Matt Schneider

Host of The Jesus Question

“The Jesus Question is an attempt to live out my charge to communicate this life-saving message and introduce people like you to Jesus.”

Hey, I’m Matt. I host The Jesus Question website, blog, and podcast. I grew up in a secular home in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1980s and 90s. For much of my life, I thought religion and anything related to it were irrelevant delusions for weak-minded people.

That all began to change in my late teens and early twenties when I started asking big questions about the meaning of life and my purpose. I explored all manner of spirituality, mostly landing on Eastern spiritualities and practicing yoga. But nothing I did, including yoga, ultimately helped me. Sometimes I left feeling worse and more confused!

Through it all, though, I was always surprisingly curious about Jesus, but not Christianity. When I was 19, I met the woman who would later become my wife. She was the first person who ever talked to me about Jesus and the Bible. Up to that point, plenty of Christians tried to speak with me about church and religion, but no one tried to talk to me about Jesus or encourage me to read the Bible.

I then started a seven-year journey of on-again, off-again exploration of Jesus and the Bible. It wasn't until I was 26 that I finally reached a point of no return. One day, I woke up skeptical yet curious about Jesus. I walked into a cafe that morning, and I left believing Jesus was real and that I needed to know him. I no longer saw the world the same way.

Shortly after that day, I sensed personal directions from Jesus that I was supposed to become “a missionary to Americans,” to help other people like me (secular, skeptical, spiritual but not religious, etc.) get to know Jesus. It shouldn't have taken me so long and been so hard for me to meet Jesus, and it shouldn't be so difficult for others like you. My task was and still is to solve this problem.

The Jesus Question is an attempt to live out my charge to communicate this life-saving message and introduce people like you to Jesus.

Several years ago, I heard another impression from Jesus to “go online.” It took me a few years to figure out what that was supposed to look like. I eventually discovered that many people like you are searching online, asking big questions like, “Who is Jesus?” But I couldn't find a single decent website, blog, or podcast that speaks directly to the curious seeker in a down-to-earth, relatable way without compromise.

In addition to The Jesus Question, I also help lead two similar online initiatives: Lampstands and Pastor to Pioneer. Most importantly, I've been married to my wife for 17 years, and we have six children. We live in New England, where we help our neighbors learn about and follow Jesus in simple yet radical ways.