Writing Your 10 MIN Witness Testimony
Staring off the edge of a cliff is scary. Falling is just the beginning though. The joy and promise comes after the jump. The ripples that start from one drop falling in water can go far and wide. Just get started, write a 10 minute testimony.
Start by answering a few questions. Answer questions like you were just having a conversation with a friend. Don’t overthink it, don’t concentrate on sounding smart or using the “right” words. Just simply write your answer. If writing is intimidating or just not your jam, open a voice memo or recording app on your phone. Just answer each question in turn.
Question one: When and how did you decide to give your life to God and follow Jesus?
Question two: What low places has God met you in? How did He see you out?
What places of joy, the high points, did God meet you in?
Question three: What has the last year of your spiritual life looked like? What would you say about how you feel about your last year of faith? How do you think God sees it?
A 10 minute testimony gives you several things in this one activity:
It makes you focus. It isn’t enough time to get into anything other than the most important points. It is the burger, the meat of the story. You can’t into all the toppings and possible distracted and off topic.
It helps keep you humble. We have an innate human desire to want to explain ourselves. We want to be understood and not judged. By writing your testimony in a short time frame, you have to give up control to God. He has to be in charge of who hears it and how they hear it. You don’t have the time to explain each decision and situation you experienced.
It helps you see what you believe about your own journey and about the character of God. It is a revealing process. Embrace the gift of exposure.
How to write these things out? The most common ways I have seen is chronologically or by importance. Some people organize their thoughts in a very linear pattern. Like a timeline, it can be easier to recall and organize what you want to say. Importance can be another way to organize your thoughts. If you could only tell someone one time that God moved and worked in your life, where would you start?
How many pages is this? It is hard to give an exact number of words or pages a talk is because of several factors: talking speed (most people talk fast when they are nervous), font size, spacing, printers. In a very general sense, a 10 min story will be 2-3 pages and about 900-1300 words. You can find the word count by using your word processor. On Pages (MAC) it is under the “view” tab. On a PC you probably have Microsoft Word. The word count is under the “tools” tab. It doesn’t need to be exact! The goal is to get this testimony close to 10 minutes.
Some tips:
Pray! Ask God to guide your thoughts and words. Pray for wisdom and discernment. Pray that you write your story to honor Him. Pray during each and every step. It is really God’s story, let Him be a part of writing it.
Write, or record, each section with these things in mind: What was my need/desire? What was God’s protection/provision? If this affected my faith, how?
Some people use a scripture or song that was particularly impactful. It can help take the pressure off feeling like you are talking about yourself the whole time.
Write PAUSE or BREATHE several times or at new paragraphs. I forget to breathe a lot when I talk out loud.
If the last year hasn’t looked like something you are proud of, that’s okay too! We have ebbs and flows in our faith. Seasons where we are on fire for the Lord and seasons of loneliness and despair. God meets us in it all. Taking a look at the recent time of your faith gives you insight. Maybe you have amazing stories of God in your life but in the last year, you can’t think of anything. That exposes to you what kind of season your faith may be in. Maybe it’s been years since you and God have connected. This is the best place to be. Writing your witness testimony helps you remember. Declaring your faith and what you believe gives you the chance to reconnect. Sometimes, a being a witness is the oxygen you need to breathe life back into the fire of your faith.
You are welcome to contact me with any questions or struggles. I hope that you have a spiritual mentor or friend in your life to share this with also. This can be an amazing experience, it can also be difficult. I would love to pray with you through it if you would like. My contact button is at the top of the page. God Bless and good luck!
