Tell Your Kids Your Faith Story: Gospel Mini-Series

We challenge ourselves to answer a simple question our kids may ask one day: “How did you become a Christian?” We break down why sharing our testimony is one of the strongest tools for family discipleship and give a simple framework to craft it and tell it naturally at home. 
• why kids need more than facts about God 
• Psalm 78 and Deuteronomy 6 as a call to pass on faith 
• how our story becomes evidence our kids can carry 
• why an “ordinary” church kid testimony still matters 
• what a testimony is and why it is not a performance 
• the Acts 26 framework: before, encounter, after 
• what to avoid: oversharing, embellishing sin, missing the gospel 
• a practical exercise: write two to three sentences for each part 
• practice out loud and look for a real moment to share 

So shoot us an email, podcast at WayneChristian.org. And share this parent with another, you know, parent who needs to hear this episode and um, you know, learn about sharing their testimony, or maybe even listen to it with your own kids so that they can learn to share their testimony too. And make sure you subscribe so you don't miss the rest of this series about sharing your faith as we keep rolling with that here. 

Send any questions you want answered to podcast@waynechristian.org

This podcast is presented by Wayne Christian School- A Christ-centered community school whose mission is to assist parents and churches in the education of their children from a biblical worldview to impact their world for Christ. You can learn more at waynechristian.org 

Transcript

The Question Every Parent Dreads

Luis 0:00

Let me ask you a question. If your child came to you right now and said, Mom, Dad, how did you become a Christian? Like what's your story? What would you say? Could you tell them? Would you know where to start?

Nate 0:15

And here's what we found. Most Christian parents have never actually sat down and told their child their testimony. Not because they don't have one, they do, but because nobody ever told them it mattered. Nobody told them that their story, even a messed, messy, imperfect, maybe even ordinary story of how God got a hold of their lives, is one of the most powerful discipleship tools they have.

Luis 0:40

Revelation 1211 says they overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. Not just the gospel in the abstract, but their testimony, your testimony, the specific personal account of what God did in your life. Today we're going to help you craft it, own it, and share it with the people who need to hear it most. Your kids.

Why Parents Skip Their Testimony

Nate 1:25

And we are glad you're here with us where we're kicking off a brand new series on sharing your faith. And today is that foundational episode where we're talking about how to share your testimony.

Luis 1:39

And we don't just mean mention it in passing, we mean actually telling your story and letting your child see that faith in your house, that it's not just tradition, but that it's real, it's personal, and that it changes you.

Nate 1:52

Over the next couple of episodes, we're going to build on this. We'll talk about how to actually have a gospel conversation with your child and how to equip your kids to share their faith with their friends. But today's that starting point because you can't teach your child to share something that you haven't owned yourself.

Making Faith Personal At Home

Luis 2:10

So let's start with the why, because I think a lot of parents skip this step. They'll read their kids the Bible, they'll bring them to church, they'll talk about God in general terms, but they never actually say, This is what God did in my life. And here's why that matters. Your child doesn't just need information about God. They need to see that God is real to you. That he didn't just show up in the pages of the Bible, but that he showed up in your kitchen. He showed up in the worst year of your life, that he showed up in the moment when you hit rock bottom or the moment when you were sitting in a church pew at age nine and something clicked.

Nate 2:50

So there's

The Biblical Mandate To Remember

Nate 2:51

a reason that Psalm 78 opens the way it does. And I love this Psalm. But towards the end of Deuteronomy 6, Moses says over and over again, remember, remember, remember. Remember all the way the Lord your God has led you. And Psalm 78 is a kind of a worship song that the nation of Israel would use to kind of remember that and keep that in front of them. In verse 4, it says, We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done, to establish a testimony in Jacob and appoint a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children. You see, there's a lot of similarities, right, to Deuteronomy 6, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. You know, that there's a whole thing there, right? Of just r passing on the faith to the next generation. And a lot of this is like parents are just sharing what God has done in their lives. And generally we should talk about that, like, hey, God showed up this way, God provided for our family that way, but there's a specific thing that, you know, it uses the word hide here. There's a specific thing we shouldn't hide from our kids, and that's specifically how God saved us. Because that's really the greatest work that God has done in our lives is saved us. He's redeemed us.

