The following is from Grandcamp 2026 at Epworth by the Sea, GA last week.
Yesterday, you heard from Sherry about the importance of passing on a spiritual legacy. That is why GrandCamp exists… to help you do just that. You also heard from her on the importance of prayer in this task of passing our faith from one generation to the next.
This morning, I want to focus on how we share our faith stories with gospel clarity. Scripture calls us to testify to the good things that God has done both in history and in our individual lives.
Psalm 145:4: “One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.”
Psalm 78:1–8
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
things that we have heard and known,
that our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.
He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
and that they should not be like their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God. (ESV)
Today, my hope is to help you think through, perhaps, some guiding principles on sharing faith stories in general that you can apply to conversations with your grandkids and others. Faith stories are testimonies of God’s goodness. Some of us grew up in a faith tradition that had a very specific definition of the word “testimony”. It meant the story of how you came to faith.
While that is an important testimony, it’s not our only testimony. If I tell you the story of how I met my wife, you would hear about God’s work in my life. There was a very specific moment that I believe God spoke to me (or planted an odd thought in my head). If you ask Jane how she met me, it would probably be as simple as “we worked at a camp one summer, he had gorgeous brown eyes, we dated and fell in love. What I am getting at is this. I can share my testimony about how I heard the gospel at my youth group, my freshman year of high school, and how that led me to become a Christian. Yet, I can also testify about how God led me to the college I attended (an important connection to how I met my wife), or led me into youth ministry after college, or led me to move my wife and three small children to England 30 years ago, or how he led us to SC 25 years ago. All of those had clear indicators of God leading and were experiences of God’s loving faithfulness. So they are all testimonies, testifying to the goodness of God in our lives.
Scripture is clear about the importance of passing the faith to the next generation by teaching them the good things God has done for his people over thousands of years. And we do well to share the stories of the Bible often with our grandkids. However, there is something unique about the role of grandparents that suggests that kids need to hear the personal stories of our lives. This became my conviction through my own kids and their relationships with their grandparents.
When my father passed away many years ago, I realized that my kids had little idea what his life was like growing up, being the first in his family to attend a University, and all the stories my sister and I heard when we were growing up and visiting my grandparents. My kids didn’t hear much about God’s work in my dad’s life. So, when my wife’s father started declining with dementia, I made a very specific request of my kids when we went to visit. His dementia was characterized by an inability to recall more recent things. He had excellent memories from longer ago. So I told them to ask grandpa about his life growing up, falling in love, joining the army, starting a career, etc. Ask him what life was like and how God led him over the years. My father-in-law was a deeply Christian man. He closely followed Jesus, and I wanted my kids to hear about that.
Grandparents have the unique opportunity to share stories from a very different time. The world before the internet and today’s technology. And specifically, we can share the stories of God’s work in our lives so that they can see how God moves and seek the same for themselves.
What makes for an effective testimony?
The ABCDEFG of giving a testimony
Authenticity – It’s important that the stories we share are real, not exaggerated or embellished. It needs to be truly your story without making it worse or better than it really was. Authentic faith stories should include an appropriate amount of transparency and honesty. I think it’s more helpful to kids to hear about how we failed or struggled and God helped us than to hear about how great our successes were. Authenticity often includes sharing the emotions that we felt at the time.
Brevity – Kids have short attention spans. I would rather have my grandkids eager to hear another story than to have them roll their eyes knowing they are about to endure Papa babbling on for a while. It’s better to be short and to the point. I want them always curious to hear more.
Clarity – What, when, how, why? Our most impacting stories are very clear. For the sake of both brevity and clarity, for many people it actually helps us to write out our stories before we share them with people. My mom did this a few years ago when she wrote a little book about her life stories and she said it was an amazing process of really fleshing out the memories.
Drama – Our story needs to be communicated in a way that people are used to hearing stories. Drop your listener into the middle rather than taking time to build up to it. Long introductions are not typically captivating. Think about how movies and TV tell stories. Include the emotions that were real to you in the moment you are sharing.
Exalt – Where’s the glory? The point is to glorify God. Stories can easily glorify the wrong things or the person sharing them. I once heard a young woman on stage in front of hundreds of teens sharing how she came to faith. However, she spent so much time talking (almost bragging) about the sins she was involved in that it distracted from us hearing about God’s intervention in her life. Make God the hero of your stories!
Find the connection – Where does your story relate to the conversation or what is going on at the moment? This is what makes it relevant. This week at grandcamp, it might be your experience of attending camp as a child. There could be a story of a God encounter that comes to mind this week.
Gospel – Where is the good news of Jesus in my story? A good testimony clearly communicates the gospel or as much of it as possible. Years ago my church held a “Faith Alive” weekend where we did events with testimonies of faith. I went along when we had BBQ under a tent and then went into the church, sang some songs, and heard several testimonies. One after another, the stories were all pretty much the same. My life was messed up, I came to church, my life is better now. I was floored by how these testimonies did not contain the gospel when there were great opportunities for people to hear how Jesus died for my sin, making it possible to be in a right relationship with God. Not all stories need a full-blown explanation of salvation, but all stories should point to God’s saving grace.
Gospel Clarity
If we are going to share our faith with our grandkids and want them to understand the core of our beliefs, we need to be able to articulate it. Yet for so many who have grown up in the church, asking the question “What is the gospel?” elicits more than a pause.
Gospel clarity is important because we don’t want anyone to be misled or confused.
