As you were thinking about Jesus and heaven, did you talk to someone? Did you talk to your parents? A minister? What did you learn? What did you do? Obviously, in some way, you learned about how Jesus died and rose again to make a way to forgive us, to save us, and give us eternal life. Then you decided that you wanted Jesus to the be the Lord of you life and you called on Him to save you.

3. What difference did it make?

• Stick to the point. Don’t share your life story–“I was born at a really young age…I was close to my mother when it happened. But I grew and I grew…” Get to the point. This is the story of how you can to Christ. Cut out everything else that doesn’t convey this. For example, you don’t need to say, “So I talked to my pastor. His name was Bob and I had know Bob for twelve years. We used to play softball together. We had the cool nickname for him…” What does that have to do with your salvation experience? If nothing, then don’t share it.
• Keep it brief. You should be able to share your salvation testimony in a minute or less. As you train others, time them. Help them to share as clearly and briefly as possible.
• Avoid churchy language. If someone hasn’t grown up in church, they may not understand churchy language. If you say, “I walked down the aisle” referring to go forward during a church invitation, someone who hasn’t been in church may associate it with their only experience of “walking down an aisle” which is probably the day they were married. With children I stopped using the phrase, “I asked Jesus into my heart,” because there was a child who said, “I don’t want to do that.” Why not? “Because He’s a big man and I’m just a little girl.” She was being literal. Big man + Little heart = Big mess! She didn’t understand the terminology. When I have used the term “saved,” a biblical term, I have had children ask, “What do you mean that you were ‘saved’? Did you fall in a swimming pool and someone pull you out?” Even, when I am speaking with a child, if I ask, “Have you ever sinned?” I always follow by saying, “Have you ever done anything wrong?” I started doing this after having several children told me, “No. I’ve never sinned.” Then I would ask, “Have you ever done anything wrong,” and they would immediately say, “Oh yeah.” It wasn’t that they hadn’t done wrong things; they just didn’t understand the term that I was using. As you are working on your salvation testimony, listen to it with the ears of someone who hasn’t been in church. Do you hear anything confusing?