As we have conversations with our friends about spiritual things, one of the most powerful things we can do is share stories of our own experiences with Jesus.

We see paradigms for this kind of sharing in the Bible itself. After delivering him from demonic oppression, Jesus says to the man of the Gerasenes: “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you” (Mark 5:19 ESV).

Some of us don’t have a particularly dramatic conversion story. Some of us can’t even remember a time in our lives without faith in Jesus! But the stories we can tell aren’t just those about the moment of conversion. We can also tell our “present-tense testimony” of what the Lord is doing in our lives today. All of us have stories that include these ingredients:

• Sin (and its consequences)

• Jesus

• Faith

• Change

When you tell your real story of God’s work in your life, it may resonate with your friends more than you expect.

Try it for yourself using our one-page guide: Telling What God Has Done For You (Fill in the Blank)

Sources: Mark 5:18-20 (ESV)

“I’ve Always Known Jesus. How Do I Share My ‘Testimony’?” Mission Central, December 16, 2021. Don Everts and Doug Schaupp, I Once Was Lost: What Postmodern Skeptics Taught Us About Their Path to Jesus (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2008). 

Friendship Evangelism: The 5 Thresholds toward Faith, InterVarsity Evangelism, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA.

#FindingGodAtWork #FaithAndWork #GoodNews #Gospel #TheGospel #InterVarsity #Seeking #Seeker #Seek #Questions #Conversation #Parables #Mark5 #Testimony #Story #FiveThresholds #5Thresholds #DonEverts #DougSchaupp #IOnceWasLost #Personal #Witness #Evangelism #Evangelical #Evangelicalism #GentleWitnesses #Mission #SpiritualFormation #ChristianLife #MissionCentral