Basically it's a "life story" that focuses on the spiritual part of your life. So it's like an autobiography, but it's not really about covering all the area of your life, but more about explaining how you've grown spiritually. Things that you might include could be:

1) Family's religious background

2) Earliest memories or thoughts of spirituality, God, religion, or church

3) Significant moments of spiritual change, whether growth or not

4) People that have influenced what you believe and how you've learned of God

5) Where you are with God right now

6) Hopes for your spiritual growth in the future

Some of these might apply to you more than others, but the more you can include, the better.  It's helpful not just for you to think through it all, but also a blessing for other people to read and hear!  Hopefully the things above will outline your journey of spiritual faith, how you got to the point of being baptized now, and look towards the future.  It's not unusual for people to have about a page and half to two pages (double spaced) of a story. And here are a few examples:

Before I met Jesus, I was just your regular girl. Doing well in school and having fun were my two primary goals in life, and doing the right thing wasn’t always most important. And I knew little about God. When I was six years old, one of my friends asked me if I knew who Jesus was. I said I did, but I really had no idea. Sometimes I would sit on the porch swing next to our old house and stare up at the sky, wondering if God was up there. Occasionally I thought I saw God’s face among the clouds. I hardly knew anything about sin and doing wrong and of course nothing about how God could change these things.

Then one day, someone invited our family to a bible study at a friend's house. Although my sister and I only played there, I noticed how nice and friendly the other kids there were. Eventually, we started attending church on Sunday too. I learned a lot there: how God sent Jesus down to save us from our sins, all the miracles Jesus performed, and how He sacrificed Himself for us. Still, I wasn’t sure I completely believed in Jesus. A little while later, though, he joined us in New Jersey from out of state. The day he moved in with us was one of the happiest days of my life. “How did this happen?” I wondered. It wasn’t until I went to a retreat the church sponsored that I truly knew the answer. A counselor answered my many questions about the Christianity, and then asked me if I wanted to believe in God. I said yes.

From then on, Jesus has helped me learn there are more important things than fun or school—not saying that those aren’t important too. Yet He, together with my parents and bible study teachers, taught me doing the right thing was most important. I am far from perfect today, but I know that God will forgive me. And I am grateful. Now I know more about sin. There is only one who always gives us the strength to face any sin or fault we have: Jesus Christ our Lord, the reason I am being baptized today. I’m still a young baby Christian. Help me grow into a Christ centered Christian.

I was born into a Christian family and baptized as an infant. Throughout my childhood, I grew up punctiliously attending Sunday school and have fervently participated in many Bible story discussions, but I steadily began to loathe the yearly routine. Memorizing Bible verses and engaging in those interesting topics were starting to be taken for granted, thus my faith receded from its vitality. This became my weakness in all aspects of my life because I did not maintain a consistent relationship with God. If I had not fallen into the same temptations and strife against my will and His will, I would not have been the rebellious, selfish, and condescending teenager you see standing here today.

I have always believed that God was the main purpose of life and that each and every one of us is called to be witnesses for Him however, my knowledge of the Bible and God’s nature became useless when I never applied it to my daily actions. It was then when God started to portray His unconditional love and mercy through large and small situations in my life. Testimonies after testimonies of people exclaiming the wonders of God’s power made me reflect on how He has led me through paths of darkness and despair. Amidst the frequent disappointments of being unable to always attain what I want for my life, God was teaching me that there will always be a better reward if I would continue to seek Him first. This became evident when He took the one thing I loved doing best and closed that path while opening an unexpected alternative.

Throughout high school, I have enjoyed spending time running outdoors and appreciate the aesthetic beauty of God’s creation. My inspiration stemmed from elite runners who can demonstrate incredible performances because of their discipline and commitment. This mindset became a foundation for my life- physically, mentally, and spiritually. The most significant running season of my high school years was Cross Country 2006 because my reason for every practices and races were not for the purpose of being the best, but for being God’s best. And because of this, my motivation became incredibly stalwart, after committing my passion for God’s glory.

So I now stand here before you, proclaiming my faith in God that He is my one and only Savior, and without Him, I am nothing. I hope that I will continue to be God’s instrument and convey His love to others through the things that I do and say. If God asked me to run that extra mile with Him, I can now confidently say “Yes.”

I’ve been coming to this building every Friday and Sunday, for the most part, since the dawn of creation. You guys have been my extended family where these are my parents who have brought me up in Christian ways and never hesitated to treat me like their own, whether good or bad, and these are my brothers and sisters who have not only joined me in my spiritual walk, but guided me the whole way. That’s why I feel so comfortable in sharing with you all my testimony of how I became so close with our God.

I guess it all started in the children’s worship where everything was said to me in a straight forward manner. My favorite is when you were given bible verses such as “God loves me,” but in reality the verse is like eight lines long. But the fact of the matter is that that was how I was taught of God’s grace and the miracles he has worked in others and in me. I learned from an extremely young age that God sent his beloved son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross and pay for my sins, and little by little it became second nature. For me, especially on this Easter Sunday, talking about Christ’s resurrection is like stating the obvious. Of course I’ve had doubts, but nothing major that took me lengths to overcome.

