Engage Your Community.
Your church’s hidden power
e all know the power of a good story. A story heard in childhood can stay with you for a lifetime. The stories we share in community shape us into the people we are—and the people we hope to become.
A testimony is a good story that is also a God story. It is telling, whether in formal presentation or casual conversation, where we see God’s presence and activity in our lives.
The problem is: many people are not sure how to talk about God in today’s world. When we asked why, this is what we heard.
"I don't know enough to talk about my faith."
“I haven’t had a lot of practice.”
“I wouldn't want to offend people.”
“I let the pastor do the talking.”
“I just try to show my faith by my actions.”
The Bible says even Moses at first felt uncomfortable talking about God.
At Perkins School of Theology, we could see the incredible value of testimony in building community. The stories we tell inside the church community can spill out into our wider communities—the cities, towns and villages where we live. Especially today, when people are longing to connect and reconnect, we need to be able to “speak about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).
But we could also see that churches need help growing in this area. People want to be able to tell their God stories in a way that is warm and inviting. A way that connects with their culture and community. A way that brings together speaking and listening. A way that weds words and actions.
That’s how Testimony HQ started. After much thought and prayer, we decided to become a hub or headquarters for churches to learn and practice this way of doing testimony.
We’re excited about this project and would love for your church to join us. After all, there’s a world of people waiting to hear your story!
How we can help you
ome churches have been returning to “normal,” while others are struggling like never before. We are attuned to these different contexts, and we are used to working with a diverse range of people, churches, and denominations.
We can help you by providing excellent teaching, coaching, and practice in this area of testimony. As your church works with us and other churches, you’ll grow in the ability to integrate testimony into a variety of settings—including corporate worship, small group studies, casual conversations, and community outreach.
We've been organizing cohorts of churches to work together this way. Our next cohort will be launching in 2024.
Churches that are part of a Testimony HQ cohort will be able to:
(1) Learn how the regular practice of testimony can transform your church’s ministry, as you work through our Testimony HQ curriculum. It’s designed to help people become more comfortable, knowledgeable, skillful, and spiritually aware.
(2) Benefit from our team of professors, church leaders, coaches and mentors, who will provide insight and guidance to help your church grow in the practice of testimony.
(3) Connect with other churches, so you can compare notes, share ideas, converse, pray, and practice together.
(4) Receive a stipend (up to $5000) to cover food and other expenses for your learning sessions, as well as expenses related to outreach into your church’s wider community.
Due to a generous grant, we can provide all of the above at no cost to churches enrolled in our program.
We’re focusing first on churches in our region (within 350 miles of Dallas, TX). But wherever your church is located, we’d like to keep in touch, so that down the road we can offer you resources and other ways to help. Please contact us to be included in our mailing list (we promise not to fill up your in-box).
We also encourage you to check out the Perkins Certificates in Practical Ministry, a program that enables you to take courses in an array of areas, from youth ministry to spiritual direction to evangelism.