I found this a simply outstanding piece on the importance of Christians everywhere to testify to the great things the Lord has done for us.
One of the most effective aspects of both Faith Alive and Cursillo was the personal Christian witness that leaders gave. It was sacrificial, open, humble, and deeply moving. Even if one does not agree with the principles of the Christian gospel, it is hard to ignore a sincere, simple testimony to God’s work in a fellow human being’s life.
[Received via email from Bishop Atwood, and posted with permission.]
One of the most amazing forces that has shaped the Christian faith in Africa has been the East African Revival. It started more than seventy years ago when a small group of Rwandan missionaries crossed the Southwestern border of Uganda to share their testimonies and the power of the Holy Spirit at Bishop Barham College. When they began to share, the Holy Spirit “fell” on the whole group and they spent three days in worship, overwhelmed by the manifest presence of God. The entire group was radically transformed by the encounter and went out all over East Africa sharing what had happened and inviting people to come into the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. They called people to change their lives and to commit to Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Of course there were already deeply converted and mature Christians in East Africa before this point, but this revival spread like wildfire across Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Congo, and Tanzania. The entire Great Lakes Region was transformed. The message was one of repentance and public confession of sins. Can you imagine an environment where people were invited to stand up in huge gatherings and confess their sins as they accepted Christ? There are countless examples of “notorious sinners” manifesting dramatically changed lives.
I had the opportunity to speak at the decadal gathering in Kibale where more than 11,000 people gather outdoors to remember and celebrate what happened all those years ago. I even met some of the people who experienced the original outpouring. They are now old and frail, but still shine with the presence of God. One octogenarian man brought tears to my eyes as he shuffled with his cane in a dance of joy before the Lord as he shared a testimony of what God has done in his life.
There were many others who stood up in front of the huge crowd and confessed patterns of sin and announced that they were turning their lives over to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. These were not superficial testimonies with a comfortable and suitably religious overtone. They were magnificent demonstrations of God’s power to change lives.
The practice of giving testimonies is widespread all through East Africa. It is considered to be so normative that hardly any serious gathering can pass without people bearing witness to what God has done in their life. Although it is implicit, there is an underlying pattern to the testimonies of East Africa. When people share, they tend to do so in a common way. It’s not that it is rote sharing, over the decades, people have heard so many testimonies of Jesus transforming power the ones that are shared now tend to fall into the same rhythm.
The pattern looks like this:
1. Before I encountered Jesus my life was characterized by ________________ (fill in the sin or problem in the blank).
2. When I met Jesus in ______________ (fill in the year and the circumstances), He changed my life.
3. Ever since then, He has proven His faithfulness to _________________ (fill in the way the Lord has addressed the things in item #1 above and how He is bringing about the Fruit of the Spirit in my life).
4. A word of current testimony of how Jesus has been active in provision or answered prayer in the last week.In East Africa, when someone shares like that, they are received with “heart access.” They may not even be consciously aware of the pattern, but when people hear it, they resonate with it and are much more open than they would be if they were approached without it.
Most of us who have lived in the environment of the Episcopal Church have not grown up in a witnessing culture. In most Episcopal Churches evangelism is implicit. The liturgy assumes that people are believers. Liturgical challenges about relationship with Jesus Christ are often presented in a perfunctory way. Over the years, my experience is not that people are hostile to the Gospel, it is more that they are unaware of its content. Certainly, the current crop of leaders nationally give precious little evidence of having any idea of what the Gospel is.
In the 70’s, a priest named Claxton Monroe wrote a book titled, “Witnessing Laymen Make Living Churches.” It is out of print now, but that is OK. It is a case of a title that is so good, you can get the idea without even reading the book! Could I invite you to prepare a testimony of how Jesus Christ has worked in your life? Would you be willing to share it in the congregation where you serve? Are you willing to let others share about how God has worked in their lives as well? Of course it is worthwhile to prepare. You could do a sharing-preparing session or two to get people ready to share their story. Once testimonies are introduced into your congregation, it will never be the same. It should help if you give Biblical examples of testimonies. In some communities, there may be some tensions as people try to sort out their own understanding of what it means to be Anglican Christians. Encouragement from the clergy can make it clear that testimonies have a legitimate role in the life of the church.
I’d like to invite all the clergy receiving this to prepare your testimony and share it on Sunday morning over the next few weeks. It doesn’t have to be flamboyant to have an impact on others. The only testimony that won’t have an impact is the one that is not shared.
May God richly bless you, your sharing, and your ministry.
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Revelation 12:9-11 comes to mind:
</blockquote> “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil and satan, which deceived the whole world: he was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him.
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto the death.” </blockquote>