A. Attitudes in sharing personal testimonies

1. Sharing personal testimonies is offering a sacrifice to God. So before our sharing, we should have good preparations in organizing our thoughts and writing it down.
2. The testimony should have God as the center instead of ourselves or the incidents.
3. When sharing the testimony of God's grace upon us, we should not just report on the incidents, but to point out the gracious deeds of God, our reflections, repentance and changes.
4. Testify with honesty and frankly, without embellishment or making up so as to try to make it more touching. The power of a testimony is in its genuineness.
5. Avoid unnecessary humor, joking or slangs, as public testimony is not a show.
6. Do not have the intention of teaching others. The Holy Spirit will do the teaching through the testimony.
7. Give glory only to God, and grace, challenges and edifications to people. We should be humble and obedient.

B. Guidelines in preparing for a personal testimony

A testimony usually has three parts: first, the situation before the intervention of God, second, how did God intervene, and third, the changes after God's intervention.
For a testimony on personal salvation, the middle part can be more detailed. Below is a basic format for a salvation testimony:

1. How was the life before I was saved?

• • • Indulgence? Vanity? Self-inferiority? Bored?
    • Narrate on one such episode

2. How did I come to accept Christ?

• • • Describe the process
    • Deeds of God
    • Help of people

3. What were my impressions about the Christians and the community that have influenced by salvation?

• • • Loving and caring?
    • Sincere and warm?
    • Joyful and lively?
    • Trustworthy?
    • Etc.

4. What were my feelings in the process of salvation?

• • • Joy
    • Peace
    • Hope
    • Sensitivity to sin
    • Presence of God
    • Satisfaction
    • Sense of belonging
    • Etc.

5. How do I behave after salvation?

• • • To the Bible: longing for God's words
    • To the church: involvement and sense of belonging
    • To the family: having good testimonies in the family, yearning for the salvation of the family, caring for the family
    • To the colleagues at work and to friends: having burden to share the gospel and testimonies to colleagues, friends or classmates
    • To myself: no more the sense of inferiority, eager for maturity in life

C. Things to be noticed in sharing a personal testimony

1. Introduce Christ in simple languages so that others would know how to accept Christ.
2. Present the testimony in a lively and interesting mood, so as to make it attractive.
3. Emphasize the transformation of life, and trust that someone would be saved by your testimony.
4. Christ would not remove all your difficulties in life, but will help you lead a peaceful and steady life even when faced with difficulties.
5. Be positive throughout the testimony, and do not be pessimistic.
6. Avoid using religious terms, which are meaningless to non-Christians, such as "rebirth", "precious blood", "flesh and blood", "sovereignty", "devotion", "hallelujah", "glory" etc. If you have to use it, explain the meaning of the terms.
7. Avoid preaching and teaching. Sharing of testimony should be natural and cordial.
8. Avoid pet phrases or unnecessary repetitive utterances. Practice more.
9. Speak loudly and with a higher pitch, so that everybody can hear clearly.
10. The posture should be relaxed with the hands opened.

How to Make Personal Testimonies