Three-Sentence Faith Stories

If someone asked you to share your testimony in a worship service, what would you say?

The average CRC member might react like this: “I really dread public speaking, and anyway, my testimony is kind of boring. I grew up in a Christian family and always believed in God. I don’t have anything dramatic to share.”

Setting aside the fact that calling any faith journey “boring” is quite an affront to our loving and faithful God, the idea that faith stories have to be ultra-dramatic is one we should challenge.

One way to make sharing faith stories accessible to all is to encourage people of all ages to craft a three-sentence faith story.  Creating these short testimonies encourages us to identify specific moments or seasons when we saw God clearly working in our lives. (They are also much less intimidating to share in public settings than a traditional testimony.)

Here’s one example of a three-sentence faith story from a blog post on the topic at buildfaith.org:

Because I am four-foot-ten, weigh eighty-five pounds, and have several auto-immune diseases, the doctors told me I would not get pregnant. When I got pregnant, the doctors told me I was too small to carry a child to full term, and too weak for a Caesarian. I am now the mother of a healthy four-year-old son.

If you’re a pastor, worship planner, children’s ministry director, or youth leader, consider weaving a three-sentence faith story experiment into your planning.  A Thanksgiving service is a great place to start, but there are many ways to incorporate these mini-testimonies into your congregational life.

Three-sentence faith stories are big on impact. They proclaim God’s faithfulness in the circumstances of life. And they speak of the hope that is ours because of God’s own three-sentence story:

Christ has died.

Christ is risen.

Christ will come again.