Luis 4:37

I actually preached a sermon recently on Psalm 78. Yeah. And it was really cool doing a word study and the different Hebrew words and their significance. Yeah. And one of the words there was the Hebrew word tahilah, uh, which is the word that we get praise from, right? Like, and so it it like it taught about like like I taught about sharing our tahilah, right? Like praiseworthy moments in God. And that helps us tell the story because sometimes we underestimate that your story is evidence for your kid, right? Yeah. So that real firsthand eyewitness evidence that God is alive and working. And so when your teenager is sitting in a college dorm room two years from now, and someone asks them, Why do you even believe this stuff? One of the most powerful answers that they can give is because I watched it happen to my dad. I I watched it happen to my mom, and I watched it happen to me. And your story, right? Your breathing piece of history becomes the apologetics that live inside your own home.

When Your Story Feels Ordinary

Nate 5:41

Yeah, that's that's really good. And let's let's address something right here up front because I know somebody's listening to this and they're already thinking, my story isn't that impressive. I didn't come, you know, out of a dri a addiction or some dramatic background where God saved me. I just grew up in church and heard the gospel and believed. And let me tell you guys, that's me, right? I'm right in the same boat with you. My story's not that impressive from that standpoint. Right. You worked at Chick-fil-A. I did work at Chick-fil-A. That's impressive. That is pretty impressive, but I was saved before I started working at Chick-fil-A. Oh, okay. I guess you have to be, right? They may. I don't know. I used to tell people that I would pray for the chicken before it goes out. Oh, before I actually I do still tell people that. Yeah. And most of them believe me.

Luis 6:27

Because you you were a chef.

Nate 6:28

I was a head chef. I still have I have the chef's coat with like my name embroidered on it, and it says head chef. Head chef. Yep. It's right there. Yep. All right, back on track. But if you are in that camp, okay, what I always tell people is that in and of itself is just as amazing grace that God has shown you. That's good. Because he saved you before you had the chance to go down that path. That's really good, dude. And so emphasize that with your kids. And because hopefully, if you're listening to Equip for Impact and you're you're following the recommendations we give you on the last almost 60 episodes of this podcast.

Luis 7:07

This is episode 59, 58, yeah.

Nate 7:09

59. So if you are following that, your kids are gonna grow up and hopefully accept Christ at an early age, and they will not go down that path and have this some dramatic change testimony. But they need to recognize that even that is God's grace. So emphasize that so that they know this is a good place to be in.

Luis 7:32

And so what we need you to be thinking about, right, is what is my story and how does it apply to to my kid, right? Because, like we mentioned, your testimony matters specifically to your child. Nate mentioned it earlier, Deuteronomy 6, right? And that's kind of the heartbeat of everything that we do in in this show. It calls parents to love God with everything they have and then to pass it on. And the vehicle for that transmission, it's not your church curriculum, it's not your children's church program, it's not your teens program, right? It's your life, it's your story, it's the authentic witness of a parent who can look at their kid and say, God changed me, and I believe that he can change you too. And so we're gonna get practical here.

Nate 8:28

Yeah, let's

What A Testimony Really Is

Nate 8:29

do that because we need to talk about how to share your testimony. And and we kind of need to make sure we are clear on what a testimony actually is and what it's not, right? Because I think one of the reasons parents don't share their story with their kids is that they have this mental picture of what a testimony is supposed to be like and and kind of you know unrealistic expectations, you know, of standing up and having a microphone and making it all organized and polished, and it really doesn't need to look like that to really count when you're you're sharing your testimony, especially with your own kids.

Luis 9:04

Yeah, because a testimony is simply your personal account of what God has done in your life. That's it, right? It's it's not a sermon, it's not a performance, it's not your best moment, it's just your honest story.

