How to Turn a Conversation to Christ

The good news of Jesus connects to all parts of our lives. Therefore, there is potential within any conversation to turn it to Christ. If this is true, why do we find it so hard to bring up Jesus in our everyday interactions with the people around us, even with the students to whom we are ministering? How do we begin to cultivate habits of obedience in telling people about Jesus and hearing their beliefs?

Getting in Position

So you find yourself in a conversation with someone who is not yet a believer. Good job getting that far! Starting this connection is half the battle.

Now that you are conversing with another human being, you want to direct the conversation toward Jesus and His gospel. In this Go to the Campus video, Kevin and Mark share that there is a touchpoint for the gospel in every conversation and that the gospel should be shared at the first good opportunity.

Every conversation can pivot to spiritual truth if we are creative, prayerful, and Spirit-led. Within the conversation, focus on discovering the felt needs of the person, and when you see that opportunity, do not hesitate or talk yourself out of it.

During a Casual Conversation

There will be many opportunities to share Jesus with students simply by 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.

I met Jaylen at a coffee shop. He and a few of his friends came to hear about what Cru offered at his school and I’m pretty sure he came just because he was interested in one of the girls. As I walked away, I prayed for Jaylen.

Over the next few weeks, I saw him a few more times at coffee shops and got his phone number. I said, “Hey, Jaylen, you know I work with Cru. Would you be interested in meeting with me for coffee and hearing what Cru is all about?” He agreed and we met.

As we sat in a coffee shop, I asked him about his spiritual background. He mentioned that he went to church as a child, but stopped after his parents split up. I asked if he had ever read the Bible and heard about what Jesus offers to us. He said that he had never owned a Bible, and that he had heard about Jesus but couldn’t explain what He means to us.

I shared a Cru tool called Made To Thrive with him, and we read through Isaiah 53 in the Bible that I gave him. He indicated that he wanted to follow Jesus, but he still had a lot of questions. Because we have approached the subject once, we are able to easily revisit who Jesus is in our next conversation.

Once you identify where a person is experiencing the God-sized hole in their life, you can share how Jesus has helped you in that specific area.

After an Outreach Event

There are maybe two or three times a year that you can host a guest speaker to come to your school, or take a group of students to a Christian concert. This is prime time to dig into what the students are thinking about the message.

Whether the speaker shares the gospel or not, you can ask 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 message/concert?
Are there any questions you have about the event or message?
How do you think we can know God in a personal way?
Would you like to hear how you can begin a relationship with Him?

Obviously, there are other questions you can ask in between each of these questions to help bring more clarity. Check out our helpful tool called Navigating the Four Conversational Sound Barriers for more great question ideas. Memorize these questions so you have them “in your back pocket” to use easily.

If the student is interested, use a tool like Knowing God Personally or your personal three-minute testimony to share the gospel with the student.

After a Shooting, Loss, or Trial

In our broken world, tragedies, shootings, and natural disasters happen far too often. These are times when many people are seeking answers and justice. We believe that God offers both.

Take a risk and ask the student their thoughts on the tragedy and how they think God views what happened and how people are responding. Ask if they know about God’s perfect love and justice displayed through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Gen-Z’ers want to discuss what’s going on in our world and they have thoughts about how to fix it; but they likely don’t know how much the gospel of Jesus has to say about justice and restoration.

Using Evangelism Tools

Cru has many wonderful evangelism tools to help us in this process. While some, like Knowing God Personally or The Four Spiritual Laws, are focused on sharing the gospel in a brief manner, other tools are designed to simply begin a quality conversation that moves into spiritual territory.

Here are three tools that will be helpful as you begin Jesus conversations.

Snapshot Cards: a perfect tool for artistic or creative students. It uses 52 dynamic images to help people visually explain their thoughts on God and life. BONUS: it comes in a playing card edition to make it even more conversational.
QuEST Survey: a great way to initiate with anyone, or to start deeper conversations with someone you already know. It is five simple questions that start very shallow and fun, and progresses to more serious spiritual questions at the end.
Perspective Cards: perfect for the deep thinker, this helps students put words to understand their worldview, and gives you an open opportunity to share yours.
Exploration Questions: This is a great list of questions to help you transition a conversation toward Christ. Choose a few, memorize them, and try them out in your next conversaiton.