Actually, the only thing I can really call a minor struggle was my transition into the youth ministry. Sitting in those pews at that time was like facing the monsters under my bed. I entered a world where I no longer sang “Deep and Wide,” but praises with words I had yet to understand, and sermons where I could not fathom how adults followed along. That was probably the point in my life where I felt the most distant from the Lord. However, one summery Friday night pTim was talking about John 4:13, “Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.’” And for some odd reason, from that point on, everything just began to click. I learned to read the lyrics through one time during worship, process it, then join in the singing and to really try to comprehend what the pastors were trying to tell us, whether it be a message or application.

After that, everything just started to click. It came to me how amazing my life truly is. The Lord has blessed me with everything I can imagine, including two loving parents that sacrifice so much time and energy so that I may live my life to the fullest; a brother who protects me, looks after me, and shields me from all the bad things in life; and an adorable little sister who never fails to make me smile. He’s put food on the table, clothes on my back, and fulfills all my desires in life. I’ve always had the advantage of whenever anything goes wrong, even the silliest things like remembering where I put my homework, I can pray to the Lord and he always answers me. Like one time I prayed that the youth group can come together as one and just praise His name. And after countless nights, I can confidentally say that He answered my prayer once again.

This is what brings me to my next topic – baptism. I wonder why it’s taken me so long to publicly confess my love for Christ considering I’ve known it all along. I wish I could tell you of some kind of obstacle that’s kept me from it, but I can’t. And that’s just the thing. God has been so good to me, why haven’t I turned my life over to him yet? Why haven’t I attempted to repay him for all that he’s done? I know it’s impossible, but I need to, I want to try. And that’s why I’m here today. I’m here to say that I love Jesus Christ my Savior with all my heart and that I will live for Him and shine his light everyday whether I’m at school, church, on the computer, or simply with my friends, and I hope that you will all hold me to it.

It took such great love for my God to stand in front of thousands of people, wearing a crown of thorns, to be ridiculed and insulted, and then to take on my sins and die for me. Just thinking of that sacrifice and how much I am thankful for it can will me do anything for Him. If He can get nailed to a cross, I can sacrifice a movie to talk to a non-Christian about the Lord. And so now I declare that this girl, standing before you, is about to turn everything she has, whatever she has, to Him. It’s all for Him. Thank you.

I regularly see people up at this pulpit sharing their testimonies. I’ve always imagined the day that I would be in their situation and be the person sharing the testimony but here I am now doing just that.

Ever since I was born, this church has been the church that I attend regularly… both on Friday nights and Sunday mornings. Interestingly enough, I’ve never complained about going to church. It was rather fascinating and I looked forward to it. Besides, I got to see all of my church friends like Ben, Arnold, Derrick, Alex and others. I believe that most of my spiritual life developed from going to church… it has influenced my spiritual life the most.

I don’t remember actually being “introduced” exactly to Christianity. It’s as if I grew up naturally knowing that the Lord exists and that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. Throughout my life, instead of questioning myself “how can there be a God,” my question was “how can people believe that there is no God?”

Unlike many people, I never really had any spiritual ups and downs in my life… its more of a plateau. In June 2001, I fractured my left arm. After the surgery, my hand and fingers still could not function. I was in total agony because I was frustrated and in pain. I was not certain whether my hand would recover or not. I would cry every night and ask God “why me.” I prayed and prayed for my recovery but it did not show any improvement. I started complaining to God. My dad helped me realize that sometimes God builds up people’s faith through loss and suffering. 5 months after earnest praying, my fingers started to move… my prayers were answered.

My relationship with God didn't get worse but it wasn’t exactly improving either. However, I did have some sort of spiritual revitalization two years ago when I went to a Christian camp up in Brant Lake, New York called Pilgrim Camp. For two weeks, my spiritual life improved considerably. Everyone there cared about the same things I did and during that time, I felt like I belonged to the family of God. This thought gave a sense of peace.

Regarding baptism, I always felt like it was something that would occur eventually and I was kind of procrastinating. I didn’t feel the sense of urgency to get baptized. My main “excuse” was that I felt like I wasn’t close enough to God which, to be honest, wasn’t exactly a lie. Until one night on November 29, 2005, I had a conversation with my dad about my spiritual life which resulted in my official acceptance of Christ into my heart. I felt the Holy Spirit move me from within on that night.

So now, I stand here to proclaim my faith. I know there is a long road ahead of me but I can conquer it because I have Jesus with me. I thank God for everything He’s done and the people He’s placed in my life. I want to thank all my Sunday school teachers and Pastor Tim who have taught me so much. My mom and dad have really aided me and given me spiritual guidance throughout my life. They constantly prayed for my salvation. They would answer any questions I had about God, His love, His creation. Even my sister would constantly remind me to read the Bible or something. They’ve done so much for me and I sincerely thank them from the bottom of my heart.

Now, I’m born again and there is a new life ahead of me. I still have a lot to learn and I humbly hope my brothers and sisters will assist me in my spiritual growth.