The Practice of Testimony: people standing up in community worship and telling stories about how they have experienced God. It is an old-fashioned word – testimony – but it is finding new life here at BUC. Last Sunday was the first Sunday we invited someone to give a testimony at each of our services. The question was simple, “Why is God important in your life?”. The task not so simple as the person pondered how to present to the congregation the importance of God in life and how the call to discipleship came about.
The idea for testimonies first came to me a year or so ago when someone phoned me after a Sunday service. She left a message on my phone saying my sermon had twigged some memories for her. She wanted me to know how important her mother-in-law had been in giving her life She gave her confidence in her child-rearing but more importantly she invited her to be part of the faith community. This simple action changed her life and empowered her to be a woman of faith. Her comments were a testimony to me about the influence one can have on another.
After that I read the book Telling It Like It Is by Lillian Daniel. In this book Daniel tells of her congregation coming into a new phase of faithfulness when they included in their Sunday services the act of testimony. As she explains, to hear another tell the story of God in his or her life encouraged others to share their faith story. “Hearing another’s story of God’s activity convicts and changes us. Testimony”, Daniels says, “breathes new life into people and the congregations they love.”
When we tell another of God’s working our lives others are invited to tell how they have seen and heard and felt God’s presence in their lives. The stories we heard last Sunday were a delicious promise as to what we might hear in the weeks ahead as people share their testimony of God’s presence. I can hardly wait.
