I have to somehow bring him to christ and I don’t know how.
Since he doesn’t believe in God, your whole demeanor and availability to him will be your strongest prayer.
I was a trained Youth Crisis Hotline counselor, and dealt with a number of suicidal people. People who are suicidal often have never been “heard out” by somebody without getting interfered with, interrupted, or shut off. For example, if they admit they want to die and somebody says, “that’s a bad idea,” or “that’s dumb,” or “you shouldn’t do that,” then that tells the person that in addition to their other problems, you think they are fools.
Better to just ask, “what’s going on” and listen, do not judge, do not get excited one way or the other but remain calm. When you listen, use “empathy” not “sympathy” by asking him once in a while something like, “so you were scared at that point?” or “did you feel left out?” while they are telling their story using feelings (feelings are more important than the technical details of their story) to probe whether you are hearing and “feeling” them accurately. Ask as a question to invite feedback. This shows that for once – ONCE – a Real Human Being actually is understanding how he feels.
After that, acknowledge that you can
now see why he is so anxious to escape the pain of his situation. ( I say NOW because then he knows you learned something from his story and it shows him you are on his side. ) THEN if it seems right, it is OK to tell them they are valuable and we wish they would not take this path – but again only after hearing them out and acknowledging their feelings first. From here there are several strategies you can take: you can just leave the discussion at that for a while, or you can say, “I wonder what other things we might be able to do that doesn’t involve losing you.” At this point, trust that the Holy Spirit will guide you.
Do not get the Superman syndrome, and expect that you should be able to fix them in a short period of time – when they have had a mess for years. If, God forbid, he ever succeeds, it is NOT YOUR FAULT.
Back to the Jesus part: if you listen attentively, you have done to Him what God commanded we do to His Son, and thereby have treated Him like Christ. This is the best thing I can think of that you could do to bring him to the love of Christ. Notice that you can bring him the “love of” Christ without even speaking His Name aloud, when you need to.
Alan