Get a Better Testimony, Pal!
September 29, 2008 – 2:48 pm by JoeI believe that we as Christians have an obligation when it comes to our testimony - that is, to make sure it doesn’t suck. Now before you send the rebuke mail, let me set out the criteria for a not-sucky testimony. The primary criteria is that the focus be more about God than us. Yes, it is about our life, but it is about how God has been at work in our lives, not just a timeline of events. We must also make God seem attractive. Now I do not mean in the way that nicotine companies promote cigarettes, but merely an honest presentation of the unparalleled superiority of a life led by Christ. This will look different in everyone’s life, but the reality will be the same, and this cannot take backseat to any other criteria. I surmise that this becomes more difficult for those who have grown up in the church. To speak of something that always was in a fresh way requires a continual renewal of one’s passion for the subject. Just because one does not know how low life without Christ can be, it is not a free pass to not extol how high life with Christ is.
In addition, at the risk of sounding grossly secular, keeping one’s audience in mind is important. By this I do not mean that one would change the content (to non-believers: “I found Christ on the floor of a prison cell”; to believers: “I grew up in a good Christian home”), but rather change the emphasis. If you’re in a setting of primarily seasoned Christians and seeking to highlight the benefits of living in community, highlight how God has helped make that a reality in your life. If on the other hand you’re speaking to someone who is skeptical of Christianity in general, a different tact might prove more effective, such as highlighting any similarities to how you may have shared feelings with them in the past, and how God proved Himself real. These are broad strokes, but show that the preaching suited for the choir might not fit Richard Dawkins . I would staunchly note here that this is not to say that one person’s testimony is only suited for one group of people, but that in choosing what to highlight, audience should play a factor.
In presenting this topic in a critical manner, I must head off the plausible criticism that I am here depending on the “strength” (from an oratorical standpoint) of one’s testimony for someone’s salvation, which is not true. I appreciate how John Piper (who, for shame, I have not yet quoted in this blog!) put it on a tangential idea, that of describing his legacy, especially as it relates to his books (interview here, starts at ~44:45). “…The number of sales of your book will not even come into question, because that wasn’t your doing. What will come into account is your attitude as you were writing, your faithfulness to Scripture as you were writing, your relationships to people as you were writing.” Piper describes this as freeing - once the pebble (his book, our testimony, et al) drops into the pond, it is up to God to do with the resulting ripples what He will. However, it is our duty to do our best to ensure that that pebble is a boulder.
4 Responses to “Get a Better Testimony, Pal!”
Man, great post. Why is this a great post? Because there is so much to comment on.
1. “We must also make God seem attractive.” I would reword this to something like, “We must describe God’s work in us for the undeserved, grace filled expression of love that it is, instead of toning it down for fear of offending someone, stepping on toes, or being perpendicular to the current trends, thoughts and vocabulary.”
2. “This will look different in everyone’s life, but the reality will be the same, and this cannot take backseat to any other criteria.” I would add that because of the magnitude and creativity of God’s power and work, each persons testimony will give a glimpse of the reality that is an omniscient, omnipresent, incomprehensible God. That is really how we can experience God, in little bits and pieces, glimpses of the bigger reality, as you put it.
3. I see your whole second paragraph as a fruit of the fact that our testimonies are living. Things that are living interact and adapt with their surroundings. Often times God’s work in us mirrors and precedes his work in aspects of some of those around us.
4. You and Piper hit it on the head here. It isn’t about what we did for God, but instead what God is doing in us and through us.
Hmm…managed to forget to comment on something.
5. “Just because one does not know how low life without Christ can be, it is not a free pass to not extol how high life with Christ is.” - I disagree with this. I believe that the more our lives our transformed into being like Christ, the more we understand where we came from in sin without Christ.
Even if you grew up in a Christian home you have the same testimony as the person that grew up a mass murderer. We were all sinners separated from God. We aren’t sinners because we sinned, we were born sinners, and we sin because we are sinners by nature. But God has given us a new nature, the very nature of Christ Himself, and Jesus bore the wrath of God on the cross for our sins to restore us to our Father. Now we stand blameless in the eyes of God His Spirit lives in us.