The gospel is the one antidote to a million different ailments, and Jesus is the great physician who came “to seek and to save the lost.”

Revisiting the Conversation

Once you have talked about Jesus one time, you can always begin a new spiritual conversation by saying, “remember that talk we had about Jesus?” Down the road, it is easier to resume the conversation once the ice is broken.

High school students are dynamic; they are always adapting, changing their minds about many things daily. Just because a student has no interest in following Jesus today does not mean they will never be interested. Be lovingly persistent—their eternity may be at stake!

Jesus Is Vital to All—Some Just Don’t Know It Yet

The gospel is the one antidote to a million different ailments, and Jesus is the great physician who came “to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10) Pastor Tim Keller said that “the gospel is not the ABCs of Christianity. It is the A-to-Z.”

It’s not something that you learn at the beginning of your walk with God, and then move on from. We each need the gospel daily. If we model daily dependence on God for all of our needs, people will be drawn to the beauty and freedom of this new life in Christ.

The Gospel provides:

Healing for the Brokenhearted. “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18)
Peace for the Anxious. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)
Security for the Insecure. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2)
Purpose and Meaning for the Academic.“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)
Satisfaction for the Searching.“Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35)
Freedom for the Oppressed. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Once you identify where a person is experiencing the God-sized hole in their life, you can share how Jesus has helped you in that specific area. “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.” (John 3:17) God invites us into this saving work! Share “the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect.” (1 Peter 3:15)

The next time you find yourself in a conversation with a student, remember that God is on your side, and that the gospel is relevant to every single person on earth.

Next Step

Consider a student you have met but have yet to bring up the spiritual side of life. Choose an appropriate question or tool from this article, and use it the next time you see that student.

Conversations

This article is part of the Conversation Collection. Read the rest of these articles to get an even better understanding of how to have great conversations with students.

5 Key Features of the Claim Your Campus App

Pray Now:
This section is designed to lead any student through a daily 15-minute prayer time for their school. The format is simple: Listen, Thank, Ask. Each day students read a passage of scripture, thank God for something specific He is doing in their school, and ask Him for help at their school and schools across the country.

21-Day Challenge:
Habits take time to build. The 21-Day Challenge can help you and your students build the habit of praying together daily.

Share Your Story:
Students from all over the country are using Claim Your Campus at their schools. This video feature gives students one minute to capture what God is doing at their school and then share it.

Groups:
Use the Groups section to form your own prayer group and/or join other groups. Students praying together in community for their school(s) is the foundation of CYC. The group feature keeps students connected, motivated, and encouraged to keep pressing on!

Prayer Walk Your Campus:
This feature describes how to prayer walk a campus in three easy steps. Invite. Pray. Report. It includes a brief tutorial and a downloadable prayer walk guide.

Social Media:
Stay connected through Tik Tok, Instagram, and Youtube pages; News and Updates can also be found in the app.

Cast the Vision: Prayer Equals Change

Use these videos to get excited about how God could change your campus through prayer and how He could use you to build a prayer movement at your school.
General Promo video
Marion School video

Invite Students to Be One in the Million

Students download the app using the QR code graphic & claim their campus!

We encourage all campus movements to emphasize prayer and the Claim Your Campus app is a great way to engage students in prayer.

4 Different Ways Students Can Claim Their Campus

Start a Weekly Prayer Group. The CYC app provides prompts that change weekly.
Host a prayer walk around your campus. The CYC app features a Prayer Walk Guide.
Embed 5-10 minutes of Prayer into Your Weekly Cru Club Meeting. Build a CULTURE of prayer. CYC has done all the work for you. Click here for the Leader’s Guide and here for premade slides for up to 20 weeks. That is enough for an entire school year. CYC’s GRAB-N-GO resources make praying EASY.
Participate in Annual National Events such as SYATP.

