Share Your Story

Sharing Our Witness

We could easily confuse a Witness with a chance to go on and on about our favorite subject… ourselves!  But a witness is much more than that:

A Witness is YOUR Story… but it is NOT about YOU!

A witness is the story of God’s action in your life.  It uses your experiences, your failings, your successes, and your stories to reveal God’s presence and truth. It presents the kerygma – the core Gospel message – through your lived experience and encounter with the Lord

A witness can only be given after you have spent time carefully and reflectively reviewing your life for the work of God in it.

A common method of sharing your witness is to follow these three steps: who was I before I encountered Jesus, what was my encounter with Jesus like, and how did that affect my life? You can spend roughly 20% of your time on the before, 30% on the encounter, and 50% with the affect on your life.

Before: Simply tell what your life was like before you came to know Jesus in a personal way. What were you searching for? What was your chief problem, emotion, situation, or attitude you were dealing with? What motivated you? What were your thoughts and actions like at the time? How did you try to satisfy your inner needs? (e.g. loneliness, fear of death, insecurity, unfulfilling work or relationships. Possibly filled with work, money, drugs, relationships, sports, sex, isolation) Use concrete, relatable examples.

How: How did you encounter Jesus? Simply tell the events and circumstances that caused you to consider Christ as the solution to your searching. Take time to identify the steps that brought you to encountering or to the point of trusting Jesus. Where were you? What was happening at the time? What people or problems influenced your decision?

Since: How has your life in Christ made a difference? How has his forgiveness impacted you? How have your thoughts, attitudes, and emotions changed? What lifestyle changes did you make because of this encounter with Jesus? Share how Christ is meeting your needs and what your relationship with Him now means to you.

Where to begin…

1) Pray.  Be in conversation with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Ask God for help in preparing and writing your witness and let Him show you where He has been active in your life.

2) Spend some time thinking about your topic and the important ideas that you have on it.  Then go through your life, all of it good and bad, as far back as you can remember, writing down all of the significant events that have formed you.  Write down everything, when you go back and edit, you will see that some things don’t relate to your point but don’t worry about that yet.

3) Begin to organize your story.  Your witness needs four parts: (a) introduce yourself, (b) introduce your topic - as straight forwardly as possible, tells us the main idea of your witness (c) the body of your witness - look for experiences in your life that demonstrate your main ideas, (d) conclusion - summarize your main point.

4) Edit it and Read it Aloud. You are telling a story and sharing yourself, so there isn’t a need to have a polished, MLA-formatted paper, just the story written as if you were speaking it – because you will be! Take the time to hear if everything makes sense, it is in a logical order, and it conveys the message you want it to.

5) Let it sit for a while. Often, the best witnesses are written in the middle of the night or during a break at work (or even in the shower!) when you have done all the thinking and reflecting and then your brain has down time to process it all. Don’t force yourself too hard to get it all out in one sitting.

Things to remember…

1)  Stick to the point. Your encounter with Jesus and His affect on your life should be the focus.

2)  Be specific. Include events, genuine feelings, and personal insights that make your point. Make your testimony tangible and relevant for others.

3)  Be current. Include how God is still at work in your life right now, today.

4)  Be honest. Don’t exaggerate or dramatize; or be too general. The simple, straightforward truth is the most effective witness to the Gospel in your toolbox.

5)  The Holy Spirit will speak through you. “When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say. For the holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say” (Luke 12:11-12)

Things to avoid...

1) Being so casual that you appear unprepared and make your witness seem unimportant

2) Rambling and going in circles. 3 minutes is all the time you need for your witness, don’t feel pressure to pad for time, or to tell every detail (even if they are important to you)

3) Verbal transitions or placeholders – you don’t need to say, “fast forward to 2010” or “way back when I was in college.” You can signify these changes in your storytelling without a direct cue.

4) Speaking in insider language. Even if you are speaking at Church, not everyone understands “churchy” language. Sin, repentance, adoration, saved… these may need brief explanatory phrases or synonyms to make your message really connect.