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Many different formats may be used when presenting your testimony in written form. One of the most popular formats, the one required by many online Christian sites and many Christian print publications is the before, during, and after format, which covers what was your life was like before your conversion, what happened during your conversion, and what your life was like after your conversion?

Introductory paragraphs
Your testimony will be more meaningful if your readers get to know you first, if you tell them a little about what your life was like before you came to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. Think about the following questions and answer them in your opening paragraphs. What was your life like as a child? Did your parents know the Lord? Did you attend church, and go to Bible school? Did you believe that God was real? Did you lead an upright life, or were you always getting into trouble? Were you happy, unhappy, angry, healthy, sickly, or depressed? Did you have many friends in school and outside of school, or were a loaner? What led up to you accepting Christ? These are just a few of the things you should talk about in the opening paragraphs to your testimony. Share as much about your life before coming to Christ as you can. How much time you can spend on each part of your testimony depends on the word count you are allowed in the case of a written testimony or the time you have to speak in the case of an oral testimony.

The Born Again Process
What happened that led up to your conversion? What led up to you coming to Christ? What were you feeling—scared, unloved, or unwanted? Were you living on the streets, in poverty, in jail or in prison? Were you injured or sick and feared death? Perhaps you just came to release that you needed to have God in your life. For some, conversion takes place in a single event, an unexpected encounter with God, such as the encounter that Paul had with God on the road to Damascus, but for most, it is a slow process during which we come to realize that we need God in our lives. In order for our testimony to glorify God, we must share what led up to our coming to the cross. Sharing what led up to our accepting Christ into our life as our Lord and Savior is what allows God to use our testimony to win other lost souls for Christ.

What was your life like after your salvation?
Writing this part of your testimony should be a no brainer if you are excited about how God is working in your life. Share how God is working in your life, how you are now living a God centered, and God directed life. Share how having Jesus sitting on the throne of your heart has given your life new direction and new meaning. The important thing when giving your testimony, whether written or oral is to be open to the Holy Spirits leading because He will give you the words to write or speak, and He will show you the scriptures to interweave with your story of how God has worked and is working in your life. The testimonies that glorify God the most and the ones that are most effective in winning lost souls for the kingdom are not those that delineate your spiritual accomplishments after your conversion, i.e. how many Bible courses you have graduated from or how you started a jail ministry. What people who are lost and hurting really want to hear, what they really need to hear, is how God became real and alive in your life, those are the facts you need to share with them, those are the things that people searching for spiritual answers want to and need to hear from you.

Vocabulary and word count
Mark Twain once said, “Don't use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do.” Let me paraphrase that famous quote by one of America’s most beloved writers, write using a vocabulary that your target audience will understand. Your audience is all the lost souls, people who have no relationship with Jesus Christ, people who may have very limited, or no acquaintance with theology, so use common words, leaving theological terminology out of your testimony. Save your arcane vocabulary for your fellow believers who have a solid foundation in the Word.

A little earlier in I touched on the acceptable length of your testimony, I want to revisit that subject now. The rule of thumb when it comes to your personal testimony or to anything else that you write to glorify God, it is better to make it too long than it is to make it too short. Editors of Christian web sites and print publications are more than willing and able to pare the length down if it is too long but they cannot add to what you have written they have more room than what your article length requires. When it comes to testimonies, when it comes to winning souls for Christ, more is always better than less.

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