Megachurch Pastor Bill Hybels practiced his "Just Walk Across the Room" philosophy recently, listening to a Washington, D.C., cab driver explain how his Islamic faith gave him peace and satisfaction.

That gave Hybels the opportunity to in turn describe growing up in a Christian home, but once he was old enough making the conscious choice to follow Christ.

"I could tell he was very attentive and wanted to follow up on it," says the pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in suburban Chicago. "I go to D.C. quite a bit so I intend to use him as a cab driver in the future. Who knows where that will lead?"

This is just one example of how Hybels shares his faith with non-believers. An avid boater, he also goes sailing with people outside congregational circles to meet those who practice other faiths—or no faith.

Although Hybels’ "Just Walk Across the Room" was released about a year ago, interest in the book remains high. It has sold more than 155,000 copies and in May received Outreach magazine’s award as 2006’s "Best Outreach Resource."

The book also stimulated formation of a follow-up, four-week church witnessing campaign designed to encourage members to share their faith. More than 1,000 congregations participated the first year, with the next initiatives kicking off Oct. 21 and Jan. 13.

"I think it probably would be related to a hunger in the Christian community for a new way of thinking about it, a new way of inspiring congregations to evangelistic activity," Hybels says of the book's popularity.

"I don’t think there had been a lot of tools," he says. His book suggests church leaders and congregation members ask themselves "Am I getting sharper and making progress as someone pointing others to faith or am I losing my edge?"

Hybels’ book and witnessing campaign emerged from a five-week series of talks at Willow Creek’s midweek services.

His encouragement to others to naturally share how they came to Christ was more than a pep talk; Hybels prefers one-on-one settings to huge auditorium audiences.

Hybels labels it "hanging around" to see if other people display openness to spiritual discussions and then watching the Holy Spirit thaw the ice.

However, that takes intentional effort, particularly on the part of pastors and church leaders. The more leaders are involved in congregational life, the more their waking hours can be consumed with church business, he says.

"You can be solving lots of terrible problems in the world and training up young believers—it’s all real good stuff," Hybels says. "But it leaves you almost no discretionary time to invest with people you’re trying to influence to follow Christ."

To counteract the busyness of congregational life, the noted church leader has developed a pattern of devoting certain times or days to interacting with people outside Christian realms.

Without that kind of intentional outreach, he says months can slide by without ever talking to unbelievers, which means losing the opportunity to exert a positive influence on the surrounding culture.

On a practical basis, that doesn’t mean trying to set up a formal program, such as hanging out at Starbucks or other gathering place to hand out tracts. Instead, Hybels recommends using hobbies and avocations as opportunities to naturally tell others about the source of your peace and happiness.

For him, that is boating; for someone else it could be running, golfing or football.

"If you’re a golfer, why do you always golf with Christians?" Hybels asks. "Why don’t you say, ‘Friday afternoons in the fall I’m going to put a group of golfers together who are not from my church.’ 

Then just make sure it has an evangelistic edge to it."

Hybels follows the same practice when it comes to shopping or going to restaurants. Instead of dining out at a host of eateries in search of great food, he likes to frequent a small, select number in order to get to know the staff, develop conversations and influence them spiritually.

For a church that has been noted for drawing huge crowds of "seekers," Hybels says his new approach has given Willow Creek’s members the confidence to make evangelism a natural part of their lives instead of a special project.

"You realize it starts with a simple prayer in the morning where you say, ‘God, just raise my awareness today as I go out and about my world of people around me. I’m open to your promptings. If you draw my attention to someone, I’m going to look at them. If you whisper to me, I’ll going to listen.’

"In the book I say the highest value in this whole evangelistic endeavor is to be attentive to and cooperating with the prompting of the Holy Spirit," Hybels says. "That’s a little different approach, historically, than I think most pastors have taken to evangelism."