How to Give Your Salvation Testimony to Children

There are certain rules you should abide by when giving your salvation testimony. These rules become even more important when giving your salvation testimony to children. You must organize your talk, write it out, and then practice before giving it in front of a child/children. The best testimonies are ones that have been written and re-written. (Actually, this is the key to all good writing!)

Brainstorm Your Ideas

Before you begin to write your story, it might be helpful to first have a brainstorming session. In this session, just write down everything that comes to mind about your salvation experience. Don’t worry about order, spelling, or anything else. Just write anything that might remotely fit.

Categorize

After your brainstorming session, categorize the different parts under the three different categories: “What My Life Was Like Before Christ,” “How I Found Jesus,” and “How Jesus Changed My Life.”

Strike Out inappropriate subjects, unimportant details, and lengthy stories. Remember, you are speaking to children, and they are not going to pay attention for long.

Avoid Lengthy Details

Simplify your story. You may need to leave out some details. The general idea is good enough and usually all you will have time for anyway.

Inappropriate Subjects

You can still give a true telling of your testimony without ugly details. If your father molested you every day, say something like, “My home was not a safe place. My father was abusive to me, and he hurt me every day. Maybe some of you know what that is like.” Then move on.

The Gospel

Avoid using “churchy words” like salvation, blood of the lamb, Holy Spirit, etc. When you explain the actual salvation experience, you can choose from several salvation verses to use. For example, a paraphrase of John 3:16 might sound like, “The preacher said that God loved us so much that he sent his son to die for our sins, and that whoever believes in him, their spirit will never die. They will live forever in heaven after they die.”

A One-Paragraph Testimony Example

One Sunday when I was ten, a traveling preacher visited our church. He said that Jesus had lived a perfect life, died for our sins, and rose again. He said that by believing in Jesus and changing our minds about sin, we could have a relationship with God. That day I did that. Ever since then I have not been afraid to die anymore because I know that when I leave this world, I will be in heaven with God.

You can formulate your testimony from several different angles and tell it every so often to the same group of kids with a little different slant. Just remember, use the three key parts: life before Christ, how I came to Christ, and life after Christ. Keep it moving and keep it short. Don’t get bogged down in lots of little details.

Practice Out Loud

Practice telling your testimony into a tape recorder until you can say it just like you would to your best friend. Time it. If it is more than three minutes, cut out some details. Simplify. Keep retelling it until you sound like yourself. Don’t try to use different words than you would normally use. Don’t memorize it word for word. If necessary, take a note card and write key words on it to jog your memory. Don’t read it word for word. Strive for a friendly storytelling style.

If you bear in mind the rules of writing your testimony for children and keep practicing, the children in your class will learn from your story.