by Jacob Cornell

The drummer of one of the bands I used to be in was getting rid of some old stands that he no longer used. He was originally going to throw them away, but I played a little bit of drums myself, so I spoke up and said, “Wait! Don’t throw em’ away, I’ll take em’!” I actually never ended up using those pieces he gave me. Now let’s jump forward about 3 or 4 years. 

So here I am, cleaning house and trying to get rid of stuff that I never used. I thought to myself upon glancing at the drum pieces, ‘I’ll bet I could recycle those and get some cash!’ It wasn’t like there were one or two pieces, there were around 6 or 7, each being pretty heavy. So I tossed them all in a box and headed down to the recycling center I usually go to. 

I arrive to the recycling center and put my box and the scale and the employee starts to calculate weight and enter in numbers into a computer about what kind of metal they were made out of. During this I’m thinking to myself, ‘I’d be happy with twenty bucks’ and I was even hopeful for getting more money than that. 

Are you kidding me? Those pieces are only worth ONE DOLLAR?

The employee turned around and said, “Ok, one dollar, that ok with you sir?” I had to think for a second, ‘Dang! Are you kidding me? Those pieces are only worth ONE DOLLAR?!’ But then I agreed to the one dollar based on the fact that I never used the drum pieces and probably never would.

The employee handed me the receipt to take up to the cashier who would give me the money. I must be honest, I felt awfully silly going up with a receipt for only one dollar. The woman handed me a brand new crispy one dollar bill. I stood there with this nice looking dollar bill thinking, ‘I went through a lot of hassle for this dollar bill. Shoot, I probably used more than a dollar’s worth of gas driving here for cryin’ out loud!’ Then immediately I thought that I must use this dollar for God’s kingdom. I wasn’t going to waste it on a double cheeseburger from a value menu or a Kit Kat when I’m at the checkout. But then the question loomed, ‘How are you going to use a dollar for God’s kingdom?’ 

“Can I buy five minutes of your time for one dollar?”’

Now during all of this, I was reading a book called One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven by Mark Cahill (awesome book by the way; I would highly recommend it), and was feeling very motivated to share my faith because of some of the inspirational stories in this book. But I was still trying to think of how to incorporate using a dollar bill in street evangelism. While at work, within just a couple of days after recycling, the idea suddenly came to me. I thought, ‘I’ll use this dollar by going up to someone and asking them, “Can I buy five minutes of your time for one dollar?”’ I figured that if the time is paid for, and if it was a mutual agreement between me and this other person, that they wouldn’t have much of a problem listening to the gospel.

Now that seems like a cool idea, but when the time came for me to put it into action, I had to take a moment to remember that God has given me a heart for sharing the good news with the lost shortly after I got saved a couple years ago. It began when I first thought about how many people DON’T know the good news and what an epic tragedy that is! That thought impacted me in such a way that even as a new believer, with little Biblical knowledge, I was trying to talk with people about Jesus as often as I could (even at work, which was not allowed). But I became discouraged from sharing the gospel for a period of time because of some negative reactions I had received from folks I had shared with and also some friends who were critical of the way I was sharing. You could imagine, my confidence in sharing had been kind of shot. So let’s go back to this new idea I had with this dollar.

I got home from work and decided that I wasn’t going to eat until I went and shared my faith with at least one person using this dollar bill.

Typically when I get off of work, I like to go home and check some sports news, eat some food, and relax for a bit. This same day I thought of this ‘5 minutes for a dollar’ idea, I got home from work and decided that I wasn’t going to eat until I went and shared my faith with at least one person using this dollar bill. So I hopped on my brother’s bike and took off to the super market around the corner. I approached the first guy I saw, who also had his son with him, and asked him “Could I buy five minutes of your time for a dollar?” He said, “Yeah, sure.” So I pulled out my wallet and was about to hand him the dollar and he said, “Don’t worry about that right now, just say what you’ve got to say” so I shared with him the gospel truth and then asked him what he thought about it. We had a discussion for close to five minutes, said our “goodbye” and he and his son kept walking. It was a positive interaction with zero confrontation and lots of truth.

Now at that point I could have been done and gone home to eat, which would have been nice because I was starving by that time! But I decided to skip out on the physical meal and replace it with a spiritual meal. I approached the next guy I saw and ask him the same question. He said “Ok” so I took out a dollar and gave it to him. I shared the gospel with him and then asked him about it and it turns out he was a Jehovah’s Witness. We had a great discussion for about 15 minutes! It should have cost me three dollars but midway through our conversation, he handed the (no longer crispy) dollar bill back to me. Imagine that!

Here I am with the same dollar bill I started with and already three people have heard the gospel truth. 

I wasn’t done! I rode across the parking lot to where some teenagers, three to be exact, were kind of hanging around on bikes and skateboards. I approached them and asked them the same question about buying five minutes. They seemed a little skeptical and said, “Nah man, we’re cool” so I just went right along and asked them if I could tell them something anyways. They said that was fine. So I shared the gospel truth with them and we went back and forth discussing this. During this discussion, a security guard rode up in his golf cart and asks what we were doing. I told him, “Hey man! We’re having a discussion. It’s actually really interesting; I’d like to know what you think about it.” So I shared with him the gospel truth. Can you guess what happened next? About a minute later, a guy that lived in the apartments across the street came strolling up and asked the same thing! So I told him we were having a discussion and I shared the gospel with him.

It was really incredible. Each person actually thanked me after I shared with them! I rode home in awe of how God works. I went with the goal to share with one person and somehow left with that same dollar, and eight people had heard the gospel. It’s amazing what God will do when you decide to do things for His glory and His kingdom.

You wouldn’t believe it! I was just able to share with 8 people. It’s this whole thing with a dollar and these drum pieces and that book you gave me!”

I was super excited about what just happened and I called Dave when I got back to my house. I said something like, “You wouldn’t believe it! I was just able to share with eight people. It’s this whole thing with a dollar and these drum pieces and that book you gave me!” Now this probably didn’t make a whole lot of sense to Dave when he answered the phone. But I slowed down and explained everything a little more clearly. He asked if I wouldn’t mind sharing that whole story at the college group on Friday night. I liked the idea and that’s exactly what happened. I told the story and posed a challenge to everyone if they wanted to accept it. I handed out dollar bills to individuals who accepted the challenge which was to use that dollar for the kingdom by sharing the gospel with someone between then and the time we met next week. I encouraged them to try the ‘5 minutes for a dollar’ approach. Some used that method while others were just reminded by the dollar being in their wallets to speak about Christ more. Doesn’t really matter, because either way, the gospel was preached! Funny what one seemingly measly dollar can do for the kingdom of God.