Delivering your testimony: How to compile the compelling story

What’s left? Your friend is still waiting to hear it.

We’re accustomed to presenting our testimony without having clear goals. We tell a story. But often, we don’t know why we’re telling the story. We just tell – or ramble.

We know the testimony is supposed to bring glory to God. Yes, we’ve heard that 7 septillion times. It’s not much help, though, because we don’t understand how a testimony actually accomplishes that.

If we ask our legal friends or marketing mates, they tell us of…

Three Types of Testimonies

1) “Just the facts”: professional, accurate, measurable
2) Expert testimony: given by experts in their field
3) Personal experience: based on an account of personal reality

Uh oh, complication: you will give all three types in one testimony. You need to include “just the facts” for your testimony to be credible. You need information that is measurable and accurate.

But you also need an interpretation of those facts. You’re the expert. You’re the only one who’s lived your life. Apart from God, you know your situation best and should convey this in your testimony.

Your testimony should stay trustworthy while saturated with life, or no one will care. Often, testimonies lean to one side or the other, toward facts alone or experience alone. Your testimony needs balance.

To help, I’ve broken this down to give your testimony four goals. And to keep it memorable (read: corny), I’ve worked it into an acronym. Maybe it’ll help you remember (it helped me).

What to include

Grace
Audience
Truth
Experience

This is your GATE for your friend. The purpose of your testimony is to include all four parts of the GATE.

Grace

“To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ…” – Ephesians 3:8

All is given from God. You didn’t work for it. You didn’t help God do it. You didn’t contribute any part to your abundant life with Christ.

Your accomplishments might seem impressive to you. Ha, don’t kid yourself – they’re not impressive to your audience. If, on the other hand, your accomplishments seem scrawny, don’t worry. Grace is the reason people listen to the gospel. Grace is the reason your testimony can impact others. You’re testimony should compel others to see how God has worked in your life, not what you’ve done for God.

Audience

“I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” – 1 Corinthians 9:22

Without an audience, you have nothing to share. Adapt to them. You testimony is not a sales pitch – it’s a product review. We don’t respond well to advertisement when we’re being gamed. Your testimony will persuade based on results, the results of Jesus Christ in your heart.

If you argue your testimony, you lose your audience. If you force your testimony on your audience, they build walls to keep you out. Work with them. Include them in the plot. Give them what they want to know about life with Christ.

Truth

“A true witness delivers souls, but a deceitful witness speaks lies.” – Proverbs 14:25

Truth conveys authority. The random bum on the street can make up a fun story. Your audience doesn’t want that “fun story”. Think product review, remember? Keep your story interesting by modifying the structure to fit the audience, but maintain accurate details.

Don’t exaggerate. Tell what you know. Authenticity is the key to a compelling testimony. If you still struggle with pride, don’t hide it by saying God cured you. From your friend’s perspective, no one is perfect. Don’t pretend you are. Show your friend the real Christ-follower.

Experience

“…be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” – 1 Timothy 4:12

What’s a testimony without experience? Deliver your testimony from an excruciatingly personal perspective. Explain how your feelings and thoughts have changed, but do it through examples. General terms don’t mean anything to your audience without concrete examples.

Imagine Betty Lou telling you she saved a bunch of money through a program she purchased. Now imagine Betty Lou telling you she saved $100 on groceries this week because of the program. Which is more convincing? Your testimony is a story. Stories need details.

Taking this GATE as a guide, tell what you’ve lived…

How to include it

Start with Scripture to support why you live a certain way. Try this:

1) Quote a Bible passage. Example:

“…idle chatter leads only to poverty.” – Proverbs 14:23

2) Explain how you lived it. Example:

“Instead of idle chatter, which wasted countless hours of my life, I started consciously digging into deeper conversations, and I’ve since gained a wealth of new friends…”

If you followed the steps in the planning article, you could use Galatians 5:22-23. This formula draws your friend into your experiences while leading back to the Word of God.

Keep it brief. Shoot for less than five minutes (unless you’re presenting your testimony formally for a large audience and are required to speak for a longer period). Ideally, you should be able to talk forever about Christ in your life. But your friend doesn’t want that speech.

Limit your story so your friend doesn’t feel obligated to listen to your personal War and Peace. Your testimony needn’t to include your life story – it’s an example of how you live with Christ.

Encourage your friend to ask questions. If you fill in all the gaps, leaving nothing out, your friend will burn out. End your story while your friend wants more. Remember, you share your testimony for your friend’s benefit, not your own.

You want to find common ground so your friend can relate. Your experience as a Christian will set you apart enough. Don’t worry about trying to be different (everyone’s different anyway, right?).

Stay flexible. Don’t get too comfortable in one testimony. God might want you to tell some other detail or structure it in a different way.

Sometimes you might quote three verses with three different examples from your life. Other times you might quote only one verse and give many subtle examples or quote many verses, relating them all to one experience in your life. Or you might…

“…Hold it, Marshall, that’s enough.”

Yeah, okay.

I’m making up these suggestions as I go now. And you can too. You can expand, contract, add humor, add Scripture, include friends in a group testimony, or create one that includes only you and God. It’s entirely flexible to allow the Holy Spirit to lead you.

Be available. That’s all God wants. He’ll take care of you.

“Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” – Luke 12:11-12

You don’t need me here to walk you through each of these steps for compiling your story. Tell how God’s worked in your life. Consider your audience. Hold the truth. Offer detailed experience.

That’s it. Like pie, if you can make it through baking it, delivery is easy.

Now, where’s that friend of yours?

Serving Suggestions:

(1) Another “go do it” suggestion. You have the tools. All you need now is the decision and the action.

(2) Bonus: See if you can work your testimony creation into your testimony. I did this the other day. I told my friend what God’s shown me about creating my testimony. When you consider it, every action in your life can count as testimony material. Get in the habit of using it all.