Mark Roberts was on a Spirit Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Chicago last year when a woman stood up across the aisle before takeoff and greeted her fellow passengers.
She started talking about Jesus with a bright smile, he recalled.
“Super cheery and super excited about everything and ready to have fun,” said Roberts, 25, a content creator and frequent traveler who described the scene on TikTok. “But she was talking about, like, the scariest stories in the Bible.”
To small crowds on airplanes — and often to much larger audiences via social media — self-described evangelists are seizing the opportunity to share their faith with other passengers, whether fellow travelers asked for the word or not.
“They have no choice but to hear the truth,” said Whitney Lynn, an evangelist, producer and singer-songwriter from Orlando who said she preaches on most flights she takes, filming the proclamations for social media. “When I have a gift and I have a life raft, if you’re drowning, I want to give you that life raft so you can be saved.”
A video she posted earlier this month showed a postflight preaching session given as passengers waited to disembark in San Diego. Almost no one looked around as Lynn, 40, spoke for a little over a minute about the weather, Jesus, sin, hell, redemption and heaven. Beneath the clip, she wrote: “I just love a captive audience.”
There have been viral guitar-led worship services in the air, hours-long prayer and song sessions, and quick messages during a flight delay. Where some people see admirable boldness, many recoil at the thought of an unwanted sermon.
“That would be my nightmare,” someone wrote in response to an “open air airplane preaching” video posted on TikTok in June. “Can’t even walk away.”
“The way I would open that emergency exit,” another person wrote. Someone else weighed in: “This is why I drive.”
Airline policies differ slightly depending on the carrier, but they generally require passengers to obey the instructions of flight crews and avoid offensive, annoying or disruptive behavior. Airlines do not specifically address preaching on flights.
Brett Raio, 24, a Maine-based music artist and producer, said he has been nervous before urging people to seek Jesus on planes. But he feels compelled to follow the biblical teaching to go into the world and preach the gospel to all creatures. He said he only speaks up on a plane when he feels led by God to do so, and takes seriously the thought that anyone could be spending their last day on Earth.
“You might not listen to God then that person goes and perishes,” he said of his motivation. “God had you there for that specific opportunity and you missed your shot.”
Often, plane preachers say, their messages are met with affirmations and amens — even from some flight attendants. But there are also in-person protests, not to mention pushback online.
“I’ve gotten cursed at, I’ve gotten heckled, ‘shut up,’ ‘sit down,’” said Lynn, who is also an influencer. “I’ve gotten eye rolls.”
She said Las Vegas tourists have been an especially tough crowd since she calls out “Sin City” specifically. She also documented an instance where police responded to a call about her preaching in an airport.
Writer and retired pastor Rodney Kennedy, who calls himself a “progressive preacher,” is not a fan of plane evangelism. He wrote a criticism of the practice after a widely viewed video in 2022 showed people singing praise songs during a flight.
“I don’t have any problems with people articulating their faith,” he said. “But I think it requires a relationship and level of trust and a level of permission.”
Kennedy said there’s a history of American evangelicals declaring their faith in public places; he was required to preach on Bourbon Street in New Orleans during his own seminary experience. Christians might feel they are failing to be true disciples if they don’t share their faith publicly.
But Kennedy said he thinks the message doesn’t reach the target when it’s forced on an audience.
“I think that ultimately it’s a turnoff and it kind of reinforces the ideas that they already had about Christians,” he said.
On the Spirit flight Roberts took last year, he said a flight attendant told the preacher across the aisle from him to sit down, and she complied quietly. But after the plane took off, Roberts said she got up with her Bible and started blessing people, including him. He thought he felt liquid and saw her moving her hands.
“I could have sworn it was holy water,” Roberts said. “That’s what it gave.”
She didn’t get far before a flight attendant walked her back to her seat, Roberts said. He said the passenger seemed like she was on a mission.
“She’s probably like an honest person meaning no harm, but maybe she just didn’t see how she was being a little bit too pushy,” he said. “We’re a trapped audience and I feel like if you want to get a message across, maybe try to do it more so people have agency in a way.”
