New Believer’s Path · Lesson 6: Testimony · Always Ready to Give an Answer
This lesson in one sentence: Testimony is not being good at explaining; it is saying honestly what God has done in me.
Timing (about 60 minutes)
- Opening5 min
- Read Together10 min
- A true story5 min
- Discussion25 min
- This Week10 min
- Pray for One Another5 min
Opening
When did you last share good news with someone?
Read Together
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to the whole creation.”
Mark 16:15 · WEB
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, with humility and fear.
1 Peter 3:15 · WEB
A true story (ask a group member to read it aloud)
Around 1857 in Ningbo, after Hudson Taylor had preached the gospel, a middle-aged man stood up and told the people gathered there, ‘I have long sought for the Truth, as my fathers did before me; but I have never found it. I have travelled far and near, but without obtaining it. I have found no rest in Confucianism, Buddhism, or Taoism; but I do find rest in what I have heard here to-night.’
He had been one of the leaders of a Buddhist sect in the city. Soon afterwards he went back to a meeting of the sect he had led and told his former companions of the peace he had found in believing; later one of them came to faith too. A few days later he asked how long the English had known this gospel. Told it had been some hundreds of years, he was amazed: ‘My father sought after the Truth for more than twenty years, and died without finding it. Oh, why did you not come sooner?’
Source: Hudson Taylor, A Retrospect, chapter 15 (the original does not give this man’s name)
Discussion
- The believer in Ningbo asked, ‘Why did you not come sooner?’ Who does that bring to mind for you?
- “Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15)—what does ‘always ready’ mean for you?
- Writing ‘how I came to faith’ in three sentences, which sentence do you think is hardest to write?
This Week
Write ‘how I came to faith’ in three sentences, and look for a chance to tell it to one person.
Each person tries writing the three sentences on the spot (before I believed · how I came to know Jesus · since I believed), then reads them to a partner.
Closing
In pairs, pray one sentence for the person the other wants to tell.
Tips for the leader
- Don’t ask anyone to read in front of the whole group; pairs are enough.
- There is no standard format for testimony; an ordinary story is a true testimony too. Don’t compare whose story is more ‘exciting’.
- Remember “with humility and fear” (1 Peter 3:15): tell your own story, and don’t criticize other people’s faith.
General principles for leaders
- The leader is not a teacher but someone who walks alongside everyone.
- Give everyone a chance to speak; with someone who talks a lot, you can gently say, ‘Let’s also hear from friends who haven’t spoken yet.’
- Don’t rush to give answers. If someone is silent, wait a few more seconds.
- For a question you can’t answer, you can say, ‘I don’t know either; let’s look it up together,’ and note it down for next time.
- What is said in the group stays in the group.
- At the opening, the leader can give their own answer first, showing that it can be simple and honest.