet quietly intrigued by the person of Christ. When we landed, he offered his email address and said, ‘Thanks for putting your phone away, lad. It’s rare to have a real conversation these days.’

Evangelism Begins with Curiosity & Conversation, Not Confrontation

Moments like these remind me how evangelism is often far less resisted than we imagine. The sense that ‘no one wants to hear about Jesus’ is frequently a projection of our own cultural anxiety rather than an accurate reading of reality. Our hesitation often says more about us than about them. At the Luis Palau Association, we often remind ourselves that sharing Jesus is the most loving thing a Christian can do—and that love, when expressed as genuine curiosity, often opens doors that argument cannot.

Recently, I hosted a webinar with Dr Sam Chan, public theologian and author of Evangelism in a Skeptical World and How to Talk About Jesus (Without Being That Guy). Chan’s winsome approach reframes evangelism as the art of conversation rather than confrontation. His insights remind us that gospel witness is not about winning debates but opening relational spaces where the Holy Spirit can work. Evangelism, he argued, is more often a journey of accompaniment than a single decisive moment. ‘We’re not trying to win arguments; we’re opening doors.’¹

Chan’s practical wisdom centred on asking better questions—questions that dignify the other person’s story and draw them one step closer to Christ. In our discussion, he emphasized that curiosity itself is a theological act: it acknowledges that every person is made in the image of God and bears the imprint of divine longing. Curiosity and conversation, therefore, become a form of love—it listens before it speaks and seeks understanding before gospel persuasion.

Understanding the Cultural Moment

This theme feels increasingly urgent in our cultural moment. We live in an age marked by rampant individualism, digital isolation, and ideological polarisation.² Public curiosity for Christians seems to have thinned; conversations about ultimate meaning are often replaced by soundbites and suspicion.

To engage such a world, we must learn again how to listen missiologically: to read culture with empathy, to discern spiritual questions beneath cultural noise, and to embody the gospel.

How, then, do we awaken curiosity without causing conflict? By mirroring Jesus himself—who never forced belief but invited discovery (and challenged boldly and with parables). Whether with Nicodemus at night, the Samaritan woman at the well, or the travellers on the Emmaus road, Jesus engaged the curious with grace and truth, inviting them into a deeper encounter with the Father. Evangelism in our time must recover this posture: curiosity that leads to conversation, and conversation that expresses care, and care that embodies the love of God and leads people toward God and the gospel.

As the Apostle John records, Jesus came that we ‘might have life, and have it abundantly’ (John 10:10). This abundant life flows from the Triune God—the Creator who pursues, the Son who redeems, and the Spirit who indwells and empowers.

In what follows, I will draw on reflections from that webinar with Dr Chan, alongside insights gathered from participants who participated in a poll on the call. Together, they reveal how believers can share the gospel faithfully, relationally, and conversationally—with a boldness rooted not in personality but in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. To frame this exploration, I borrow a structure often used by my friend Ed Stetzer: we will consider the moment we find ourselves in (Part 1), the mission we are commissioned to be on (Part 2), and the momentum we seek (Part 3).

The Moment We’re In

People Are Open

Many describe the cultural moment we inhabit as post-truth, post-modern, and in some places even post-Christian. I would argue that we live in a post-everything era—one more defined by what we are against than what we are for; a world of reactionary theologies and competing ideologies vying for public attention. Yet in the midst of this post-everything reality, Sam Chan reminds us that we are not living in a post-thirst world. The human longing for transcendence and meaning has not disappeared—it has merely been redirected. Secular speed, digital distraction, and institutional distrust make proclamation harder—but not impossible.

There is hope! The Great Commission has not been paused; it has simply been placed within our neighbourhoods, digital feeds, families, and friendships.

Contrary to what many Christians assume, people today remain spiritually curious and surprisingly open to talking about Jesus. Recent studies confirm this. Barna’s Spiritually Open research (2023) found that 74 percent of U.S. adults say they want to grow spiritually, and 82 percent believe in, or are open to, the possibility of a spiritual dimension beyond the physical world.³

Similarly, among U.S. teens, 77 percent say they are at least somewhat motivated to keep learning about Jesus, with over half ‘very motivated’.⁴ Lifeway Research (2022) further discovered that 51 percent of Americans are curious why some people are so devoted to their faith, and two-thirds (66 percent) are open to discussing Christian faith with a friend.⁵

The problem, as Lifeway notes, is not cultural resistance but Christian reluctance—few believers initiate spiritual conversations even though their peers are open to them.⁶

People Are Curious

People Are Curious

In today’s digital landscape, we scroll, swipe, and click because we are curious—we don’t want to miss out on knowing, seeing, engaging, understanding, or celebrating. In the attention economy, curiosity has become the currency that drives engagement. Algorithms are designed to capture and monetise our desire to know—what’s next, who’s trending, what’s hidden, what’s true. People are intuitively curious. In fact, curiosity is deeply theological. To be human, made in the imago Dei, is to bear the divine impulse to seek—to know more of God, truth, others, ourselves, and our purpose. Curiosity, rightly directed, is a holy longing that can drive spiritual growth; misdirected, it becomes gossip, speculation, and pride.

