Personal Testimony Workshop

Objective – To help you become better equipped to share with others the story of God’s work in your life

What is a personal testimony?

It has many names:

Your Testimony, Your Personal Testimony, Your Salvation Story, Your “My Story”, Your Story of
Grace, How I Received Eternal Life, among others.

What is it?

Your personal testimony is a three-part story of

1. Your life before Christ
2. How you came to know Jesus as your personal Savior
3. Your life since inviting Christ into your heart

How long should it be?

It’s good to have at ready three basic versions, a 30-second, a 4-minute and a 20-minute testimony. We
will be focusing on developing the 4-minute testimony.

What’s its purpose?

The purpose of your testimony is to witness to unbelievers, not other Christians. It’s a tool that is used to
open a dialog about Jesus. Remember that you’re not telling your life story – you’re telling an unbeliever
how Jesus changed your life, in the hope that the unbeliever will want to know more about Jesus, not
about you. The idea is that Jesus is the hero of everyone’s story of salvation.

Can people argue or disagree with your testimony?

Not really. It’s your story filled with factual, historical events surrounding how you were completely
remade supernaturally (justified) as promised in scripture (2Cor. 5:17), and are being transformed by the
Holy Spirit (sanctified). Through it, you are telling the indisputable truth about God’s mercy and grace,
and how it’s available to everyone. It may be the only time your listener ever hears the gospel.

What’s the goal?

The goal is that at the end of your four minutes, your listener will have a clear idea of what happened to
you – and what could happen to him. In other words: You are being asked to tell how you met God on His
terms, while the listener, an unbeliever, knows nothing about Jesus dying for them, so that at the end of
these four minutes, he would clearly understand the gospel, it would make sense to him, and he would
know how to get right with God based solely on what you’ve shared.

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Why is it a BIG DEAL?

A personal testimony is the story of the single most important encounter in a person’s life. It is the story
of how, when, where and why they met God on His terms. Getting right with God is a BIG DEAL.
Confessing one’s sins and having them forgiven and the soul cleansed of all unrighteousness IS A BIG
DEAL. Being saved from the power and penalty of sin IS A BIG DEAL. Starting a personal relationship
with the living God IS A BIG DEAL. This life-changing experience and eternal consequence of choosing
to give your life to Jesus IS A BIG DEAL! Receiving this, the greatest gift of all, being a totally unworthy
recipient of this gift, and knowing that this gift is available to everyone means that being prepared and
intentional about sharing this gift with all those who God puts into our lives IS A BIG DEAL!

Where is a personal testimony located in the Bible?

Acts 26. The first personal testimony is made by the Apostle Paul before King Agrippa. Paul’s story
contains the distinct three sections: 1) Before Christ, how he, as a Pharisee and in his obsession against
them, persecuted, imprisoned and sanctioned the deaths of many Christians. 2) How he met Christ on his
way to Damascus to persecute Christians in Foreign cities when he saw a light from heaven brighter than
the sun blazing around him and his companions. Then Jesus spoke to Saul and appointed him as a servant
and as a witness of what he saw and heard, said He would rescue Saul from the Jews and Gentiles, and
sent him out to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God,
so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Christ
(there’s the gospel). 3) Life after conversion, how he was not disobedient to the vision from heaven, first
to those in Damascus, then Jerusalem, then all Judea and to the Gentiles preaching that they should repent
and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. Paul completed his testimony with Biblical
truths from the Old Testament.

Where is the gospel that I can weave into my story?

A good example is in Titus 3:3-8. The gospel and your story come together in these verses.

1. Your life before Christ (vs. 3)

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and
pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
2. Christ’s call on your life (vs. 4-7)
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But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of
righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of
rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus
Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the
hope of eternal life.
3. Your life after Christ (vs. 8)
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This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have
trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are
excellent and profitable for everyone.

Why should I develop my personal testimony?

Why do we prepare and sharpen our testimony?

1. Jesus told us to in the Great Commission: Matthew 28: 18-20: Then Jesus came to them and
said, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching
them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the
age. Sharing your personal testimony with unbelievers is one of the powerful ways to help make disciples
and fulfill the Great Commission.

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 2. The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than
these." If you are commanded to love your neighbor as yourself, are you to love just your neighbor’s life
on earth only, or also his eternal soul promised to live out eternity in either heaven or hell.

3. The apostle Peter challenges us, “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) . One of the most effective tools you
have for sharing your faith is the story of how Jesus Christ gave you eternal life and how He has enriched
your life. The apostle John wrote, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard” (1 John 1:3). John
was testifying about his relationship with Jesus Christ.

4. The apostle Paul tells us that before giving our lives to Christ, although we knew Him in a
worldly way, “we do so no longer.” He says in 1 Corinthians 5:17-20: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he
is a new creation, the old is gone, the new has come. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself
through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself
in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of
reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through
us.”

Many people are not ready to be convinced that they need Christ, but can often be open to talk about the
gospel after an inoffensive telling of a salvation story. Many people have come to Christ simply because
others like you have sharpened their story. It is an effective way to prepare “to give an answer to
everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

How can I prepare and sharpen my story?

Prayer - Trust God and work hard. Give time, thought and prayer to this important part of your
discipleship training. Ask the Lord for wisdom and insight into just how to prepare and share your story.