When my Dad passed away years ago, I went to my church to let the rector know. As I am leaving the building, I run into a retired priest who stops to chat for a moment. On hearing my news, he shared something with me I’ll never forget. He said that his dad was not a particularly religious guy, “but he loved us unconditionally, and I got to think that got him there”. I was floored and, at the same time, saddened that an Episcopal priest did not understand the gospel. My dad’s memorial service was held at the Presbyterian church where I first heard the gospel. Yet the minister there at the time did not believe that funerals should have sermons. Wow! That is when we need the gospel the most. That is where we are most open to hearing good news and getting hope for eternity. Instead, he had an open podium for anyone who wanted to “say a few words”. My dad was a great guy. A man of real integrity who was loved by all who knew him. After hearing many people get up and talk about what a wonderful man he was, I went up and shared something different. I affirmed all that had been said, but I pointed out that eternity in heaven is not earned. It is a free gift of grace that follows repentance.
Before my mother-in-law passed a few years ago, she met with her minister and planned her memorial service. She picked out hymns and Bible readings and indicated which of her 22 grandkids she wanted to have read them. She had been praying daily for her grandkids because while all 6 of her own children remained in the faith they were raised in, many of the grandkids did not. So she strongly emphasized to the minister that she wanted him to preach the gospel. The saddest part of the service was his inability to articulate the gospel. He talked extensively about how Eunice wanted the gospel preached and how the gospel was so important to her life. He never got there.
Over the years of teaching students, I would ask the question, “Where do we find the gospel”? The typical answer is Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John. I then point out that we find the gospel from Genesis to Revelation. God’s redemption of His people is found throughout Scripture. We learn this from the words of Jesus.
John 5 v 39-40
“You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”
Luke 24 v 25-27 (On the road to Emmaus, Jesus explains himself by walking through the whole of the scriptures)
He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Luke 24v 44 (appearing to the disciples)
He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
Where do we see gospel summary statements in scripture?
For the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:45
Notice:
- Jesus freely gave his life, it was not forced on him to die on the cross (child abuse).
- Ransom is what we pay a kidnapper to free the victim. Jesus is the ransom paid for us who have been taken hostage by sin and we are freed by it.
- Many is not all. Some will reject God and never see the kingdom
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
Romans 5:6-9
Notice – still sinners. We do not get our act together in order to be good enough for God. Saved from the wrath of God. Wrath is God’s response to sin.
Examine Ephesians 2:1-10
How do we see the gospel explained?
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (ESV)
Sin/deadBy GraceThrough Faith
Truth = I am more sinful and flawed than I ever imagined
Grace = I am more accepted and loved than I ever imagined
Anglican evangelist Rico Tice shares in one of his books about the three tenses of salvation. It’s worth remembering and sharing with others.
By grace I have been saved from the penalty of sin.
By grace I am being saved from the power of sin.
By grace I will one day be saved from the presence of sin.
The gospel is pretty simple. It’s easy enough for a child to understand. And yet the gospel is hard to accept because it requires humble reception. Years ago, while serving as a Youth Minister in England, I spoke at assemblies in local schools every week. It was a challenging environment to speak in because England was not only post-Christian, but also teenagers were hostile to Christianity. It simply was not cool to have anything to do with church or God. One of the assemblies I did near Easter time involved an object lesson. I was talking about how salvation is a free gift of God. So, I pulled out a Cadbury Creme Egg – hugely popular among English teens. I held it out and asked, “Who would like this egg”? Nearly every hand shot up. I asked the question again. This time, the hands started waving. I paused and asked the question a third time. Now there were 200+ bodies squirming in their seats, frantically waving a hand in the air. Then a girl leaped out of her seat and came and took the egg from my hand. I then said to the students, Charlotte got the egg because she came up and received it. God’s gift of salvation is for us to receive freely. It’s not a perfect illustration, but it does reflect the reluctance of people to receive God’s gift. Instead, our sinful human nature tries to earn it. When we make the gospel anything more than it is, we distort it.
Galatians 1:2–9 Paul writes…
To the churches of Galatia:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (ESV)
The gospel can be distorted. An evangelist that I invited to my youth group to speak, shared the following equations to communicate something important about the gospel.
Jesus + ? = Salvation (what do people insert here?)
Jesus + anything = Nothing
Jesus + nothing = Everything
When the gospel is proclaimed in the Bible, what is asked of the hearer? What response is called for? Does the preacher say “give your life to Christ’? Is it an invitation to open your heart to receive Christ? To accept Jesus into our hearts?
React to this quote:
“The gospel of submission, commitment, decision, and victorious living is not good news about what God has achieved but a demand to save ourselves with God’s help. Besides the fact that Scripture never refers to the gospel as having a personal relationship with Jesus nor defines faith as a decision to ask Jesus to come into our heart, this concept of salvation fails to realize that everyone has a personal relationship with God already: either as a condemned criminal standing before a righteous judge or as a justified coheir with Christ and adopted child of the Father.”
— Michael Horton
Does it make sense? Do you agree? What implications are there?
When the gospel is proclaimed in the Bible, the hearer is asked to repent and believe.
How clear is the gospel in your mind? Can you articulate it in a sentence? (try)
“God justifies repentant sinners through Christ’s death.”
Pray
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the good news of your redemption of us through your son Jesus. We pray for opportunities to share with our grandkids the wonderful things you have done in our lives. And lord, we pray that we would do so with gospel clarity, that they may know you as their Lord and Savior. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