As Ed Stetzer observes, we live in an Age of Outrage,⁷ where misplaced curiosity often fuels cynicism and cultural hostility. Public anger fills our screens and scrolls, drowning out nuance and empathy. Into this cacophony, Christians are called to cut through the noise with a curiosity that leads to gospel clarity, heartfelt compassion, and truth.

One recent attempt to harness public curiosity for gospel purposes is the He Gets Us campaign in North America, which seeks to reintroduce Jesus into public consciousness through cultural conversation.⁸ Without endorsing its every expression, we can acknowledge that it has tapped into a deep spiritual hunger—a longing for Jesus-shaped meaning in an age that has largely forgotten him.

Meet the Curiosity with Readiness, Humility, and Courage

Despite the opportunities of this era, many believers have internalised the false belief that in a world obsessed with privacy and individualism, gospel curiosity has no place. Evangelism, they fear, is perceived as intrusive or intolerant. Yet the opposite is true: to share the gospel with a world adrift is the most loving and truthful act imaginable. A world that loses curiosity loses wonder—and without wonder, there is no hope for the future or joy in the present. Such is the secular project: empty, anxious, and disenchanted. Thankfully, a growing wave of Gen Z and Millennial seekers are rediscovering their thirst for transcendence, truth, and belonging. Studies show that young people, despite growing up in a hyper-connected yet spiritually confused world, are searching for authenticity and meaning beyond the digital noise.⁹

A world without love, joy, and wonder is one where darkness thrives. But beneath the outrage, apathy, and digital distraction lies a God-given impulse—the longing to know, to understand, to explore, and to have our deepest desires fulfilled. Even those who appear spiritually numb remain curious about Jesus and the realm of the unseen.

The call for Christians, therefore, is not to manufacture curiosity but to meet it—with readiness, humility, and courage. As Ed Stetzer reminds us, ‘The moment we are in does not pause the mission we are on.’¹⁰ Like Jesus, we are sent ‘to seek and to save the lost’ (Luke 19:10). Our generation’s insatiable curiosity reflects a deeper hunger that only Christ can satisfy. Let us engage this cultural moment with boldness and discernment, trusting the Spirit to turn human curiosity into divine encounter.

Endnotes

1. Sam Chan, Jesus for the Curious Webinar, September 11, 2025.
2. I have written on this theme previously with Nick Parker and Lisa Pak: https://lausanne.org/report/digital-ministry/proclamation-evangelism
3. Barna Group,  Spiritually Open: What Spiritual Conversations Reveal About Today’s World, (Ventura, CA: Barna, 2023). Available at: https://www.barna.com/research/spiritually-curious [Accessed 8 Oct 2025].
4. Barna Group, Teens and Jesus: Global Perspectives on the Person and Teaching of Christ, (Ventura, CA: Barna, 2023).
5. Lifeway Research,  3 Insights That Encourage Spiritual Conversations, (Nashville, TN: Lifeway Research, 2023).
6. Lifeway Research, Most Americans Open to Spiritual Conversations; Few Christians Speak About Faith, (Nashville, TN: Lifeway Research, 2022). Available at: https://research.lifeway.com/2022/02/22/most-open-to-spiritual-conversations-few-christians-speaking [Accessed 8 Oct 2025].
7. Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst, (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2018); see also Ed Stetzer, ‘Why I wrote Christians in an Age of Outrage and why I believe it is more important than ever’, BiblicalLeadership.com Blog, 5 January 2021. Available at: https://www.biblicalleadership.com/blogs/why-i-wrote-christians-in-an-age-of-outrage-and-why-i-believe-it-is-more-important-than-ever [Accessed 10 Oct 2025].
8. The He Gets Us campaign represents a contemporary attempt to re-introduce Jesus into public discourse through cultural storytelling and empathy-driven messaging. While debated for its marketing approach, it reflects a growing missional awareness that curiosity and compassion can serve as gateways to Gospel conversation (He Gets Us Campaign 2025, About Us https://hegetsus.com/en/about-us [Accessed 10 Oct 2025]).
9. cf. Barna Group,  The Open Generation: Global Teens and Their Faith, (Ventura, CA: Barna, 2023). 
10. Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst, (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2018).