How to craft your story – Past Present and Future
Communicating your story clearly is important to grow in your practice of evangelism as well as for illustration purposes.
You may wish to weave it into a talk you are giving, or simply share it with friends.
There is an art to telling your story and this format works. Past, Present, Future.
Past- (For illustration and evangelism)
This is where most stories start and end.
How you came to faith, and how radically your life was transformed. This needs to be shared but it can’t be all you share.
Graphic details are not necessary. Your life history is not required, in fact, try and keep this section down to a minute or two at the longest.
Remember the point of sharing your story is to signpost to Jesus. Give the person listening to your story a glimpse into your past that paints enough of a picture for them to understand how far you have come.
What if you don’t have a past?
If you have had a faith from birth and lived a relatively clean life you still have a past, it just sounds different.
Instead of “I was always seeking affirmation in all the wrong places” “I always felt unloved” or “I never felt settled” you can speak about how all you have ever known is to be loved by God, accepted by Him. Secure in your worth and surrounded by community.
I am sure you have more to add but do not count your story out. Your experience of a childhood full of faith, stability, and love, is what most people crave.
Present – (For illustration and evangelism)
This section is so important. Camp here for a minute or two.
This is where you share your faith in action today. How you live now in the knowledge that God is for you. Why you have hope and purpose? How scripture tells you that God has plans over your life and you live every day free from (insert here your past experiences.) Your story must include your present. Those listening need to know that God was not only at work in your past, but He is at work in you now.
You can speak about how far you have come signposting to Jesus. This perfectly leads on to…
Future (Evangelism)
This is where you can share a Bible scripture and give them an invitation to their possible future.
Let me give you an example-
“I believe that Jesus died for me, and the Bible says in John 3:16 that God so loved the world, that includes you right now, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. If you want to experience the love and peace I have in my life, can I introduce you to Jesus and pray with you?”
Your story shared in this format sets you up well to make an introduction to Jesus in a gentle and respectful way.
If they say no, you say “Thank you for listening. I would love to hear your story and what you believe.” If you already know it, simply say thank you.
Keep this under 4 minutes if possible. Write it down and practice with people.
To help you get started I have created a template Story resource with prompts in the past present and future sections you can download from the resources page.
To listen to a conversation with John Kirby, Founder of the i61 movement on how conversations are going in the UK around faith sharing go to APPLE or SPOTIFY
To check out the i61 movement go to https://i61m.org/
Cheering you on all the way.
Written by Marie Aitken