Practice makes perfect
After you have prayerfully reflected upon the grace of God in your life and taken some good notes, you may be prepared to start sharing your testimony with others — at least with fellow Catholics, for practice. It is important to practice! Practice is a second step, after initial prayer and reflection, that helps prepare us to share our personal testimonies as a tool of evangelization.
Remember again that while your primary personal testimony is the story of your initial or major conversion, you have potentially thousands of other testimonies to give — countless stories of the grace of God working in your life: blessing you, consoling you, enlightening you, making you stronger. You might practice giving a number of different personal testimonies.[1]
Grateful, Flexible, Concrete, Accessible, Thematic
When giving your personal testimony, whether for practice or “for real,” you should keep in mind five basic qualities that every testimony should have. Each personal testimony should demonstrate gratitude and be flexible, concrete, accessible, and thematic. Let’s consider each one of these in turn.
First and foremost, your personal testimony should (1) come from a grateful heart. Although your personal testimony is a story of your life, the main character is not you, but God. You should tell your testimony in a way that glorifies God instead of yourself, showing His goodness and your gratitude to Him. It is not so much about what you have done, but what God has done for you. If we are living according to the call that we have received, then we will be abiding in Jesus through the sacraments, prayer, obedience to His commandments, and faith (see Jn 6:56; 15:4; 1 Jn 3:24; 4:15). Then we, with His life welling up powerfully within us (see Jn 4:7-14), will be capable of giving a personal testimony that flows from the intimacy that we share with Him. When Jesus Christ is manifestly alive within us, we will not just tell stories about Jesus’ presence, but our stories will be the means of revealing His presence in the here and now.
When you do give your testimony, remember also that different circumstances and audiences require distinct approaches. For this reason, you need to (2) be flexible. Sometimes you have 2 to 3 minutes to share your testimony, other times 30 seconds or less.[2] Sometimes you need to bear witness to the Lord in a specific way that speaks to the needs of the person listening to you. Sometimes you need to pause and allow your hearers to ask questions. Sometimes, the Spirit will redirect what you focus on. You need to be prepared for this. You should let your testimony be fluid and adaptable.
When you give your testimony, you also should not be vague about the various elements of your story; you should (3) give concrete details. Where did/do you live? What did/do you do for a living? What were/are your family relationships? What happened and when? How did/do you feel? What kinds of things were you struggling with? In being concrete, you show your hearers that you are real and relatable. That way, they are more likely to see that they, too, can experience something like what you’ve experienced.
When you give your testimony, you also ought to (4) be accessible. This means that your story should be straightforward, easy to follow, and easy to understand. Of first importance here is to avoid bogging down your story. Although concrete details are important, don’t make your story overly complex by including too many details about your life pre-conversion or post-conversion, or by going on-and-on about how sublime a spiritual experience was. Be concise. Don’t necessarily include each of the various factors contributing to your conversion. Incorporating too many details, using drawn-out explanations, and going on unnecessary tangents has the effect of drowning out the main point of the testimony — how God saved you and set you apart for Himself. For example, some people spend so much time speaking about their life pre-conversion and all the sins they committed, that their testimony to the moment of conversion loses some of its force. The “wow-factor” of a sinful lifestyle is often greater than that of a conversion, which is often a gentle transformation of life. Deliver your testimony in a way that brings your listeners’ attention to God.
Another important way to be accessible is to avoid using words that your hearers are unlikely to understand, like Church words, Bible references, theological terms, and uniquely Catholic expressions. Most people don’t know terms like “Altar,” “Holy Mass,” “Sacrament,” “Real Presence,” “Trinity,” “Incarnation,” “Ecumenical Council,” “the Holy Eucharist,” “Communion,” “Bishop,” “Cardinal,” or “Crucifix.” They don’t understand “Transubstantiation,” “Adoration,” “the Second Coming,” “Arc of the Covenant,” “The Immaculate Conception,” “Our Lady,” or “Blessed Virgin Mary.” If any of these things are involved in your conversion story, use more recognizable words and phrases for them (like “Mary, the mother of Jesus,” “church leaders,” “church service”), and take time to explain those words and phrases that you need to use.
Finally, it is important that you (5) give your personal testimony a theme. A theme is something that you intentionally bring up multiple times in the course of giving your testimony, in each of its three main parts. The theme, for example, could be a gift or virtue that you longed for and received; like hope, courage, friendship, joy, or peace. It could also be an emotion or vice that you suffered from and overcame; like fear, anger, hatred, or despair. It could be a name, title, or attribute of God that was meaningful to you; like “Lord of Hosts,” “Hound of Heaven,” “Savior,” “King,” “I AM,” “Father,” “Good Shepherd,” All-Wise, Merciful, or Loving. It could be something that was of special spiritual use to you, like the Bible or the Sacrament of the Eucharist. A testimony is often more effective when given with a theme.
