When you were a little kid, did you ever do the Easter egg hunt thing? I remember running around on Easter morning all crazy excited, finding jelly beans and those little chocolate eggs wrapped in foil…what a sugar rush!
An innocent enough question, right? But also a natural conversation starter that can provide an opening for talking about Easter, God, Jesus, the Resurrection and the marvelous gift of grace Christians celebrate this time of year.
So coach your students this Easter Season on how to ask a few simple questions about this special holiday that can become a springboard to a deeper conversation about the cross and the resurrection. Encourage them to find out how their friends’ families “do Easter.” Then after their friends share their Easter traditions (or lack thereof), what better opening for jumping in and moving the conversation toward Jesus?
Try This! ❯
Pick a few spiritual conversation-starting questions and have your students role play how to turn a conversation about Easter toward the gospel.
Look over the following seven questions and pick a few to spend some time role playing during youth group where one student plays the role of non-believer, while the other practices how to transition from these kinds of questions to a conversation about the gospel. For help with this, check out this video. Then after they’ve practiced some, challenge your students to advance the gospel and launch into some God talk during Easter Season with a friend who doesn’t know Jesus.
7 Questions for Turning a Conversation Toward Jesus
- What does your family usually do on Easter? Why do you do that?
- Do you ever go to church on Easter? Why or why not?
- Do you believe in God? What do you think He’s like?
- Are your beliefs about God the same as your parents’ beliefs?
- Do you think Jesus rose from the dead like the Bible says? Share what you believe. For help preparing your students for this question check out the Youth Group 2 Go lesson Jesus: Dead or Alive.
- The Friday before Easter is called “Good Friday,” have you ever wondered why it’s called that?
- Jesus’ gift of salvation is sometimes called the “good news.” Do you know why it’s called that? Explain why it’s good news that Jesus has made it possible for us to have a restored relationship with God.
The REAL Backstory Behind the Bunnies
Many teens have never heard the REAL backstory behind all the Easter bunnies, eggs, chicks and jelly beans. Any of these questions offers an opening for your students to explain that Easter’s about celebrating new life, fresh beginnings and the miracle of Jesus’ grace that makes it possible to have a relationship with the God of the universe!
Jesus’ put it this way when describing why He came to earth, died and rose again: “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of” (John 10:10, The Message). Pretty amazing!! That’s good news everyone should have the opportunity to hear about.
But Easter also reminds us that for Jesus and His followers it wasn’t always all happiness, joy and light. For three days before His resurrection, things looked painful, dark and hopeless. Jesus’ followers had all but given up in grief and despair. It was in the midst of that despair that Jesus burst forth from the grave—offering the gift of salvation because He paid the price for all sin by dying on the cross and conquering death. So if your students have friends who are struggling with a world of hurt, loneliness, pain or despair, they can share that Jesus has walked that road too. He understands and He wants to burst forth with His grace and presence in the midst of both the good and the bad that comes your way in life.
Just like new growth is exploding all around us in nature during this Easter Season, the good news of God’s love and forgiveness should be exploding in our lives and our words. Click To Tweet
Just like new growth is exploding all around us in nature during this season of the year, the good news of God’s love and forgiveness should be exploding in our lives and our words. Do what you can to help your students (and your adult leaders) reach their friends this Easter Season!
Want more practical advice on mobilizing your teens to share the gospel? All of our Mobilize stories offer great ideas for training your students and building a Gospel Advancing Ministry. Sign up here to receive this free, hands-on, resource in your inbox!
