"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." - 1 Peter 3:15
The purpose of your testimony is to convey why Christ is real to you – not convince others why Christ should be real to them. A witness is not the same as apologetics. Apologetics uses reason to guide others to Christ. A testimony is different. A Christian Testimony is the story about how you came to know Christ and how that relationship has changed your life.
Your personal testimony is not supposed to be full of reasoning. It’s supposed to be your witness. That means transparency and honesty are crucial to making it. Imagine being called to the witness stand in court. Convincing the jury is not your primary goal – conveying what you have seen or heard is the goal. You’re there to give your account. Your perspective. That’s your witness.
A good witness will require you to be vulnerable, transparent and honest. Those things tend to make us feel uncomfortable, so we convince ourselves it’s okay to “tailor the story to our audience”.
Please don’t do that.
You will inevitably leave things out because you believe it makes your story sound less credible or you want to avoid sharing something important that played a role in you finding your faith.
The best Christian testimony is not designed to help others believe. It’s sharing why you believe. Their belief is a potential byproduct but it’s never the goal or purpose for your own witness.
This is why we encourage everyone to start building community by examining their own personal testimony.
Even if you aren’t planning to join a small group, knowing your story is important as a Christian. Don’t wait until you’re asked to speak in public or a relative asks on their third beer on Thanksgiving. Going through the process to examine your own faith now helps better prepare you for those moments – and is actually very encouraging for you. Even if the chance to share doesn’t come right away.
Start with Prayer
It seems trite – but it’s right. Prayer works because it brings us closer to God. That’s it. Prayer isn’t about what you get out of it it’s about who meets you in it. You’re not strong-arming God into revealing “the perfect testimony” from your experience. You’re opening the lines of communication.
If you don’t know where to start with prayer, start with gratitude. Thank Him for all the things that lead you to Him. The good times. The rough patches. The joys and pains of life that make us who we are. Go down memory lane and remember where you felt His presence or saw His handiwork. His provision. His care. That will work much better than just asking what to write.
If prayer is hard for you, here’s an example of a prayer you can say:
“Thank you, Jesus, for dying for my sins and resurrecting for my life. You have given me life – and life to the fullest. Although I’m not perfect and am walking through the process of sanctification, I still have a story with you and it is my sincere joy to be able to share that with others going forward. Please help me remember the ways you’ve been there for me throughout my entire life and thank you for making your sacrifice on my behalf. I ask this in the name of Christ Jesus, my personal Lord and Savior. Amen”
Find the Milestones
After praying, some important memories will most likely start coming to the front of your mind. Write those down. They don’t have to be in a particular order. Just make bullet points and expound when necessary.
During this step, you may also become aware you are co-laboring with the Holy Spirit – which is a beautiful thing! Don’t rush it. It will look like getting revelations along the way. Those revelations might end up becoming closure regarding a particularly painful period or thankfulness about another. Take your time and keep writing or use transcribing software if you’re better at verbally processing or talking out loud.
After taking the time to examine your faith journey more holistically, you will feel more equipped to prioritize what moments are milestones and which are footnotes. At that point, a trajectory starts to bubble up and you might even uncover something deeper – like your life’s purpose.
Connect the Dots
By this point, you’ve might have started seeing a common thread. Maybe there was a series of events you considered happenstance but reviewing them together now confirms God’s hand in your life. Little moments spread out over time that kept you protected or ignited your faith. In storytelling, we call that trendline “the narrative” and it’s the path you should take when telling your story.
To get people on that narrative quicker or give you a place to start, consider answering some clarifying questions to give a better perspective for the receiver. Some examples of those questions can be the following:
- What was your life like before Christ?
- What was your first memory of God?
- How were you introduced to Jesus?
- What changed after accepting Him as Lord & Savior?
Start to Pratice
In photography, we have a saying, “The best camera is the one you have with you.” It’s spoken by veterans whenever newbies want to know what’s the “best” camera to get. The same is true for your testimony. The “best” witness is the one that’s ready to be shared.
This might mean you need to practice. So practice with a safe group of people. You can even practice in a mirror. (Yes. Good public speakers do this all the time.) It will also help mitigate the “tailoring” effect we tend to do when we’re trying to guard ourselves against being too vulnerable. Especially around strangers.
Keep in mind people respond to vulnerability because it’s synonymous with transparency and honesty. We’re naturally drawn to that stuff and it’s incredibly refreshing when our world is overrun with tailored social profiles, subterfuge, and manipulation. Be the breath of fresh air in someone’s life and don’t be afraid to show some emotion.
Don’t forget the goal is not convincing them of the same thing you believe. Your faith doesn’t hinge on their approval. That means you don’t have to worry about doing it wrong and potentially screwing up someone’s chances for salvation. That’s just pride disguising itself as good intentions. Only Christ’s testimony can save lives – and guess what? They may want to hear His after yours. They also might not. Don’t worry about it.
Share with Others
Once you’ve practiced enough, you’ll realize you can give a couple of different versions. So when you’re delivering your testimony, fit the length to the medium. You’re literally giving a narrative about your life so if you always recap every nuance of every moment in graphic detail, you’d be able to fill a library. Don’t hold the guy in line at the grocery store hostage just because he asked. We’re not Cartman singing “Come Sail Away”. (… and I hope that reference didn’t just wreck my credibility.)
The key is understanding the moments that changed you – not just the moments that impacted you. Sometimes it takes lots of moments to make a change. So when you have 30 seconds, start with the turning point of your story. If you have five minutes, add some impact moments around the change moment. Have a couple of hours? Make a podcast. (That’s what I did.)
When in doubt, point to God just a bit more than yourself. Don’t remove yourself entirely. That’s preaching. Don’t hog the spotlight. That’s just a story. Find that balance and walk the line. A protip for those of you who are married, think of it very similar to when people ask “How did you two fall in love?”
Next Steps
First of all, if this post has been beneficial for you, we would love to hear about it! Feel free to mention us on Twitter or hop over to our Contact page and share the fruits of your work. These stories are encouraging for us and remind us why we’re doing this. So please let us know!
The next step – if you haven’t already done it – is taking a personality test. These tests are wonderful instruments of self-discovery and will be required if you’re interested in joining a CircleUP group sometime in the future.
Something to keep in mind when taking these tests is they do not define you. They allow insight and showcase a tendency and probability. This is why you see introverts in public and Enneagram 2’s at the spa. (If those jokes didn’t make sense to you, you’re in for a real treat!) Head on over to our list of personality assessments page or read our post on “Discovering Your Personal Identity” for more information.
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