Any conversion story could be told and retold according to a great number of different themes, though each person’s conversion story is usually most effective when paired with a particular theme. Consider a fictional woman named Michelle who is working on her testimony. Let’s suppose that Michelle experienced sexual abuse as a teen, and then suffered from fear, guilt, and anxiety throughout her adult life. She also struggled with loneliness, depression, and the sins of lust, gluttony, and laziness. But Michelle came to know the faithful love of God in Christ, and through the power of God’s grace she gradually overcame sin and became a strong, confident, and peaceful woman. Her favorite images of God through her journey were ‘the Good Shepherd,’ and ‘Savior.’ With all the struggles she’s been through, and all the graces she’s received, Michelle clearly has a lot of options to choose from in picking a theme for her testimony! She could pick “freedom from fear” or “overcoming guilt” or “seeking peace” or “Jesus is my Good Shepherd” as her theme, to name just a few. Even so, however, she finds that her testimony (all other things being equal) is usually most impactful when told with the theme of being “saved from loneliness.”
Why might a theme give your testimony more impact? A theme, first of all, gives your testimony focus and emphasis, which helps keep it clear and understandable. But it also has another potential benefit: a carefully chosen theme can speak even more directly into the hearts of your hearers. Think of Michelle again: she could share her testimony according to any number of themes, each of which could help a different person with a distinct spiritual need. Depending upon who she’s talking to and what difficulties they are dealing with, Michelle could re-focus her story in a different way. If the person also experienced sexual abuse, she might tell her story as how she was able to bounce back from her abuse. If the person is searching for peace, she could tell her story as how she found the peace she once lacked. Or if the person is in immediate need for some concrete ways of growing closer to Jesus, Michelle could focus on the role that different spiritual tools played in her conversion — gifts the Lord has given to the Church — like the sacraments, the Scriptures, and the reading of the Church Fathers and other Catholic authors.
Helpful tips
After considering five qualities of a good testimony, here are some additional tips to keep in mind for when you actually go out to share the wonderful works of the Lord in your life:
Before each time you give any personal testimony, pray that the Holy Spirit be with you and give you the words to say. During and after you give your testimony, you should pray that your words bear good fruit. Remember — you are not doing this on your own! Remember that you are making yourself available to the Lord as His instrument, to partner with the Holy Spirit!
Remember also to show Christian charity to the people you share your testimony with. As the Scriptures say, you are “making a defense … for the hope that is in you” — so you should “do it with gentleness and reverence … [keeping] your conscience clear” (1 Pt 3:15-16). When you’re paving the way for faith, you don’t want to set up obstacles to faith at the same time.
Practically speaking, it’s also very helpful to have prepared some conversational transitions for sharing your personal testimony. If you are talking with someone about the faith and you begin to think that sharing your personal testimony might be useful, it’s often helpful first (1) to affirm that you share some common ground with them, or feel compassion for them, and then (2) ask if you could share with them, through your story, how that’s the case. How you do that will vary, depending on the circumstances and the conversation. Here are some examples:
- “You know, I had some of the same questions that you did before I committed myself to practicing the Catholic faith. Can I tell you a bit of my story?”
- “I hear your arguments: They definitely make sense. But can I tell you why I follow Jesus?”
- “I understand how you feel. As a Catholic, I can’t help but struggle with the sex abuse scandal. But let me tell you a little bit about how I came to become Catholic — I think that it will help explain why I haven’t lost my faith through all this. Is that alright?”
- “My marriage was on the rocks for a while, too. … Can I tell you what difference Jesus has made to my marriage?”
After you have shared your personal testimony in its three parts (Before, During, After), you might prepare the way for part four (Invitation) by asking a question like, “So, what do you think of my story?” or “Have you ever thought about becoming Catholic?” or “Do you believe in Jesus?”
Also, be ready to field clarifying questions or concerns that the person may have while you speak. For this reason, you need to remain attentive to them even while you’re telling your own story. The goal is to be of help to them, so you shouldn’t lose sight of where they’re at during the process.
Also, be authentic and keep a positive tone. Do not exaggerate elements of your story, or downplay things out of excessive shame or a false sense of humility. The key here is to be truthful without giving information that is unnecessary or potentially harmful.[3] Do not be negative about other people or other religions; a testimony is about hope and your thankfulness for God’s mercies. Let that be the focus.[4]
Finally, relax, and trust in the Lord! The Lord is faithful: you’ve begun your day with prayer, you’ve asked the Lord to help you as you built your testimony (and perhaps again quietly to yourself as you began to share it) — so do not be afraid! If you do happen to “mess up” in some way, take it as the Lord continuing to prepare you to give fruitful testimonies. Discover the lesson in whatever mistake you’ve made, and with the Lord’s help, do better the next time.
Now, go and give your testimony!
[1] Our skills as evangelists can greatly benefit from making these two preparation steps — (1) prayer & reflection, and (2) practice — into a way of life. In our personal prayer, we can develop the habit of recalling the good things that the Lord has done for us, perhaps writing them down in a journal, with the purpose of giving praise and thanks to God. Likewise we can regularly share those good things with our fellow Christians, perhaps within a weekly prayer group, also to give praise and thanks to God. When we do these things regularly, it becomes easier joyfully to share the Lord’s blessings with others to evangelize them.
[2] You should almost always be brief. Some circumstances where you might lengthen your story are, for example, when the person asks you to tell your story in greater detail, or when you are giving your testimony as a presentation to a room full of people.
[3] For example, don’t give all the sordid details about your past sinful exploits.
[4] For example, if you became Catholic after leaving Baptist Christianity or Buddhism, it’s good to be honest about the good things you remember from your time as a Baptist or Buddhist. If you became Catholic or discovered your faith after suffering in a bad relationship, don’t demonize the person who hurt you.