Invite the adults in your community to support SYATP by signing up for The Prayer Walk Project. This project offers a way for caring adults to join hands in prayer on the Saturdays before and after SYATP.

Prayer is the real power in any campus movement. Make it a non-negotiable in your ministry to emphasize prayer with adults and students and see how God moves.

Next Step

Download the Claim Your Campus app and consider how you could use it on your campus today. Do you have a prayer strategy for your plans? If not, send the app to a few student leaders and invite them to start praying for their campus!

DOWNLOAD THE APP

4 Ways to Prepare for a Prayer Walk

Prepare Your Heart

Surrender the Prayer Walk to the Lord. Ask the Lord for one or two scriptures to help prepare your heart. Jot them down. If you like, use them to inspire the people you invite, or share them with your team the day you meet to prayer walk. Pray for:

Divine appointments with people.
Connections with insiders at the school who are like-minded and willing to help.
God to guide your steps.
Open eyes to see the spiritual needs of the campus.

Prepare Your Team

Pray for Names. Ask the Lord to bring to mind specific names of students, volunteers, parents, pastors, and/or faculty you can ask to join your prayer walk. Keep in mind, this is not about numbers. Even one prayer partner is enough. Matthew 18:20 says, “Where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them.”

Invite the People that He brought to mind. Decide what mode of communication is best: text? social media? phone call? Give them a brief description of what a prayer walk is and what they can expect that day. Share what has motivated you to gather a team to pray. Be sure to tell them the date, the start and end times, and the location. Give them an RSVP date.

Send them any final details on the day before. Remind your team what time you will begin and end and the location to meet. Let them know what to bring and any adjustments needed due to weather or other factors.

(During a Prayer Walk) Pray for: Divine appointments with people. Connections with insiders at the school who are like-minded and willing to help. God to guide your steps. Open eyes to see the spiritual needs of the campus.

Prepare Your Campus

Check with an Insider at Your School. Once you choose your campus and gather your team, you may want to check with an insider at the school to see if there is anyone you need to notify ahead of time. Most likely, it will not be an issue if you are prayer walking after school or over the weekend on the parts of the campus that are open to the public. Avoid prayer walking on campus during school hours without permission.

Prepare Your Details

“WHO” DETAILS: By now, you know WHO is coming. But here are some other “WHO” questions to think about if you have a larger group. Who will…

begin the prayer walk (introduce/explain it)?
end the prayer walk?
lead smaller groups (if your team is large)?

“WHAT TO BRING” DETAILS: You may want to bring copies of the Prayer Guide and the Leader Guide.

“WHERE/WHEN” DETAILS: Make sure everyone knows the date and time you will meet. Include starting point (address of meeting spot) and ending point (time and meeting spot).

“HOW” DETAILS: For your convenience, this Campus Prayer Walk Leader’s Guide provides a general flow and includes sample scripts of what to say from start to finish. If you can read it, you can lead it. But you may need to think through the unique needs of your prayer walk.

Would you like the prayer walk to be more casual or more organized? Do you have people who are comfortable prayer walking or more new people who may need more instruction?

You have prepared your part. Time to grab your walking shoes. Let’s do this!

Next Step

It is time to get on the campus to pray. Text one friend today and ask them if they would be willing to go to the school to prayer walk with you this week. Get your feet on the campus and pray together. Once you have done it yourself, it will be a lot easier to gather others to do it with you.

Prayer Walking

After the Israelites wandered for 40 years in the desert, God called Joshua to bring His people into the land He had promised them. The commander of the army of the Lord appeared to Joshua with instructions essentially for a prayer walk around the city of Jericho. And let’s just say the Israelites’ obedience to his words, made history. (If you are unfamiliar with this incredible story, you can read the whole story here.)

What is Prayer Walking?

Prayer walking is just what it sounds like—praying as you walk. And you can do it anywhere: around your neighborhood, through your city, or even on your daily commute. Invite others to join you! As you walk together, let the Spirit of God use what you see to guide your prayers. Then, trust God to respond in His perfect way and timing.

