How to Write and Give Your Testimony

Michael Fackerell runs the Christian Faith site. He writes:

"Please mention in your Bulletin that I am looking for contributions of Christian testimonies of all kinds for my site. It is quite well visited even now. I get mail from all kinds including media producers etc. There is a lot of material on my site that I have had positive feedback from many people on."

http://www.christian-faith.com/truestories.html

He Invitesis another site exclusively devoted to testimony. They also need new testimonies: http://www.heinvites.org

Angie's Story may give you some ideas in writing your testimony. It's also available as an RTF file and is free to republish royalty-free: http://www.web-evangelism.com/testimony.html

From: http://www.makeitclearnow.org/soulwinning.html

How to give your personal testimony.

Do you want to know the best way to present salvation to all sorts of people? The answer is your personal testimony. The reasons are simple.
1. People are most interested in a true human interest story (they can identify with other people best), and
2. You are interested in sharing with others what Christ and salvation mean to you personally.

You may be giving your testimony to a friend, a co-worker, someone that you meet on the street, or in a church service. Here are some guidelines that will make your testimony the kind that others will like and that will bring glory to Christ:

1. Realize what is at stake: the destiny of the souls of men. You are representing Jesus Christ. II Cor. 5:18-20.
2. Ask the Lord to give you wisdom and guidance in preparing and presenting your testimony.
3. Begin with an interesting, attention-getting sentence and close with a good conclusion. Include relevant, thought provoking facts and experiences.
4. Give it in such a way that others will feel associated with you. See #8.
5. Give enough details to arouse interest.
6. You should always have a general outline already in your mind. By this, we mean that you can give your testimony in two or three minutes to an hour or more. You never know when or for how long you may be called on to give a testimony.
7. If you are the first or only one to give a testimony, always give the plan of salvation.
8. Be sure your experiences are scriptural before you share them with others. Interpret your experiences by the Word of God and not vise-versa. The Bible is our authority.
9. Be lovingly enthusiastic. Let them know you really believe in what you are saying. Don't bore people with the greatest thing in the world.
10. Speak loudly and clearly, in a relaxed tone of voice.
11. Smile often. A smile tells a person,"I like you," and "You're worth smiling at." Ask the Lord to give you a happy, radiant face. Eph. 4:15.
12. Avoid mannerisms when you speak, such as: rubbing your nose, playing with your ring, jingling coins in your pocket.
13. Feature Christ, and not yourself.
14. Have a good appearance: clean, good posture, smell good. Be full of life.

Salvation in a testimony:

1. Tell the circumstances involved in your salvation.
2. Spell out exactly what salvation is. Be clear and simple. Think: Could a person be saved by hearing that testimony alone?
3. As a general rule, it is good to quote at least one clear salvation verse, and no more than two. Eph.2:8-9; John 3:16; I John 5:13.
4. Always distinguish between faith and works, between salvation and service, Christ and religion.
5. Remember the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Rom. 1:16. Rely on His Word and the Holy Spirit.

Don'ts

1. Don't use Christian jargon. Words such as "born again,""convicted,""converted," do not communicate truth to the average non-Christian.
2. Don't preach-- Do talk, share something of value.
3. Don't tear down. Be positive!
4. Don't let your testimony drag on. When you have finished, you can stop. Don't keep talking just to talk.
5. Don't apologize. This gives the person or audience lack of confidence.
6. Don't mention church denominations, espically in a derogatory way.
7. Don't speak critically or negatively about any other individual or group. You are here to talk about Christ and try to lead a person to a saving knowledge of Christ.
8. Don't give the impression that the Christian life is a "bed of roses." Some people are told that when they give their life to Christ, that all of their problems will be solved and life will be a complete joy for the rest of their lives. If you have been a Christian for very long, you know that you will still have problems.
9. Don't give a bragamony.

Example-What is a saviour?

We call Jesus our Saviour. Here is an example of how to explain to someone that you are witnessing to what a saviour is.

Let's suppose that you are 10 miles from shore and your boat sinks and you can't swim. Along comes another boat as you cry out for help. - What is a Saviour?

Let's say that the man in the boat throws out a book for you entitled "How to Swim". Would you call this man a saviour? I don't think so. You may have a few other names for the fellow with your last breath, but I doubt that it would be saviour.

Now let's say that he gets out of the boat and shows you different methods of swimming. He shows you the dog paddle, the back stroke,and a few other things. Is this person a saviour? NO! You might call him an example at best. How about if he throws you a life preserver, pulls you into his boat, gives you a blanket, some hot chocolate and takes you about a mile from shore and throws you back into the water so that he may continue on his way. Is he a saviour? NO! Maybe an indian giver. He really didn't save you because you will still drown one mile from shore just as quickly as you will ten miles from shore.

None of these examples are of a saviour. A saviour is one that gets you out of the water into his boat and takes you all the way to shore.

Jesus did not just give us a book with instructions in it, He was not just an example for us to follow, He does not take us part way to Heaven and then cast us back out again. When Jesus saves us, He stays with us through this life and takes us all the way and sets us on Heavens shore. That's what happens when you accept Jesus as your saviour. He has stated that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5) and He will not cast us out (John 6:37).

The omelet - Are good works enough?

You often hear people say,"I am not that bad of a person, I think that God will let me into Heaven when I die. After all, He knows that I am doing my best." Here is a little illistration that you can give to people to help them see that they can not get to Heaven on their own righteousness. Let's suppose that you are at my house one morning when I am cooking breakfast and I offer to make you an omelet. As I am cooking this omelet which call for 3 eggs in the recipe, I realize that I only have 2 eggs in my refrigerator. Just then I remember that an egg rolled under the refrigerator last month. I reach under and dust it off and continue cooking the omelet adding onion, cheese, and other ingredients to it. Now you know about the egg that I found and added to the meal, so when I bring it to you, you refuse to eat it. I try to convince you that most of it is very good, it only has that one bad egg after all and that shouldn't affect how good that the omelet actually is. This is what many people try to do with God. They think, yes I have done some things in my life that I shouldn't have done, but I am basically a good person. They try to convince God to let them into Heaven with a less than perfect life. The Bible says that we can't get into Heaven with our own righteousness, but that if we accept Christ as our Saviour that God will give us His righteousness. With the righteousness of God we can then go to Heaven when we die.

Should I invite people to come to church?

Here is something you may find interesting. The institute for American church growth asked over 10,000 people this question: "What was responsible for your coming to this church?" This is how they replied.

I have found in my experience that I as the Pastor of a church I can go and knock on doors and invite many people to come to church. Most of them will say that they will be there Sunday but very few will ever show up no matter how much I go by. However one of my church members who is a friend of theirs can invite them and they will be there that Sunday or soon after. I have found that many people expect the Pastor to go out and visit as part of his job. However the Bible tells us that ALL Christians should invite people to come to church. Start with your friends, neighbors, and relatives. After that it will be easier to ask the cashier at the bank or the man at the gas station that you see occationally.

The man behind the Internet evangelism resource Web Outreach http://www.weboutreach.net/ describes himself as "just a guy with a WebTV who wanted to learn how to make websites and glorify the Lord through it." What he's given the world is a wealth of information useful to e-vangelists. Web Outreach features a collection of Net witnessing ideas -- writing your testimony - from chat room evangelism to cybertracts -- as well as links to various message boards. There's even a "learn html" tutorial for the novice.