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This conversation starter isn’t just a training tool for staff to use with students. Anyone from individuals to groups can take advantage of it. Try these ideas for using the question:

1) Personal conversations with friends or strangers.

2) In a “contact evangelism” venue where you lead with this question and it is the main focus of the conversation. This is especially useful for developing boldness and the art of initiating conversations with people whom you don’t know. If you do it in pairs, it increases the accountability, the confidence that you won’t get in over your head, and the fun.

3) Answer the question yourself. Invariably someone will turn the question back on you. My response is usually, “I’d like to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what I believe to be true about ultimate questions actually is true.”

4) Use it at a table in the student center (with the question on a large sign). Post the results of your survey so passers-by can read them and add their own.

5) Use it in a personal survey format. Have pairs of students randomly ask this question all over campus. Take the top three responses and develop a series of seeker meetings with your findings. If you tell students that you are going to sponsor an event around their questions, they might be willing to give you their name and dorm address or e-mail so you can inform them of the meetings. They might actually come!

6) Cover a wall in a dorm lounge (or even the door to your room) with plain white newsprint. Write the question in huge letters and let people respond (graffiti style) on the paper for a week or so. Take the top three questions and develop a series of events around them (movies that grapple with the question, speakers, etc.).

If you actually try any of these ideas, let others in your chapter know about your experiences and tell us a little about it. Take a risk. Build a bridge.

—Dennis Anderson