Tuesday 19 January 2016

THE IMPORTANCE OF TESTIMONY

'...public testimony of God;s work in our lives should be a regular and central part of the church's common worship. An honest account of someone's personal journey, including the struggles, uncertainties, and successes, provides hope for those listening as well as a narrative map of how God works out his restoration in human lives. Furthermore, testimony acts as a form of confession, a uniquely Christian idea in which sin is brought into the open and shown to be redeemable within the gospel story. This sort of testimonial confession is only for the sake of the speaker but also plays an important redemptive-formative role within the gathered community; it runs counter to the pervasive secular narrative that trains us to manage and edit our personal stories, hiding weaknesses and any other signs of failure from public view.' 
Jonathan Grant, Divine Sex, p.204.