About 10 years ago I put an ad in the paper to sell my old Volkswagen Fastback. A guy about my age, Mike, came to look at it. At that time I attended the college-and-career group at my church, so after we greeted each other, I asked if he went to any church youth groups. It turned out he was Mormon but not very involved in the church. I knew Mormons have strong families, so I complimented him on that and said we need strong families in this country. "Really?" Mike said. "You know about that stuff?"

Then I switched to talking about him as an individual. "Why aren't you active?" I asked. He said the church wasn't relevant and had too many rules, so I brought up Ephesians 2:8,9 and told him about God's grace. Mormons don't hear much about God's grace, so Mike was intrigued. This was a good transition to the gospel, so I asked something like, "If you were to die tonight, would you go to heaven?" He said "no," and I explained the gospel in general terms.

Mike seemed responsive, but he was more interested in buying my car. I sensed the time wasn't right to go further. After all, there we were in the foyer of my house and we hadn't even talked about the car yet!

After he left, however, I felt uncomfortable and wished I would have said more. So before he returned to pick up the car, I grabbed some three-by-five cards and wrote out the gospel fully, using lots of verses. Then I left the cards in the glove box.

I try to share Christ with everyone I meet, though I don't always do so. The key to my witnessing is my walk with God. When I'm spending time with the Lord, I'm more spiritually aware. If an opportunity for evangelism comes up, say at a gas station or on the subway or in a grocery-store line, I can grasp the moment.

I start with an opening line that won't put people on the defensive, one that will build common ground. Maybe it will be about current events, or the latest headline.

This winter, for example, we were snowed in due to the big East Coast storm, and I was helping my neighbor shovel his driveway. The common ground turned out to be that we both went to the University of Maryland. Then we talked about the government shutdown, and from there jumped to what he did for a living. When he asked about my job, I said, "I work for Craven Auto and Tire, but I'm also heavily involved in my church."

At this point, people usually say, "Really? How so?" or some such thing. But my neighbor said he was a Buddhist, from Cambodia, and attended the Buddhist temple. I always try to say something positive about the person's beliefs (like I did with Mike), or at least connect with him in some way to develop rapport. So I said that the big Buddhist temple in Maryland was beautiful. That led into a discussion about Buddhism, and in the process I explained the basics of Christianity.

There's always some point of contact. In the inner city, I mention that in my youth I hitchhiked around the country and dabbled in drugs. At a business meeting with accountants and lawyers, I'll talk about mutual funds or some such thing. If a person doesn't go to church or even believe in God, I'll go back to my teen years, when church seemed irrelevant. Then I'll explain how my life changed.

We all need some basic knowledge about what is going on in the world, about different religions and ideas. You never know who you're going to bump into. Often people have emotional barriers to the gospel, due to a bad experience in the past, and you need to build bridges in order to grasp the moment.

When you do, you can lovingly lay out the gospel and trust that God will use you to plant a seed. That's what happened with Mike.

About a week after he bought my car, he came driving back into my yard. I thought maybe the engine had blown up or something and he'd come to complain, but he was beaming. He shook my hand and thanked me. "I read the note you left," he said, "and I prayed and invited Christ into my life."

Mike has continued firm in his faith to this day.

Dan Cotter lives in Centreville, Va., and is the controller at a tire-and-auto company.