Have you ever had this happen?

You heard someone suggest that you should talk to your friends about Jesus more.

Within the next few days, a friend opened up about something.

You feel compelled to go for it. To ask a question to shift the conversation to something spiritual.

But then you think of a reason why not to…

And you don’t.

Sure we should be aware of the inappropriate times to switch to a spiritual conversation. But they are likely far fewer times than we would admit.

What you need in this situation is a game plan.

The biggest difference between a person not talking to someone or taking a step of faith and shifting to a spiritual conversation is simply having a game plan.

Here is one that has worked for years in Cru.

It’s called the Sometime tactic.

When someone starts opening up about their story and you feel like you want to shift to a spiritual convo…

You don’t need a Bible verse.

You don’t need an argument.

You don’t need to invite them to a Cru event.

Simply say, “Sometime, I would like to hear more about that.”

From there, it’s very natural and expected to send them a follow-up message to meet up and talk more.

In the next conversation, ask to hear more about their story. Listen. Don’t push your agenda. Don’t argue with their perspective. Simply listen…

Then say, “Sometime, I would love to share some things that have helped me in a situation like this.” They may ask to hear more then. Or you can set up another time. Either works great because they have asked you to hear more about what has helped.

Then you get to have a spiritual conversation!

Often these conversations are awkward because we don’t value the other person. We have an agenda and don’t communicate care by being willing to go off script.

A some time conversation is a way to keep the goal of caring about people, providing help by pointing people to Jesus and take a step of faith to engage with people.

My hope is that by using this tactic, more people would feel cared for, more people would know Christ and more students would be equipped to take steps of faith.

For more ideas like this, follow @OKCRU on Instagram or TikTok.