Nate 9:20

Yeah,

The Before Encounter After Framework

Nate 9:21

and so you know, we can all we can come back to this model that actually shows up in the Bible. The Apostle Paul himself in Acts 26 is standing before King Agrippa, and you know, he he's got the opportunity to explain himself. He's been arrested, and there's a whole backstory of being falsely accused and all this stuff. But instead of really defending himself, he takes the opportunity to share his story, his testimony. And there's really three clear movements in the story, okay? Pretty simple, and and when we lay this out, you're gonna be like, oh yeah, that makes sense. Okay. Number one, before, right? What he was like before he met Jesus. He talks about being a Pharisee, persecuting Christians, all of these things, okay? And he he doesn't, you know, uh gloss over the the place he was in before he met Christ. Yeah, but then he moves right into number two, the encounter. He describes that moment when everything changed in his life. For him, it was on the road to Damascus, a blinding light, a voice from heaven probably didn't happen to you. Did that happen to you, Lewis?

Luis 10:27

No, not a blinding light, and no, not a voice from heaven, no voice from heaven.

Nate 10:31

No. Okay. Me neither, right? But there was an encounter, right? Sometime where you heard the gospel and you understood it. For Paul, that was that moment for him. And then he talks about after what his life looked like afterwards and the purpose he'd been given, the mission he was living on. And so that's the framework before encounter, after.

Luis 10:55

And if you notice something about Paul's testimony, Paul's talking to a king, and he uses plain direct language. He doesn't try to impress Agrippa with his credentials or his theological depth. He definitely had them, right?

Nate 11:10

He didn't bring up premillennial dispensationalism.

Luis 11:13

He did not, right?

Nate 11:13

I'm pretty sure Paul was a dispensationalist, though.

Luis 11:16

Oh, I would imagine so, right? And so he says, This is what happened to me. And it was so compelling that at the end of it, King Agrippa says something like, Paul, are you trying to convince me to be a Christian? Like and and I think that when people read that, it's like maybe he was close to becoming a Christian, right? Like, you know, there's there's there's different English translations of how that comes out. Almost persuade almost persuadest thou me. There's the King James version. So it's like this idea of like, you know, are you trying to make me a Christian? Like, you almost got me there, Paul.

Nate 11:54

Yep, yep. And it was that's the thing, is that I think there it's it's an honest story, it's it's compelling, yeah, and it grabs his test his attention. Yeah. And it's like, I see what you've got and I want some of that.

Luis 12:08

And it's simple.

Nate 12:08

Yeah, it's simple. Right.

Common Testimony Traps To Avoid

Nate 12:10

And and so let's talk a little bit about what a testimony is not, right? Because there's some traps that we can fall into. First, we already said this, it's not a performance, right? You don't need to wax eloquent about how, you know, God changed you and have things perfectly memorized with your pauses and your breaths and everything in it, right? It's okay, right? Your kid is not an audience. And in fact, if you try and do that, they're gonna tune you out, right? So just talk to your kids, talk to your neighbor. It's just a conversation. You're telling a story, yeah, just like you tell that story from last time on vacation. Absolutely.

Luis 12:44

And the second thing to remember is that a testimony is not a full confession, right? And so sharing your testimony with your child is not the same thing as disclosing every sin you've ever committed, right?

Nate 12:57

Or or like elap or embellishing that to make it seem like look at how big, yeah, yeah, a bad sinner I was, and God saved me.

Luis 13:05

Absolutely, right. This isn't a confessional, right? You're just painting a picture of who you were before Christ and who you are now. And it's important, right, that you don't embellish sin because sometimes the appearance of sin can be enticing to your kid. And if you get down too big of a rabbit trail with what you used to be, and you're disclosing, well, like I used to do this, I used to do that. You may inadvertently move your child in a direction where they're like, Well, wow, my parent used to be really bad. He did that, and so now I can do that and still turn out okay. Absolutely, right? Yeah, and so remember the level of detail should be age appropriate and purposeful. And and this is important, right? That doesn't mean that you sanitize your story, right? Like, don't scrub out all of the mess that you had and don't give your kid the highlight reel, right? They need to see that faith isn't for people who have it together, it's for people who don't. But there's a difference between being real and oversharing and being too graphic.

Nate 14:06

Yeah, that's right. And then another thing is we need to point out that this is a gospel testimony, okay? So I know some churches they have testimony time. Some some of them, you know, do a special service, some it's built into their their worship service, whatever. And it's just like talk about what God's done for you. Yeah. Which that deserves a place too, right? Talk about what God's done for you. But if you're talking about your gospel testimony, that's how you accepted the gospel, right? This is not, you know, oh, look at these amazing things that God did for me in my life. They're amazing. That's awesome, right? But if you don't talk about how you recognized your need for salvation and trusted him for salvation, then that's that's not a gospel testimony. That's just you worshiping, praising God for what he's done. Absolutely. Which is good, yeah. But that's not your testimony.

