While one of the greatest gifts a Christian has to share with others is found in their personal Christian testimony, my experience as a layman and pastor has uncovered the lamentable fact that many believers are not prepared or equipped to present the story of their salvation and to give an answer for the hope they have in Christ.  For this reason, I share some thoughts and discoveries to help train up Christians in the art and practice of sharing their personal testimony and to aid fellow pastors in equipping people to do the same.

First, you should recognize that the time you spend deepening your understanding of both how God works generally in people’s lives to bring about salvation and how God has worked particularly in your own life will be of invaluable benefit to you not only in helping you better understand your own salvation but in being able to share the story of that salvation with others.

Second, it should be noted that the goal of the Christian testimony is to give glory to God.  Too often, this goal is supplanted with emphasis on “how sinful the sinner has been”, which within some traditions tends to comprise the lengthiest portion of people’s testimonies followed of course with the short statement “but God saved me.”  While it’s true that recognition and confession of one’s sin has it’s place in the Christian testimony, the greater story is how great and glorious God is in all that he’s done and promises to do in delivering us from our sin.

Third, don’t allow what appears to sometimes be seemingly conflicting counsel to prevent you from preparing and presenting the testimony of God’s saving grace and activity in your life.  While some suggest one “cannot be saved unless they have a Damascus Road experience” and while others having grown up in a covenant environment sometimes testify “there hasn’t been a time in their life when they didn’t know God”, the Bible teaches that regardless of the person, or denomination, or particular circumstances, there are common ways in which God savingly works in the lives of all true believers in effecting their salvation, though the particulars of their experiences will differ.

For example, in coming to faith, all must first come to the knowledge leading to salvation. Without the knowledge of God and of Christ faith is hindered, but such knowledge can lead to embracing Christ.  So, while the details may differ in that some come to this knowledge through their parents, or through their pastor or Sunday School teachers, or through a friend, etc., and ultimately all through the Word, the fact remains that the natural means of salvation involves all true believers first coming to the knowledge of salvation.  Again, what makes the individual’s testimony unique are the details of how  God’s Spirit led them individually to come to this knowledge.

In addition to the knowledge of salvation, all true believers have the common experience of having come under the conviction of sin.  It’s not enough that we know there’s a difference between right and wrong, etc., but the Spirit convinces us of our sin and guilt before God himself such that we realize the hopelessness and helplessness of our condition deserving condemnation.  Again, while conviction is the experience of all who come to salvation, the experiences of conviction differ from person to person in detail, and therefore the testimonies of Christians as to the details of how God’s Spirit wrought conviction in them are unique.

Following conviction, all true believers experience conversion which consists of repentance and faith.   Repentance, which is turning from one’s previous way of thinking, feeling, acting and living, along with faith, which involves transferring and placing one’s trust and hope in Jesus Christ alone as Lord and Savior.  Here again, while the experience of repentance and faith are common to all who come to believe, the experiences themselves will differ in detail from one believer to another.  For some, it occurs in their youth, for others, it doesn’t happen until they’re older.  Some deal with particular sins and obstacles while others deal with their own.  So, each Christian, while having the common story of God bringing them to conversion and providing the gifts of repentance and faith for them to respond with, has a unique testimony as to how God did this in their life.

Following conversion, all true believers experience assurance of salvation (though at times it may be shaken) as a result of the Spirit sealing the truth in their hearts.  Likewise, believers having been justified in Christ experience the work of God in sanctification in their lives, wherein God works in us to will and to work after his good pleasure.  While we will never reach perfection in this life, we can point to places even in the midst of our own failures where God is at works in transforming us and conforming us to the image of Christ.  Finally, all true believers are given the hope of glorification wherein we confidently look following our own death or the return of Christ to the perfecting of our beings and eternal life in heaven with our Lord.  Here, again, the details of our experiences may differ, but God deserves the glory in all.

So, in preparing to present your personal testimony, reflect on the various ways God has worked in your life … in 1) leading you to the knowledge of salvation, 2) convicting you of sin, 3) bringing you to conversion (repentance and faith), 4) granting you assurance, 5) sanctifying you, and 6) giving you the hope of glorification.  Then, just as you would “prepare” to give any other testimony or speech, collect your thoughts (including the details from above) and put them together in such a way as to give glory to God, for note:  WHO is it that deserves the glory?  It is GOD who provided for your knowledge, GOD who brought conviction, GOD who granted repentance and faith, GOD who gives assurance, GOD who sanctifies, and GOD who is the surety of our future hope, and all this in addition to the fact it was God who provided redemption (including forgiveness and righteousness) through Jesus’ substitutionary and atoning sacrifice.

(As an aside, note also that:  1) those who demand that others give an exact time and place of their salvation sometimes overlook the fact that God’s working in bringing a person to salvation may occur over lengths of time, and 2) those who only offer that “they grew up in a covenant home and never knew a time when they did not know Christ” might be encouraged to reflect upon the fact that regardless of their growing up with the knowledge of Christ, that conviction and repentance and faith are the natural and necessary experiences of all who belong to Christ.)

Once a person has worked through these ways in which God has gloriously brought about salvation in their own life, they should have little trouble helping others understand how God can be the solution to their own sin and problems.  While it’s true that you may still not possess “all” the answers – and some things you may have to go look up or get back to them later on – communicating the basics of salvation should be no problem.

For those who still would like more guidance on methods for presenting the testimony, I point you to Alister McGrath’s book “Explaining your Faith” where he shares various methods, whether it be sharing a parable from the Bible similar to your experience, or a theological term, or a bible verse, etc., followed by a transition statement such as “That’s what happened to me…” and then share how the details of your experience illustrate the biblical truth regarding salvation.

Finally, let me point out that no believer should think or state “there’s nothing exciting about my testimony”.  Some often do this unthinkingly when they conclude the stories of their sin are not as “attention getting” as the stories of others.  However, when you consider that in salvation one has gone from death to life, from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Christ, from condemnation to righteousness, from deserving hell to possessing heaven, from an existence apart from God to a life of knowing God and finding oneself in Christ, etc., there is that which is extraordinary and exciting about every Christian testimony, and as believers we should exult not only in these things, but in the telling of them.

Brandon Presbyterian Church has a goal for every officer and member to be able to share the testimony of God’s grace and salvation in their life in a winsome and persuasive manner using their personal stories.  I hope others will do the same.  Soli Deo Gloria