Pastor Rick’s Top Tips for Writing Your Testimony

By Pastor Rick Warren

Welcome back to our series on how to share your testimony. We’re sharing how to write out and clarify your life message, the message God wants you to share with the world. Remember, our theme verse is Psalm 96:2, “Each day tells someone that He saves.” 

Today, I’m going to share some of my top practical suggestions to consider as you prepare your testimony:

1. Start with prayer. As you prepare your testimony, ask God to give you the right words. 

2. Keep it short. Be succinct. Your story doesn’t need to be long. Aim for a version you can share in about a minute and a half. Try to keep it under three minutes. You can have a short, a medium, and a long version, but I encourage you to start with the short version, where you just share the four things we talked about in the last post. 

3. Write your entire testimony out on paper. God honors preparation. As you write it out, you’ll notice changes you want to make and things you want to phrase differently. By the way, you’ll keep editing your story for the rest of your life. As you grow and change, the way you share your story will too.

4. Keep to the point. Don’t chase rabbits. Avoid unnecessary details, like going on about the specific color of the sky that day. 

5. Refer to experiences in your life that most people can relate to. If you were a mass murderer before coming to know the Lord, no one is going to relate to that. But if you had a problem in school, a problem with your parents, a problem in your marriage, or you’ve had a problem with your finances, everyone can relate to those things. In your testimony, share a slice of life – a story most people will identify with.

6. Be honest. This is really important. You need to be honest about your continuing struggles. Your life is not perfect. Everyone knows that. Don’t imply that all your problems ended at conversion. 

7. Don’t spend too much time on what life was like before Christ. A lot of people spend the most time in their testimony sharing what their life was like before they became a Christian. I call that a “brag-imony.” They’re trying to convince you how bad they were. Don’t do that. Spend most of your time in your testimony on the fourth part we talked about in the last post – what knowing Jesus means to your life now. 

 

Emphasize the benefits that you received in knowing Christ. Share about the peace, the power, the presence of God in your life. Talk about how knowing him gives you security and stability, how it gives you meaning and purpose in life, and how you were forgiven. Share how you don’t feel guilty and shameful anymore. Mention the benefits of being certain of your destiny when you die. 

 

How to Handle Unique Circumstances When Writing Your Testimony

There are a couple of unique situations you may be wondering about when writing your story. Perhaps your experience is that you became a Christian as a child, but then walked away from the Lord for a while, or maybe you became a Christian as a child, but never grew until a deeper recommitment was made in your life as an adult.

What do you do with your testimony in these cases? I encourage you to use the exact same four steps, but start with the time just prior to your recommitment. You don’t have to start the story with you as a child. Start with examples of how you were trying to meet your own needs without Christ, and it wasn’t working. Describe what caused you to realize that you needed Christ to be completely in control of your life. Then explain when you made that commitment, and how Jesus is meeting your deepest needs today. You don’t have to go all the way back to childhood. You can start with the commitment that you made as an adult.

If you became a Christian at an early age and you never strayed, use the same four steps with this modification: Point out some deep need or some common problem that you see other people trying to resolve, and point out how unsuccessful their attempts are to meet their own need. Then explain why you never experienced that problem by trusting Christ at an early age. In other words, you never went through certain struggles in relationships, addictions, or other issues, but that’s because you were walking with the Lord.

By the way, you don’t need to say your exact age. When you became a Christian is not important. Just explain, “You know, I’ve seen a lot of people have these problems. I never went through those because I gave my life to the Lord.” Then you continue with steps three and four.

 

This week, pray and begin to write out your story. If you need to review the four parts of your testimony, reference this post from last week. 

For more resources on how to share your story, visit the Believers page on the Finishing the Task site at https://finishingthetask.com/believers/