Luis 14:57

Because ultimately, right, you want the testimony to do the work. This isn't a time for you to lecture and then be like, and pull that Jesus juke. That's why you need to follow the body. That's why you need Jesus. Um but you let the story work. Give them a Bible burn. And you trust the Holy Spirit, you plant the seed, and then you trust that God is the one that makes it grow. Have you heard that one? The Bible burn? You use Jesus Juke. I've heard you use that one before.

Nate 15:24

But the Bible burn is like, oh man, he got a third-degree Bible burn. Anyway, the classic things that when you grow up in a church, you just learn. All right, let's get down to it and talk about how we actually we've already given you the three-part framework, but how does this actually play out in your your life and as you are kind of getting things straight before you you share this with your kid? Where where

How To Write It In Bullet Points

Nate 15:48

should parents start?

Luis 15:49

Yes. So remember, we're doing three parts, right? The the before the encounter and the after, right? And and that's right from Paul's playbook. And so here's here's what I want you to do as we walk through this, right? If you're somewhere listening to us where you can write, not if you're driving, yep, but get a notepad. Or mowing the grass if you actually mow your grass. That's right. Yep. Or open the notes app on your phone, right? And write this down because what we're asking you to do today is not just to understand the concept, but we want to help you actually build your testimony so that you're ready to share it. Yep.

Nate 16:23

And this can just be bullet points, right? So, so remember, before, start there. What were you like before you came to faith in Christ? What were you trusting in? What was your life centered on, right? It's those are the key questions for you. What did you believe about God, about yourself, before you came to trust in Christ alone for your salvation? So if you grew up in church and you were saved at a young age, your before might look different than someone who came to faith in their, you know, 20s or 30s and they've been running from God and had a whole list of sins in their life, right? But if you're saved out of that, like that church context, maybe your before might be I knew all the right answers, but I was trusting in my knowledge of the truth to save me instead of trusting in Jesus, right? So it's still a before, even if you don't have a whole big list. But you can just write that down. A couple of bullet points.

Luis 17:19

Yep. So two, three bullet points, you know, if you've got time, sentences, right? What were you spiritually? Where were you spiritually? What were you chasing? What was your understanding of who Jesus was before it became personal?

Nate 17:31

Yeah. And so the second part, the encounter, right? The moment, it might be a season when everything changed, when God got your attention. Again, for some of you, this might be a specific moment, a date you remember. It might be a sermon that you remember hearing or a conversation with a friend or a family member. Whatever it was, there was something where God got your attention. And again, let's let's point out, you may not remember the date. You may not, it may be just kind of this gradual realization over the course of a couple months, a couple years, but at some point you recognized your need for salvation.

Luis 18:09

Like I don't remember the exact date of mine, but I know I was nine years old. And I was at our church was having a week-long revival, and they gave a gospel presentation where I think I fully realized in that moment my heart conditioned. Yep. And I went forward, or in this case, to a room to pray and to kind of understand the gospel and and to pray. And that's the moment that I look back on and say, like, like that's the moment I got saved. Now, yeah, to be clear, I I grew up in in church, right? Whenever I was younger, and so like I got saved at Bible school and you know, in quotation marks, right? I got saved in Bible school. You walked forward, you raised your hand.

Nate 18:50

I did, you know, I probably fill out one of those forms and triplicate so that you can keep one and the church can keep whatever.

Luis 18:56

And so like I did that at Bible school, I did that at camps, you know, and so but it was that moment that I think back now when that when I was nine years old at that church, right? Yeah. And so those those are real, right? Those those are valid moments. And the question to answer is here, what happened? What did God do? What did God say? What did God place in your path that started the change? And specifically, when did you put your trust in Jesus? And when did the gospel become your gospel? Yeah, that's right.

