Former President Jimmy Carter has said, "The combined testimonies of countless people with similar experiences have helped to perpetuate religious faith as an integral part of the lives of billions of people." Nothing can take the place of people telling people what Jesus has done for them.

Great Example:
If you want a good example of a life-changing story that honors Jesus Christ read Paul's testimony before Agrippa (Acts 26:1-19 ). In that testimony he tells us:

1. What he was before Christ. (Acts 26:9-11).
2. How he met Christ. (Acts 26:12-18).
3. What he became after Christ changed him. (Acts 26:19-28).

Some Tips:

• Use an attention-grabbing personal incident that all of us can identify with.
• Use attention-getting title with no mention of religion.
• Give real detail about your life – so we can visualise these scenes.
• Use real conversation. If it’s 'real', it is easier to believe the account. In writing testimonies, we also must aim to create reality. Poet Philip Larkin used this as a way of judging literature. He suggested that we could judge whether writing was believable by asking ourselves – "did I care?"
• Don’t use Christianese jargon. The only acceptable Christian-related words are 'church', 'God', 'Jesus', 'Gospel' and 'Bible'.
• Keep a short sentence length with easy verb and sentence construction, so that a second language English speaker on the Internet can understand.
• Quote from a modern translation and state the reference. Whatever Bible translation you may prefer for personal study, where you want technical accuracy, evangelism needs a modern easy-to-understand version.
• Try to relate to a wide range of people to identify with your story by omitting facts that are not relevant to your testimony. However it would be an option to give more details about her background, family, education, if these facts would make you seem more 'real'.
• People relate to feelings of fear, loneliness, abandonment, helplessness etc.
• Don’t say you prayed - a word which means different things to different people; just say you 'asked'. Don’t use the word Lord, because it is a term more commonly used by Christians and could make non-Christians feel uncomfortable.

Essential Ingredients:
Almost every testimony has four essential ingredients.

1. The problem. What kind of trouble were you facing? How did it affect you? How did it feel to be in that trouble. How did that trouble get played out in your life.
2. The solution(s) that doesn't work. Continue with your unsuccessful attempts to resolve the problem or difficulty. At this stage, things often go from bad to worse. As we run out of alternatives and hope, the problem is revealed as something much bigger than we are, or, at least, bigger than we thought it was.
3. God intervenes. God creatively intervenes. He may remove the problem. He may grant us some paradigm shift that changes how the problem affects us. He may bring people into our lives that help bear our burdens. He might bring perfect peace into a storm of turmoil, or overflowing joy into a pit of grief. The options available to God are endless.
4. The take away. What I discovered about God, about His love, and/or about who I am in Christ -- and how that affects my life today.