One of the most impactful places for a prayer walk is around a school campus that means something to you. It puts you right where the students are—like God’s boots on the ground—allowing you to connect your heart to that specific location as you pray. And who knows? It might even lead to a chance meeting with a key person on campus. Many ministries have started with a simple “Hey there!” to a student or administrator during a prayer walk. A casual stroll can open unexpected doors!

If you have never done this before, no worries! Joshua—the young leader from the Bible—had not done it before either. It was his willingness and availability to God that mattered most. And the same goes for you—no experience required!

Prayer walking is just what it sounds like—praying as you walk.

Prayer Walk in Three Easy Steps

Meet Up (5 minutes)

Grab a friend or two and meet on campus- ideally after school or on the weekend. Select and read a meaningful passage from the Bible together. Take a minute to pray a blessing over this time, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide your prayers.

Walk & Pray (10-20 minutes)

Start walking the perimeter of the campus and let the Holy Spirit use who/what you see guide your prayers. Here are 5 ways you could begin praying:

Ask God to move by His Spirit on this campus and be glorified.
Pray people here would hunger and thirst for God.
Pray for the believers here to live wholeheartedly for Jesus and make others feel seen, known, and loved by God.
Pray for leaders in this school’s community (students, parents, administration, faculty, coaches, etc.)

Wrap It Up (5 minutes)

Select a spot to close your time together. Talk about how it went. Was there anything that stood out as significant or meaningful? Take a few minutes to thank God for this time. Express your love for Him and your confidence that He will respond to the prayers He heard today.

Other Prayer Walking Guides

If you would rather have a more specific guide to help you in your prayer walk, try one below:

CYC Prayer Walk Guide
Locations on Campus Prayer Walking Guide
The Launchbox Prayer Walking Guide
Make a list of prayer requests to pray about your specific campus
Just invite people to pray for things that come to mind as they walk

One of the most impactful places for a prayer walk is around a school campus that means something to you.

Why Do It?

Prayer Walking Knocks Down Walls

What effect did Joshua’s and the Israelites’ obedience have on the fortified and powerful ancient city of Jericho? Well, the God of the Universe infused their faith-filled feet with power, causing the otherwise insurmountable walls of the city to collapse. That’s how they fought and won the battle of Jericho—without ever throwing a punch!

Now, maybe you are not planning to tear down any physical walls around your school—in fact, let’s definitely avoid that! But in the spiritual realm, every school is a battlefield for souls. On every campus, there are barriers to the gospel that need to be broken down. Inside every person, there are walls that separate us from God or keep us from fully experiencing the abundant life He wants for us.

Looking for a more current example of a battle fought and won with prayer? Check out this powerful story of what happened when a group of students in Marion, Indiana consistently and prayerfully put feet to their faith and watched God win the battle for their campus. If you want to read about more victories won with praying feet, check out Exodus 14 and 2 Chronicles 20:1-30.

Some Other Great Reasons to Prayer Walk Your Campus

It is a place to gather other believers who have a heart for the campus.
It is a way to be on campus with a purpose.
Sometimes God uses these times to introduce us to key gatekeepers on campus.
It might surface some needs on the campus with which you could help.
It helps your team become more familiar with the campus and less fearful of going there.
It is better than doing nothing. Sometimes God moves when we take action.

Within the campus ministry of Cru, prayer walking has actually been shown to be the single most effective strategy in seeing new gospel movements started.
– Dan Allen, Director of Mission Expansion

The powerful presence of God always has and STILL does mix with our prayers and supernaturally connects us more deeply to God, ourselves, and others. Prayer breaks down barriers that lie between us and wins the battle for souls.

Prayer walking can be your lead foot on any campus. Ready to grab a friend and step into the unknown with Him? Prayer walking is something anyone can do.

Next Step

Plan 15 minutes this week to stop at your local high school, walk around, and pray for the school. Bring a friend or do it alone; just get your feet on the campus and pray. Ask God to show you what next steps He would like you to take.