Nate 19:27

And so then you talk, you can pivot to your afterwork, right? Who are you now? How is your life different? Again, you you might, you know, not have major big swings, but the point is now you're not trusting in yourself, you're trusting in Christ. How is God continuing to work? If we talked about those things where God has shown himself and provided, yeah. This is a time to throw in an example of that. Like, you know, and God keeps working in my life. Yeah. You you're not perfect, you're still not perfect, but that's okay because you can say, Ever since I got cha saved, you know, everything changed in my life. It's a new direction. Yeah.

Luis 20:06

Yeah. And so again, you know, not long, two, three bullet points, right? Yeah. What is different about your life? What is different about your relationships? And and your kid might even say, like, yeah, I I've seen that in you. And then that's your testimony. Because your kid is able to affirm what they're seeing.

Nate 20:26

Yep. And so we've kind of already talked about how, you know, even if you're, you know, a church kid and all of that, your story still counts, right? But you should still write it out and have it there and just think about like if you came to faith as you know, a kid, you you probably were still pretty excited. Your your parents, your grandparents, they probably, you know, celebrated with you. You might have gotten baptized in your church and they made a big deal about it. It's great. And so you can still share that with your kids so that they, so that they know that that is a totally valid faith experience and it's a good path that they can follow as well.

Luis 21:06

And even like our testimonies are probably different, right? You grew up in the home. Your parents were missionaries, right? And so, and so you grew up very my parents were pro were not missionaries. I did get saved, you know, nine is a relatively young age. Do you remember what age you were when you got saved? Four and a half. Four and a half. Four and a half. There's some theological questions that are spinning in my head right now. Are you really? Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. No, but seriously though, right? Like think about it this way. If your child, regardless of age, came to you right now and they were sitting in your living room, would you tell them their story doesn't count because it wasn't dramatic enough, right? Yeah. Like, Nate, you may have gotten saved eating like Chick-fil-A, right?

Nate 21:48

I don't think Chick fil A had expanded outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Okay.

Luis 21:53

So when I was so you weren't eating Chick-fil-A when you were chicken, I was not, sorry. But you would still celebrate it, right? Like you'd Call grandma, you'd write it in the journal. Like God saving a child early is not a lesser miracle. In fact, it's it's a greater miracle. And and I'll tell you something else about the church kid testimony. It is actually deeply relevant to your child who is probably also growing up in a Christian home. When you say I knew all the right answers growing up, and there came a moment when I had to decide if I actually believed it for myself, you're speaking directly into their experience. And you're not a cautionary tale, you're not a roadmap, a roadmap. You're just saying I stood right where you're standing, and here's what it looked like when it became real for me.

Nate 22:38

Yeah, that's that's really

Practice It And Share It This Week

Nate 22:40

good. So, Lewis, before we kind of land this plane, any any final words for a parent who's listening and and thinking, you know, I don't know if I'm ready for this conversation or or telling my story right now.

Luis 22:51

Yeah, so here's what I would say is ready or not, your story is already influencing your child. They are watching your life every single day. And so the question isn't whether your testimony is shaping them, it is, right? The question is whether it's doing it on purpose. And when you share your story, you're not just giving your child information, you're giving them permission. You're giving them permission to have a real faith, and you're giving them permission to struggle and believe, and you're giving them permission to say, God got a hold of someone just like me. And so take some time this week to write down your before, your encounter, and your after. And keep it to two to three sentences each, right? And then practice it out loud. And then when you find the moment, whether it's on the car ride, right, whether it's at the dinner table, whether it's late at night, find some time to tell your kid your story. And you don't have to be Billy Graham or Charles Spurgeon or DL Moody. You just have to be honest and let God do the

Email Us And Share The Series

Luis 23:55

rest.

Nate 23:55

Yeah, that is so great. So thank you all for listening today to Equipped for Impact. And uh, we would love to hear from you guys of how this went if you had this conversation. So shoot us an email, podcast at WayneChristian.org. And share this parent with another, you know, parent who needs to hear this episode and um, you know, learn about sharing their testimony, or maybe even listen to it with your own kids so that they can learn to share their testimony too. And make sure you subscribe so you don't miss the rest of this series about sharing your faith as we keep rolling with that here. Uh, but until then, keep leading the next generation to stand firm in their faith and influence the world for Christ.