How to share Jesus more in your everyday life

A couple years ago, I challenged myself to share Jesus (or at least my business card) for 30 days in a row with people who weren’t connected to my church. I would use the results of the challenge for my presentation at Evangelism Day at Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minn.

As Evangelism Day grew closer, I knew I had to follow through on my challenge or the presentation would be pretty disappointing. So I gathered my business cards and a little bit of courage and took the giant mission trip to . . . Planet Fitness.

Day 1: Going to Planet Fitness was nothing new—I exercised there anyway. I usually just gave the standard “man nod” on the way in. This time (after saying a prayer and getting over the knot in my stomach), I asked the person on staff his name. I followed up by asking Preston how long he had worked there. He proceeded to share where he hoped to be working soon and what job opportunities were coming up. Then he asked me where I worked. There was my opening! “I’m a pastor just down the road . . .” We wound up talking about Jesus for a few minutes. Day 1 of my challenge complete!

Day 2: I said a prayer before going into the local coffee shop that God would give me an opportunity. He couldn’t have made it more obvious when all the seats were taken except one right in the middle of a community table. One person was reading his Bible, which gave us an easy conversation starter. As we talked, another person at the table jumped in. He wasn’t a Christian but was interested in what we were talking about. We exchanged business cards. I wish prayers were always answered so quickly and obviously!

Day 4: A lot of the time when I’m thinking of starting a spiritual conversation, I feel this inner unease. I don’t want to bother people. They won’t want to talk about religion. On this day, as I walked around the Lincoln Children’s Zoo with my family, I felt the opposite. I just had to say something. We were buying some lettuce to feed the giraffes, and I asked Destiny (she had a name tag) how she liked working there. She was wistful. “I love it! But this is my last day.” We talked about her new job and how hard change can be and . . . I left! There was a line behind me, and I didn’t want to make it awkward. But after wandering through the zoo some more, I couldn’t help myself—I had to go back. The Lord had served up a golden opportunity! I saw a lull in customers, held out my card to Destiny, and said, “I just had to come back. I know what it’s like to go through big changes in life. It’s always been such a comfort that my Lord is always with me. I’d love if you found a home at our church.”

Day 5: Church members invited my family to a Huskers college football tailgate. It’s easy to make friends there. Just say, “Go, Big Red!” at the appropriate times. (Is this what Paul meant when he said, “Be all things to all people”?) I struck up a conversation with Matt about where he was from. Not far from our church!

Day 7: It was nearing the end of day 7, and I had not found a good opportunity to share Jesus. It was time for an attempt in a bar. I felt strange sitting down next to a stranger just waiting for something to comment on. Finally, I managed, “Are you a regular here?” Yes, Jeremy was, twice a week after work at the university. He talked about his childhood and hometown, and I talked about mine.

When I finally had a chance to hold out my card, he didn’t take it. I kept holding it out—nothing! Is this the great persecution I was told to expect? I thought. I finally noticed the cane next to Jeremy’s seat and took a closer look at his eyes. Jeremy had no idea where my card was because he was blind! At about the same time, I noticed that the business cards I had made for this month had a bunch of nice information on them, except for my actual name. “Do you have a pastor?” it asked on the back—without the name of this pastor on the front. As if to say, “Do you have a pastor? Well, good luck finding one!” So embarrassing.

Day 9: At this point I started checking back in on people I had met earlier that month. I set out wanting to complete a challenge, but when you start talking to people, you get interested and invested in them. I needed to get a water from the convenience store to check in on Adam. I needed to get coffee to check in on Joel.

On the night of day 9, I needed to pick up a pizza. I was getting used to asking people about work, so I asked Vince if he was almost done with his shift and heading home to his family soon. Three sentences later, we were talking about how he and his wife had lost a child and how difficult that was. I asked if he had anything that brought him comfort. He said no. My heart hurt. I shared how Jesus had been a comfort to our family when we suffered a miscarriage.

It took three sentences from “Hello” to him sharing one of the most painful experiences in his life. I had to share the comfort of having Jesus in my life.

Day 11: Some days it felt like the Lord was messing with me. I was in Lowe’s (that counts as a foreign mission territory for me!), and a man accidentally bumped into me. He was wearing a shirt with Hebrew on it. I pointed at it and said, “Shazam?!” Elgin couldn’t believe he had found someone who could read his shirt! I shared how pastors of our churches learned to read the Old Testament in the original Hebrew.

There couldn’t be this many opportunities around me all the time, could there?

Days 12-30: The daily challenge continued. From walking the streets giving away food to donating at the blood center, from talking to the bartender at a pastor’s conference (I shared the local pastor’s card) to chatting with neighbors, from enjoying playgrounds with the family to going to urgent care for an ear infection—there was not a single day the Lord didn’t provide an opportunity for me to strike up a conversation. I used my four Ws: work; where (either “Where are you from?” or something about where we were); wow (Notice something about a person or the situation); or, when all else failed, whatever!

So many of us—including myself—want to share Jesus more often in our everyday lives, but we don’t know how. Turns out that not knowing much is the secret. Pray to God for an opportunity you don’t know about yet. Then ask someone you do not know about something you don’t know. And what do you know? Pretty soon, you might find a new way to share Jesus!

Author: Julius Buelow
Volume 113, Number 05
Issue: May 2026

Spark the conversation

Try using these four Ws as conversation-starters and see what opportunities the Lord provides to talk about him.

• Work: What they do or what you do.
• Where: Either “Where are you from?” or something about where you are now.
• Wow: A detail about the person or situation.
• Whatever.