Share Your Story

All of this month in Kidz Express we have been talking about going into all of the world to share the message of Jesus. As I have been preparing for this Sunday's lesson I realized what a value it is for us as believers to be ready to share our testimony and to be able to do it in a quick and effective way. But how many of us would be able to say exactly what we want to say if someone were to ask us the why and how questions of what we so wholeheartedly believe? We know that it is a good thing to share our testimony with others, we even find that the Bible tells us to be ready for this to happen, (1 Peter 3:15). But how many of us actually prepare? How many times has someone asked about your faith and you walk away not feeling confident that you  said what you needed to say? 

This week I am going to be challenging our grade school students to write out their testimony so they can "be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks them to give the reason for the hope that they have." As their leaders (and parents) I want to challenge you to do the same so we can help them be ready to share their faith. Below are a few great tips in sharing our faith with others that I took from David Staal's Leading Kids to Jesus.

Bill Hybels says about sharing your testimony, "The greatest gift you can give someone is the story of Jesus and how He changes lives- especially yours" He also says there are three things to keep in mind when sharing your faith: make it clear, use the right terminology, and keep it short. To help you write out your testimony follow this 4 sentence outline:

1. BC - What was life like before becoming a Christian
2. Cross - what happened that highlighted your need for Jesus
3. Cross - your conversion
4. AD - life after becoming a Christian

In the comments I will post a couple of example testimonies to give you some ideas of what it looks like. Feel free to post your 4 sentence testimony in the comments as well!