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The 250 Evangelism Ideas for Your Campus

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The 250 Evangelism Ideas For Your Campus is a tremendous resource, consisting of ideas that college students have used to reach out to their classmates. Many of the ideas can easily be adapted to use with high school students. To order this book, check on ebay as it is no longer in print.

The following are some of the great ideas in the book, adjusted slightly so that you could use them to reach high school students.

  • MOVIES/MEDIA-The Damah Film Festival
  • GUYS ONLY-Basketball Tournaments
  • GIRLS ONLY-Topic of Real Beauty
  • REACHING FRESHMEN-Ice cream Social or Surveys
  • SENIORS-College Prep Seminar
  • HOLIDAYS-Christmas Tea/Party or Distribute “Is There a God?” Article
  • URBAN OUTREACH IDEAS-HipHopalypse and More Ideas
  • FREE GIVEAWAYS-Give Free Things Students Enjoy
  • SERVICE GROUPS-Meaningful Service Project
  • HANDLING TRAGEDY-Sharing the Gospel when Difficult Things Happen
  • DIVERSE GROUPS-Host a World’s Religions Panel and More Ideas

Several of the ideas are pre-evangelistic, but they could easily be adapted to include a presentation of the gospel. If you’d like to discuss how to adapt one of these outreaches to fit the interests of students at your school, call and talk to a coach at the Cru Coaching Center at 1-877-gocampus (1-877-462-2678). For further details on how to plan an outreach, search for the article called “Planning and Conducting an Outreach.”

To make these ideas easy to find in the book, corresponding numbers are included.

MOVIES/MEDIA-The Damah Film Festival (#218) This organization has films with themes such as grace, God’s sovereignty, misconceptions of Jesus, favor with God, the need to worship something, and many other topics that lead to further discussion about life and God. These short films provide the starting point for you to facilitate group discussions. In addition, the “Damah Touring Festival” could come to your school. The films are not perceived as Christian so you could ask your school to sponsor the “Tour.” At the end of the school day, your ministry could host a party for further discussion, where student leaders could share the gospel and share testimonies of their own spiritual journeys.

GUYS ONLY-Basketball Tournaments (#164) At The University of Florida, students hosted an all-nighter centered around basketball tournaments and competitions. A talk was given on real manhood and David from the Bible. Someone could share a testimony around this topic and the gospel.

GIRLS ONLY-Topic of Real Beauty (#166 or #168) Host a party for girls and discuss the topic of real beauty and the problem of eating disorders. To help girls understand God’s love for them and how He views them, bring in a speaker like nationally known speaker and author, Nancy Wilson. Your school might even pay to have someone like Nancy come and speak at an assembly at your school. You could host a party after school, like a spa party for example, and have the speaker share the gospel. To bring in Nancy Wilson, author of  “In Pursuit of the Ideal,” see www.nancywilson.org.

REACHING FRESHMEN-Ice cream Social (#127) Invite freshmen to an ice-cream social (hosted by your club or by a group of Christian friends). The college students that did this outreach included a plastic spoon with the invitations they handed out. To make this event evangelistic, have three or four upperclassmen talk for three to five minutes each on how to make the most of high school. One of them should share their testimony, explaining how knowing God helps us to make wise choices now and for our future. The others could cover areas such as “how to succeed in high school relationally” (ideas on wise dating, purity) and “how to succeed in high school academically” (maybe giving a few study techniques). There is a great book available called “How To Get Better Grades And Have More Fun” that could be a door prize.

REACHING FRESHMEN-Surveys (#112) Do Freshmen Surveys with all the freshmen. Give those you survey an invitation to a party you are having just for freshmen. Tell them about Cru (or your Christian club) at the party, with a student giving their testimony. Let them know how your group can be a resource to them. Use comment cards so you know who’d like to know more about your group and/or a relationship with God. Search for comment cards and surveys on this site.

SENIORS-College Prep Seminar (#128) To help students prepare for college, you could host a college prep seminar inviting Christian college graduates to come back and teach about college life. At www.collegeprep.org, there is a great program that uses multi-media and humor to help high school students understand the realities of college. At the outreach, have one of the college students share how Christ is guiding his or her life and purpose. Share the gospel and invite students to receive Christ.

HOLIDAYS-Christmas Tea Party (#180) For girls, host a Christmas tea or party to talk about the true meaning of Christmas. People can share their favorite Christmas traditions, and someone can share the gospel, explaining that Jesus is our greatest gift. Search for articles on Christmas outreaches and pre-written messages you could give at the outreach.

