I was catching up with a friend a former coworker from a few years back over drinks one night, when he asked me what i now do for a living. I explained my job is to help college students engage with the big questions of life. This kind of question is an open invitation to talk about my experience of god, so i told him my story. You were there when it happened after all, so it’s not like you are trying to recount something abstract or theoretical. It’s no more complex than telling someone the plot of a movie you saw last week. On the other hand, you can learn to tell your story better if you do a little bit of preparation. Peter wrote that we should always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have 1 peter .

And peter says that you need to prepare for possible opportunities to speak about him. After you've read through them, set aside 30 minutes to answer the reflective questions and do the actual writing. He tells it a little differently each time, but also makes sure to include the same three elements: before: paul gives an outline of the situation before he encountered jesus.

after: paul describes how life has been different since meeting jesus. Below are some reflection questions adapted from questions by evangelism coach chris walker to help you think through and compile the raw material of your spiritual journey to date. The questions are designed to trigger your thought process, not to restrict you feel free to add anything else you think is important.

What was your faith like during childhood, during your adolescent years, and now as an adult? jot down some key points for each of these three phases. Would you say you had any encounters with god or answered prayers before your conversion. How did these influence your understanding of god? make a list of the longings and desires that shaped your journey to christ. What obvious needs did jesus address? was it a sense of emptiness, a desire for forgiveness and acceptance, the longing to know god, the need to find significance, or something else? in what ways were you restless before your conversion? try your best to describe this restlessness in terms others might recognize similarly in their lives.

Who were the key people or groups who influenced you to follow jesus. How did they help you move toward jesus? can you remember anything specific they said or did to overcome misconceptions, help you see your need for jesus, or unsettle your thinking? what were the pivotal moments and conversations?

circumstances of your life at the time when your faith became real

specific moment or period

If it happened over a longer period of time, maybe pick one or two key turning points and focus on them. If your conversion occurred early in your childhood, describe a time when you think your faith became your own, made sense, or came alive. What was it about? what were the circumstances of your life that helped that message make sense? how did your encounter with jesus address the longings, desires, and/or restlessness you experienced prior to conversion? how would you describe the central issue or question of your journey. How did god answer this? what was the role of christian community in your surrendering to jesus? how did the people you mentioned above, or perhaps a church, intervarsity chapter, gig. Bible study, or christian friends play a part? how did they influence you? how did they help you understand your need for god?

why you are a christian

once you have some basic notes, the next step is to shape it into a communicable story. There are probably a lot of elements to your conversion, but brevity is one of the keys to telling your story well.

You should write no more than 100 words on each phase of your story, so your total length is less than 300 words. Which means each person you share your testimony with will be at different stages of their own spiritual journey. So the best preparation for sharing your story is to make sure you know it well and are able to relate it to where they are with god. Here's how to do that:

pick a friend who isn’t following jesus.

imagine a place and time where you might be having a conversation with them.

make sure you include the key points of your story that you think will connect with your friend.

Reread your story and consider whether your language and words will be understandable to your friend. Where necessary, change your mode of expression to remove christian jargon. I had also done some work on writing it out, so i was already prepared to express myself succinctly and not drone on interminably. Because i kept it short and interesting, my friend didn’t feel preached at and therefore had a lot more questions and we talked about knowing jesus for about 20 minutes. You can do this too! grab a pen and paper or type in the word worksheet , and spend some time preparing to better tell your own story. download the questions above as a worksheet word and take the next 30 minutes or more to work through the reflective questions and write your testimony. if you have comments or questions about how to write your testimony, please leave them in the comment box below. Christian teens expert kelli mahoney is an experienced christian youth worker and published writer.

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Often christian teens are asked to put together their testimony for presentation in the youth group, in front of the congregation, or in witnessing and evangelistic settings. Here are some tips for putting together a great testimony, even when you feel you don 39 t have a compelling story to tell: continue reading below most of the time this belief comes from only hearing testimonies of people who have come out of drug use, sex, lust, and other sins. It may seem to many christian teens that only 34 bad 34 people can have good testimonies, but in fact, every single christian has something to share with others. How about the time you resisted temptation? what about the most amazing experience you 39 ve had in church? have you ever given someone advice? why are you a christian? now that you know you have a testimony, try to think about what you want to say. They tell mini biographies about growing up in the church, their family lives, or what life was like outside of the church.

At times you will be asked to give a testimony about something specific you have faced, but more often than not you will be giving a testimony about why you hold to your christian beliefs. Continue reading below just like you should understand your setting to determine your topic, you should also be aware of your audience so you use the right words. If you are talking to a group of new christians or non believers, you may want to avoid any church speak. Think about it, how would a new christian know what 34 press in 34 means? using terms that only regular churchgoers will understand can create a disconnect with your audience.

While you may post your testimony to message boards, online blogs or put it in a diary, you will more likely be asked to present your testimony out loud in front of others. That can be really nerve wracking, and very few people are comfortable in front of groups especially when it 39 s talking about something so personal as our relationship with god. The more you say your testimony out loud, the easier it will get when it 39 s your time to share in front of others. writing a three minute testimony through relationship with jesus the purpose of writing a three minute testimony is not to restrict the ministry of jesus through the holy spirit in our lives individually, but rather to aid the ministry of jesus through the holy spirit in our lives. If a person relied on a three minute testimony as a religion in all of his witnessing pursuits, period, this would restrict the ministry of jesus through the holy spirit.

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In order for our evangelism to be effective, it must be motivated out of relationship with jesus through the ministry of the holy spirit but in order for the holy spirit to be able to work through our lives effectively, normally he uses the knowledge we have and works with what we know. Jesus said in the gospel of john, but the helper, the holy spirit, whom the father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that i said to you. Jesus in this passage of scripture teaches us that the holy spirit does not work in a vacuum, but leads according to the knowledge that we have that we have learned in the past through study and through past teaching of jesus through the holy spirit in our lives. Normally speaking, we would not want to restrict the length of our testimony in sharing with others but would want it to be as extensive and as involved as the holy spirit would lead us in each individual situation. But sometimes in our sharing the message of the gospel, circumstances beyond our control may not allow for more than five minutes to share what led us to jesus as the answer to our needs, how we received him as lord and savior, and the change that jesus has brought into our lives since that day we received him as savior and lord. On a college campus, for example, a student may be getting ready to go to his next class and only have five minutes to talk with you.

When we have only five minutes to talk, what we have to share must be intelligent, concise, and to the point. To be successful in evangelism does not entail getting people to necessarily make a decision for christ. successful evangelism entails communicating to a person what it means to be a christian and how to become one themselves. if you have communicated this in a way that the person understands, you have successfully evangelized them whether they make a decision at that moment or not. The reason is because even if he does not make a decision in your presence, later, when he is by himself, thinking about what you have said, and finally decides that he wants to become a christian, he then knows what he needs to do in order to become a christian because you have communicated to him clearly how to. After thirty four years of evangelism, i can confirm to you this reality, because over the years people that i shared with on the field have come up to me in church years later and said to me, do you remember me? usually i respond, no? , because, when you have shared with hundreds of people individually over several years, it is not always easy to remember every one of them individually. They will then say, one day several years ago you shared an evangelism tract with me and then your own personal testimony of how you became a christian before i had to go. I thought about this for several weeks and decided that what you shared was right and prayed and received jesus into my life as savior and lord.