Working on testimonies with students

The first half of summer 2010 we are working with students, helping them create their testimonies. Each week a leader is sharing their testimony to the group, and then offering a teaching which would equip youth to write their own testimony. By the midsummer it is my hope that the students at Christ Church will have a 2-minute and a 10-minute testimony that they will be comfortable sharing.

The first night I heard a handful of students say that one thing that Christians must never say about testimonies: "But I don't have a testimony."  This comment drives me nuts, and I'm sure it does the same to God. We are His, and He will use moments in lives to tell a story.  He will use our story to glorify Himself. To say, "I don't have a testimony" is to say God has done nothing good in your life.  Just because there has never been a major crisis in your life does not mean God is not there.  Maybe the lack of major crisis is a part of your story. Maybe you are confused about what you believe.  That's OK too.  Maybe you are in the middle of a story, and God has not yet brought clarity to you.  Your testimony may not have a crisp ending, but that does not mean you do not have a story.   "God is still working on me" is a great story.

I do love working on testimonies with students.   First off it is just fun to see the different ways God is working in people's lives, and it is sometimes through the process of creating a testimony that a person sees that God HAS been working in their lives.  Secondly, I love to see students light up as they realize that not only do they have a story, but that God can use their story to draw others to Him.  I have seen the eyes of many students light up as they realize that the pain they endured in the past might have had purpose in it.   God can use our past pain to bring others into a saving relationship with Christ.  Finally, I enjoy going through the process of teaching how to write your testimony because sometimes it brings doubt to the surface.   A student that calls them self a Christian only because their parents were Christians, or because they were baptized, or because they completed some form of confirmation.  It is these students who have a hard time finding the  reasons for their faith, and writing about how they have seen God step into their lives. I don't necessarily think that doubt is good (although God can teach you through those times), but I know that doubt hidden in the shadows is destructive.  When we have student acknowledge their it, once their doubt is in plain view we can enter into conversation and tackle it.  We can offer to students options on how to work through their doubt, but as long as doubt is hidden in the darkness, we don't know how to help guide them.

God has done wonderful thing in my life. He has protected me. He has loved me. He has drawn me to Himself. He has forgiven me. He has restored me.

Thank you God for letting me be a part of your story, and thank you for telling a story through my life.