How to Give Your Christian Testimony
Giving testimony is one of the most important parts of the Christian life, but putting your conversion story into words can be a daunting task. We should always be prepared to give testimony to what God has done in our lives. So today, Mike and Dave talk about why Christian testimony is important, and practical tips on how to actually do it. Grab your Bible, a pen, and a piece of paper and get ready to write.
Snippet from the Show:
Your testimony is your journey with God, your lived relationship with Jesus, and how it all started.
SHOWNOTES
4 Basic Principles of Writing Your Testimony:
- Remember your testimony is not actually yours. You do not own it, it is God’s story of what he has done in your life.
- Being specific about the amount or gravity of sin, does not usually add to your testimony. Be careful not to glorify the sin, it robs the limelight from God.
- Your Christian testimony is about God’s pursuit, and your cooperation and surrender. Remember, he plays the primary role and you play the secondary role. We should try to showcase what God has done rather than on what we did to follow him.
- Writing a testimony can be a bit like writing an examination of conscience. There may be a part of writing it that calls you to repentance.
Practical Steps to Prepare Your Christian Testimony:
- When you begin writing, start broad and then get specific. Write about everything from the first moment of your life up until the present day. Use words or sentences that would describe you before you became an intentional disciple of Jesus. Here are some questions you could ask yourself: Did you have a life philosophy that you lived by? What were the basic principles you used to govern your life? Did you have an unsatisfied inner need?
- Describe your identity before you became a serious disciple of Jesus. This gets to the end goal of your conversion—be broad. Who did you want to become?
- Focus on what made that conversion possible. What made you serious about following Jesus? Again, be broad.
- Then focus on how you would describe yourself immediately after the conversion.
- Then describe how you are different now. Write down five to ten sentences or words that describe who you are now as opposed to then.
- Then write down any Scriptures, quotes, or stories that had particular meaning to you during your conversion process or that mean something to you now. This can sum up your story.
- Then put it all together in a twenty-minute testimony. Only after you master the long version should you cut it down to a shorter version.
Remember: Don’t lie or exaggerate.
5 Practical Takeaways:
- Read Acts 26.
- - 5. Take a few days to write your twenty minute testimony using the four basic principles listed above.
Meet Your Hosts
Michael “Gomer” Gormley
Michael has been leading evangelization and ministry efforts for the past ten years, both as a full-time parish staff member and as a speaker and consultant for parishes, dioceses, and Catholic campus ministries.
Michael is also the founder and creative director of LayEvangelist.com, and the producer and cohost of a Catholic young adult podcast Catching Foxes, which discusses the collision of Faith and Culture.
He is married to his college sweetheart, Shannon, and they have about 1,000 children and get about 3 hours of sleep a night, which is alright by him.
David “Dave” VanVickle
Dave VanVickle fell in love with the Lord at the age of fourteen and has since dedicated his life to bringing others into a radical relationship with Christ.
Dave is a speaker and retreat leader who focuses on proclaiming the universal call to holiness, authentic Catholic spirituality, spiritual warfare and deliverance. Additionally, Dave has over ten years of experience assisting Priests with their ministries of exorcism and deliverance.
Dave resides in Pittsburgh with his wife Amber and their five children: Sam, Max, Judah, Josie and Louisa.