At work

You spend more waking hours with these people than with almost anyone else, and you’ve never once talked to any of them about Jesus. Part of that is fear of being “that coworker.” Part of it, if you’re honest, is that you’re not sure how to invite someone without it turning into a sales pitch — or worse, without it feeling like pressure from someone who signs their timesheet.

Borrow the script, shrink the ask

You already know how to invite a neighbor to read a story over coffee — the whole thing is short, warm, and asks for nothing but one hour. A coworker invitation works the same way, just smaller: “A few of us read one short Bible story on our lunch break and just talk about it. No class, no church — honestly, it’s more like conversation with your sandwich. Want to try it once? If it’s not for you, no problem at all.” A fixed time, a fixed length, and an easy no. That’s the whole invitation. Say nothing about attendance and nothing about your church — you’re inviting them to a story, not a membership.

Where power changes the rules

We already teach that nothing in this whole class is allowed to happen under pressure — that’s why the base invitation always says sin compromiso out loud, why service is never a lure, why a “no” is supposed to cost the other person nothing. Put that conviction in a place where you sign someone’s evaluation, and here is what follows: saying “no pressure” out loud does not make it true. Pressure lives in the org chart whether you mention it or not. So the protection has to be structural, not verbal. Never invite your own direct reports. Never hold it on company time without consent that genuinely costs someone nothing to decline. If someone below you in the chart wants in, let them come because a peer invited them, not because you did. This isn’t caution for its own sake — it’s the same sin compromiso this whole class already runs on, applied to the one setting where saying it isn’t enough to make it true.

Watching for who lingers

When you enter a house, begin by saying, ‘Peace be upon this house.’ If a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move from house to house. — Luke 10:5-7 (OTB)

Jesus sent His people into ordinary places — homes, not sanctuaries — and told them to stay and watch for who received them. A break room is your version of that house: watch there the same way, for who lingers after the story, who asks a second question, who says “can I bring someone next week.” That’s the person of peace God already placed three cubicles from your desk.

One more thing I’d add — yours to keep or leave

Nothing in what we teach sets a workplace study’s schedule. Here’s my own rule, for what it’s worth, and you may run yours differently: fixed start, fixed end, the same day, every single week — and stop exactly on time even when the conversation is good. I’ve watched people keep coming back to something that respects their next meeting, and quietly stop coming to something that runs long. Use it if it helps you; you know your own workplace better than I do.

Recite this

If they report to you, no pressure isn’t something you can say. It has to be true.

Try it this week

Think of one coworker — not someone who reports to you — you could invite for one lunch hour, one story, one honest no allowed.

I will invite ________________ to lunch on ________________.