HOLIDAYS-Distribute “Is There a God?” Article (#117) At Christmas or Easter, distribute the article “Is There a God?” to five or ten of your closest non-Christian friends and then ask them to meet back for coffee to tell you what they thought of the article. You could ask them four simple questions to help guide your conversation. See the article “Turning the Conversation to Christ”.

Note: There are many great holiday outreach ideas in The 250 book, covering St. Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Christmas, and Thanksgiving. (See pages 75-79.)

URBAN OUTREACH IDEAS-HipHopalypse and More Ideas

(#85) Try what the students at Morgan State in Baltimore did to reach their friends. They gave step performances and then shared the gospel.

(#86) How about hosting a talent show with an open mic time, including evangelistic poetry and rap? Students at George Mason found this to be a great outreach.

(#87) A 3-on-3 Basketball tournament was held for students at Mississippi State. Every applicant received a package with candy, soda, and the book, “More than a Carpenter” by Josh McDowell. To reach your school, you could also bring in a Christian speaker, maybe a graduate of your school who played college basketball, to give their testimony and the gospel.

(#88) HipHopalypse was an event planned by students at Syracuse University where Christian rap acts performed. One of the rappers shared his testimony and the gospel.

FREE GIVEAWAYS-Give Free Things Students Enjoy (#91) At UCLA, students advertised that they would give out a free drink, called Boba, to students who attended their weekly Christian meeting one week. Boba is a tapioca milk tea, very popular among Asians. Over 100 students attended their weekly meeting. You could adapt this and give out something you think students might enjoy, such as pizza or something more specific to a certain group. One idea is distributing the book “How to get Better Grades And Have More Fun” by Steve Douglas, to National Honor Society students. Call 1-800-729-4351 to order this book.

SERVICE GROUPS-Meaningful Service Project (#131) Students can build relationships and collect community service points all at the same time. Have students invite other clubs or groups of friends to do a meaningful service project together. Encourage students to pray for these friends, asking God for open doors to talk about Him. See “Meeting and Relating to Students” and “Turning the Conversation to Christ” for good questions to ask students about life and to help start spiritual conversations.

HANDLING TRAGEDY-Sharing the Gospel when Difficult Things Happen (#176) At Indiana University, students hosted a coffee house, and a mother came to share her experience in dealing with tragedy. They provided free desserts and Starbucks coffee. As you try this outreach, remember that the gospel can easily be shared by talking about real hope in a world where difficult things happen.

DIVERSE GROUPS-Host a World’s Religions Panel and More Ideas

(#152) Host a World’s Religion’s Panel University of Oklahoma students invited a Hindu, Muslim, and Jewish student to be on a panel with a Christian. Four specific questions were asked of all four groups to help the listeners learn about each religion. After the students shared their views, a catered dinner was provided for those in attendance. A list of questions was provided to help guide their discussion on the topic of world religions. Christian students were trained ahead of time on how to lead the conversations and help explain Christianity. The students aimed to begin building relationships with these students of other faiths in order to further share the gospel in the future.

(#135) Bob Blackford, a national speaker, gave his testimony at Central Washington University on how he contracted HIV through homosexuality. Bob shared how God set him free from the homosexual lifestyle. Why not ask your school if you can have him as a guest speaker, especially if you have a day like “Gay Day” at school (this is happening in some schools)? Or you could just have an optional after school event with Bob as your speaker. There would be cost involved, but the school sometimes will pay for an assembly speaker.

(#137) How do Christianity and science relate? Try hosting an assembly or evening program with a speaker like Fritz Schaeffer who does a program called “Christianity and Science: Friend or Foe.” Use comment cards and surveys to follow up with those who attend to discover their interest in knowing Jesus.

Remember, there are many more ideas in the book, “The 250 Evangelism Ideas For Your Campus.” As you can tell, some are easier to do than others, but all can be adapted to fit your needs. In addition, the book has a list of more great speakers and programs to bring to your school.

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What they’re saying about Cru

How often have you felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to share the gospel with someone you know but you think, “I just don’t know how to bring it up.”  One thing that helps is having some questions ready for the situations you encounter.  Being prepared can actually help you be more relaxed and able to listen to the other person rather than worrying about what you are going to say next.

In the book of I Peter, the people were afraid for their lives because they were being persecuted for their faith. In I Peter 3:14-15, Peter challenges them to “not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence…”.  So the Lord tells us in His Word to be prepared to share His message.  Of course, the best preparation is to be prayerful for opportunities.

