Every Thursday this summer, TGC is releasing new short videos we’re calling “TGC Talks.” They feature thought leaders, authors, and pastors speaking on a wide variety of topics in a concise video format (check out all the installments here). This past week’s episode featured Jeremy Treat on “The Secular Longing,” and it’s absolutely worth 10 minutes of your time.

Treat is a pastor in Los Angeles—a place where traditional religion may be waning but where remixed spirituality is surging. As a Southern Californian myself, I can attest to the fact that although we might be on the vanguard of secularism here, the void left by religion looms large—spawning all sorts of creative searches for meaning and transcendence. As Treat skillfully articulates in the video, “the secular longing” is the existential ache no one can escape, even when we move on from religion. Noticing this secular longing—and the particular places it gets channeled—is a key part of cultural apologetics, and effective gospel ministry, in Western culture today.

Watch the video and think about what shape the secular longing takes in your own context—and how this might inform the way you share the gospel with the spiritual wanderers who cross your path.