Write it out -

Methods can include first answering the questions included on page 6 of this handout. Then, use these
answers to write a narrative. Have a partner who is also working on personal testimony or a leader read
and evaluate your draft, taking the comments to write 2 nd and 3rd drafts or more, if needed. The idea is not
to memorize your narrative and recite it verbatim; it’s to help you put into logical order some of the
important and interesting details of your conversion. The choice of the right words, the flow of your story,
and knowing how to begin and end are all important. The number of drafts and amount of time and effort
it takes each person to prepare his or her story can vary greatly. This has little to do with intelligence or
spirituality; it has everything to do with the complexity of some people’s stories.

Once you have what you believe to be a final draft, it is helpful to then transfer the draft to 3x5 index
cards, and practice giving it to a friend to become familiar with your verbal delivery.

This process leads to a final distilling of your index cards to an outline on one to three index cards. It
works well to develop these 6-8 bullet points, 2 or 3 for each of the three segments, that you will
ALWAYS include in your story, whether it is the 30-second, the 4-minute or the 20-minute version. This
helps you focus on the important things. Think of those bullets as the skeleton of your story, on which
you can hang more and more flesh as time allows. Another way to look at those bullets is to think of them
as pegs on a wall, on which you can hang more or less material. But make sure those points are always in
your story. This will keep you from running down rabbit trails and eventually losing your narrative.

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The outline for your story - When the apostle Paul stood before King Agrippa (Acts 26), he spoke
simply, logically and clearly about his life before salvation, how he met Christ, and what his life was like
after conversion. Paul’s story takes three or four minutes to read aloud in conversational manner. Here is
Paul’s outline in Acts 26:

Lead-in/BEFORE Verses 2-11

HOW Verses 12-20
AFTER /close Verses 21-29

The lead-in and close is not generally written out and included in your outline as they will vary greatly
with each person you give your testimony to and the situation.

Guidelines for preparing the more specific content -

1. Make it sound conversational. Avoid literary-sounding statements. Use informal language.

2. Share; don’t preach. Say “I” and “me” not “you”. This keeps your story warm and personal.
3. Avoid religious words, phrases, and jargon.
4. Generalize so more people can identify with your story. It is better to not name specific churches,
denominations, or groups. Avoid using dates and ages.
5. Include some humor and human interest. When your listener smiles or laughs, it reduces tension.
Humor is disarming and increases attention.
6. One or two word pictures increase interest. Don’t just say, “Pat shared the gospel with me.” You
might briefly describe the setting so a person listening can visualize.
7. Explain how Christ met or is meeting needs in your life, but avoid implying that your struggles
and problems ended at conversion.
8. Sound adult, not juvenile. Reflect an adult point of view even if you were converted at an early
age.
9. Avoid dogmatic and mystical statements that skeptics can question, such as “I prayed and God
gave me a job.” Or “God said to me…”
10. Simplify; reduce “clutter.” Mention a limited number of people and use only their first and last
names. Combine information when you can.
a. Poor: “Martha Smith, Nancy Van Buren, and her cousin Jane Matthews came by my office
at Digital Binary Components Corporation.”
b. Good: “Martha and two other friends talked with me at work one day.”
c. Good: “After living in five states and attending six universities, I finally graduated and got
an engineering job.”

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Developing your before, how, and after - Here are practical suggestions for developing the before,
how, and after parts of your story.

1. Before:
a. When non-Christians identify with your background, their interest grows. In your
testimony, you can share one or more gaps or needs that characterized your pre-Christian
life. Following are some common non-Christian life patterns or traits:

 No peace  guilt
 Fear of death  something missing
 can’t shake bad habits  emptiness
 boredom  no purpose
 loneliness  depression
 no meaning to life  dissatisfied with life

b. Non-Christians may ignore or try to get rid of uncomfortable personal needs. Often their
“solutions” don’t work. As you develop your story, you might list positive as well as
negative solutions that you tried, avoiding being graphic or detailed about sinful
behavior. Consider touching on one or two items such as these:

 Marriage/family  Intimacy
 Sports/fitness  Drugs/alcohol
 Hobbies/entertainment  Education
 Work  Wrong friends
 Money

2. How:
a. Describe circumstances that caused you to consider Christ. Perhaps identify events that
led to your conversion. This may have taken place over a period of time.
b. Briefly explain the specific steps you took to become a Christian. If there is a particular
passage of Scripture that applies here, you may want to use it.
c. Include the gospel clearly and briefly. The gospel includes:

1. All have sinned (Romans 3:23)

2. Sin’s penalty (Romans 6:26) 3. Christ paid the penalty (1 Peter 3:18)
4. Must receive Christ (John 1:12)
3. After:
a. Review the needs or life patterns you shared in your before. How has Christ helped or
healed those sensitive or unpleasant needs? What has changed since becoming a follower
of Christ (for example, knowing that your sins are forgiven, new meaning and purpose in
life, assurance of salvation, or other ways your outlook has changed)?

b. Conclude with a one-sentence statement about your confidence of having eternal life. The
person you talk to will tend to comment on or remember the last thing you say.

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Personal Testimony Workshop Worksheet

Following is a list of questions for an Adult Conversion salvation story. Please jot down some of your
thoughts under each question. This provides you a rough outline from which you can write sentences and
paragraphs about your own experiences. This can help you put together your first draft of your story.

BEFORE:
1. Before you met Christ, what were some of your needs, what was lacking, or what was missing in your
life?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
2. What solutions for your life did you try that didn’t work?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
HOW:
1. What were the circumstances that caused you to consider Christ?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
2. Tell how you trusted Christ, and briefly include the gospel.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
AFTER:
1. Give an example of how Christ met your needs or how He is now contributing to your life.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
2. End with a sentence to the effect that you know that you have eternal life through Christ.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

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