Subscribed to RightNow Media?
Unlock RightNow Pastors+ for your RightNow Media account today.
New to RightNow Media?
Learn more about RightNow Media and RightNow Pastors+.
Let’s Talk
In a time when spiritual curiosity is on the rise, people are seeking meaningful answers and authentic conversations.
This course provides practical insights on how to meet people where they are on their spiritual journeys, helping you lead with authenticity and empathy. With sessions grounded in Barna’s latest research, you’ll learn how to foster a culture of curiosity within your church, engage in thoughtful conversations, and guide those who are exploring faith through meaningful discussions.
This course provides practical insights on how to meet people where they are on their spiritual journeys, helping you lead with authenticity and empathy. With sessions grounded in Barna’s latest research, you’ll learn how to foster a culture of curiosity within your church, engage in thoughtful conversations, and guide those who are exploring faith through meaningful discussions.
Why this course?
By fostering authentic conversations, adopting new methods of engagement, and creating a culture of openness, church leaders can meet people where they are—guiding them through their spiritual journeys with empathy and insight.
Embrace Curiosity in Ministry
This course emphasizes the importance of curiosity as a tool for building trust and creating meaningful dialogues that resonate with people seeking spiritual clarity.
Shift from Answering to Exploring
The course challenges you to move beyond traditional evangelism methods and instead adopt the role of a guide—encouraging open exploration of faith through thoughtful questions, self-paced learning opportunities, and multi-sensory experiences.
Cultivate a Culture of Openness
You will be equipped to build a church environment where questions, doubt, and deconstruction are embraced as natural parts of faith formation. This approach allows for deeper trust and lasting faith reconstruction among congregants.
At the end of this course, you will...
Be equipped with new ways to lead your people in engaging the spiritually curious.
Have new tools to help you have open and authentic conversations non-Christians.
Determine next steps as you work to shift your current church culture into a more welcoming place for people to work through their questions and doubts.
Included in this course:
Three 10–12-minute teaching videos
from Mark Matlock.
Discussion questions
to lead conversations with your team or reflect on your own.
Helpful principles and challenging practices
to apply to your life and ministry.
This brief welcome from Mark Matlock helps you get your bearings and know what to expect in each of the sessions of this course.
This session highlights the growing spiritual curiosity in today’s culture, emphasizing the importance of listening empathetically, asking thoughtful questions, and creating space for meaningful dialogue to connect with the spiritually curious.
Drawing a parallel to museum guides, this session explores how Christians can journey alongside the spiritually curious, offering opportunities for exploration and discovery rather than one-way instruction.
This session challenges leaders to cultivate a church culture that values curiosity and welcomes questions. By embracing tension and uncertainty in spiritual conversations, pastors can foster trust and guide people toward a deeper, more resilient faith.
Mark Matlock
Mark Matlock is a senior fellow at Barna and a facilitator of innovation and impact. As the founder of WisdomWorks, he has been a consultant for many national and international faith-based organizations, helping them adapt to changing times by turning data and research into strategy and action. Having guided many projects with Barna, Mark’s research provides insights into understanding younger generations, cultivating resilient disciples, and knowing the pulse of your city. Mark most recently wrote Faith for the Curious and coauthored Faith for Exiles with David Kinnaman. He is currently the executive director of Urbana for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.
Ready to get started?
Subscribed to RightNow Media?
New to RightNow Media?
FAQ
This course is included in your RightNow Pastors+ subscription. Not a subscriber? Click here for more information.
You can use this course on your own or with other leaders at your church. The written curriculum is geared toward group discussion, but it can also be used individually.
This dynamic three-session course equips you with the insights and tools needed to help your church engage with spiritually open individuals well.
Plan for an hour to an hour and a half to go through each session, especially if you’re going through the content in a group. The videos in this course range from 10 to 12 minutes, and the discussion questions and activities will likely take up the rest of your meeting time.
This course is 3 sessions long, though we encourage you to treat the Introduction video as a session as well, especially if you’re walking through this course with a group. Feel free to cover the sessions in increments that make the most sense for you and your leadership team. For some, it might work best to go through one session a week, for others it might be better to cover one session a month. We do not recommend doubling up on sessions.
This course is based on Mark Matlock’s book Faith for the Curious and Barna Group’s recent report Engaging the Spiritually Open. We recommend reading the book as you go through the course, but it is not required.
Yes. This course is only available with a RightNow Pastors+ subscription as part of a RightNow Media account. Click here for more information.
In its 40-year history, Barna Group has conducted more than two million interviews over the course of thousands of studies and has become a go-to source for insights about faith and culture, leadership and vocation, and generations. Barna Group has worked with thousands of businesses, nonprofit organizations and churches across the U.S. and around the world.
Barna is an independent, privately held, nonpartisan organization based in Dallas, Texas, with offices in Nashville, Tennessee; Ventura, California; and Atlanta, Georgia.
.svg){kind=icon}
