Are you prepared to tell me the story?

I love it when I get asked a question about my journey to faith.

It is an interest to hear my story.

It is a desire to understand who I am.

It is a desire to understand what make me so committed to following Jesus.

A few days ago, it was a cool evening to enjoy the outdoors. I took my son to a meeting and to pass the time, I stood outside with another father who sat in his luxury SUV and talked with me through the open window. The crisp evening air and light breeze made for a wonderful conversational setting.

As we talked, the conversation took a personal shift.

Tell me the story

My friend asked to tell my story of how I decided to become a preacher of the gospel versus an architect or some other profession.

This was a chance to tell the story of how I discovered God’s grace and how I came to faith.

It was the chance to talk about how I discovered God’s leading and how that got refined over the past twenty years.

I had been praying for a chance to share my faith with my friend, and this gave me a chance to tell one of my formative stories.

Standing there next to his car, I began to tell my story.

4 Elements I included in this story

I faced a choice.

How would I tell the story?
How would I tell the story in a way that showed the activity and initiative of God?
How would I tell the story that showed how a follower of Christ lives out that commitment when making decisions?

I quickly asked the Holy Spirit to help me, and then told my story.

1. I mentioned that I BECAME a follower of Jesus.

I made a point to tell my friend that I was once not a follower of Jesus, but when I was a teenager, I became a follower of Jesus.

I had a journey of faith awakening and experienced a conversion.

I was clear that I had not always been a follower of Christ.

2. I mentioned that I had a devotional life centered around Bible reading and Prayer.

I talked about the spiritual disciplines of Bible reading and prayer, and how I would experience hearing God’s voice.

I was allowing the word of God to shape me and cultivating the ability to recognize God’s activity in my life.

I shared a few sentences about my desire to please the Lord with a life of obedience to His purpose.

3. I shared two or three formative experiences to the story of my ministry calling.

Having setup the foundation of my relationship with Christ, I then told my story of answering the call to ministry.

I told of the life changing question my friend asked me.

I told of the dream that the Sunday school teacher had.

I told of the struggle in my own young soul as I wrestled with a sense of calling while I was a young teen.

At each part of the story, I kept the focus on God’s activity and my response.

4. I shared how I’ve seen that calling get played out and refined over the last 25 years.

I shared a few observations over how that sense of calling developed during key transitions in my life.

At each stage, I got to share a little of what God was doing to clarify my sense of life purpose and direction.

You need God action in your story.

When you are asked to share a story, you need God action moments: Moment where God intervened.

I could have told the story without all the details of what God did and was doing.

I could have told the story in a purely secular way and left out dreams, signs, and spiritual guidance.

However, I chose to tell the story in a way that normalized my walk with God and told of his works.

I was ready.

Each of us should know our own story of how we came to faith, and be able to tell it at a moment’s notice. (Read more at 8 Tips to Effective Personal Testimonies).

We should also know current stories of God’s activity in our life.

But we should also be able to tell of God’s activity in transformational stories – stories where being a follower of Jesus made a difference in our life.