AFTER AN OUTREACH EVENT

There are some questions you could ask students immediately after the speaker shares a message at an outreach.  Whether the speaker shares the gospel or not, you could ask these questions to gain some understanding of what the person is thinking about God and a relationship with Him.

FOUR QUESTIONS:

  • What did you think of the speaker/concert/message?
  • Did it make sense to you?
  • Have you ever heard how you could know God in a personal way?
  • Would you like to hear how you can begin a relationship with Him?

Obviously, there may be other questions you ask in between each of these questions to help bring more clarity.  Memorize these questions so you have them “in your back pocket” to use easily.   After you ask these questions, use a tool like “Connecting with God ” to share the gospel with the student (s).

DURING A CASUAL CONVERSATION

There will be many opportunities to share Jesus with students just simply from having a conversation with them.  As you talk to them, prayerfully look for some common ground or a need in their lives where you could bring up the importance of having a relationship with God.

Just by going on campus, I met Sarah at a Coke machine.  She and her friend were friendly as I chit chatted with them for a few minutes.  As I walked away, I prayed for Sarah and Bethany.  Over the next few weeks I would run into Sarah after school in the hallway or at athletic events.  I would say “Hi” and catch up with her.  After a few times of meeting her, I said “Hey, Sarah, you know I work with Cru High School.  I would really like to share with you more of what Student Venture is all about.  Would you be interested in meeting with me for coffee and maybe bringing Bethany or another friend with you and we could talk more?”  She agreed and we met. (see Follow up article for some guidelines on how to set up an appointment with a student).  As we sat in a coffee shop, I asked the girls these questions:

“If you have ever taken a psychology class or read a Seventeen magazine, you know that a person is made up of several dimensions.  We have the physical, emotional and the spiritual.  (I drew a triangle showing the three parts).  Many times we neglect the spiritual side. By that I mean a relationship with God.  Do you ever think about God?  What do you believe about Him? (I let them respond).  Can I share with you what the Bible says about a relationship with God and how we can begin a relationship with Him?” 

The girls said yes.  They still had a lot of questions as I read through the “Connecting with God” booklet with them because they had never heard the gospel before.  So I asked them to meet for four more weeks where we could go over the questions they had.

WHEN STUDENTS SHARE NEEDS OF INTERESTS IN THEIR LIVES

You can begin to share with them about the Lord by asking questions like:

  • I deal with that a lot myself. Can I tell you how I have been able to handle that situation?  I have learned to depend on God.
  • (When someone expresses insecurities) You are really valuable.  No matter what anyone thinks of you, God thinks you are so valuable.  Can I share with you what He says about you and how much He loves you from the Bible?
  • (When someone expresses hurts) Can I share with you where I have found hope (for life)?
  • Do you feel satisfied?  It may feel like these things are satisfying, but I know of something that will meet the deepest needs and longings of your heart.

From there you could transition to sharing the gospel with questions like these:

  • Would you like to know God in a real and personal way?
  • Can I share with you something that has changed my life? (Share your 3 minute testimony)
  • What do you believe about God? Can I share with you what the Bible says about God and how to know Him?
  • Do you ever think about God or spiritual things?
  • What do you think it means to be a Christian?
  • Would you mind if I shared with you what I’ve learned about knowing God personally?

HELPING A PERSON EXAMINE THEIR PERSONAL BELIEFS ABOUT GOD

We can ask them the following questions that were created by the founder of the organization “Evangelism Explosion” to help someone determine where his/her stand.

  • If you were to die tonight how certain are you that you would go to heaven?  (on a scale of 1 to 100%)?
  • If God asked you “Why should I let you into heaven? What would you say?”Or you could ask, “What makes you ___% sure?” and  “On what basis do you think you will go to heaven?”

I have used these questions many times and people are very willing to answer them.  From here I simply ask, “Can I share with you what the Bible says about how you can be 100% sure you will go to heaven?”  If they agree, then I go through the gospel with them, often using “Connecting with God.”

Finally, just ask the Lord to show you which questions to use in which environment.  Choose the questions you feel most confident using and even reword them to fit your style.  As we pray for opportunities, step out in faith taking the initiative to care about students and to share the gospel, God will open doors and we will see students know the Lord.  He promises to bear much fruit through us as we depend on Him.  (John 15).  Heaven will be so exciting as we see all those who trusted Christ as He worked through us.