By By Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi
“Was blind but now I can see!” You probably would have heard this quotation just before beneficiaries of Heaven’s benevolence are handed the microphone to testify during a Church service. It’s the moderator’s way of telling them to keep their testimonies as brief as possible. It doesn’t matter that more time is spent on other aspects of the service or that the meeting will eventually end minutes shy of schedule. Possible overshoots must be recouped from the time allotted for testimonies.
Given their dutiful enforcement of this proclivity for post-haste, officiating ministers would seem pleased if testifiers aren’t forthcoming. Such a disposition begs the question: are testimonies being taken to fulfil all righteousness or to glorify God and boost the faith of the brethren? Why encourage worshippers to come and share testimonies only to make them rush through the same? Even those in the secular sphere live by the code: Do it properly or don’t do it at all! Testifying isn’t for the faint-hearted. Stage fright is real. When someone summons the courage to come before God’s people to tell what He has done, they shouldn’t be put under undue pressure to be quick about their storytelling. Such prodding can make them forget their lines or the entire script.
It would seem Ivy Ifeoma, wife of Paul Okoye of P-Square fame, attends such a Church where brevity in sharing testimonies is the norm. This is because of her terse testimony of the Lord’s intervention in her life. The model and social media influencer was widely reported to have made this post on her Instagram story last Saturday, “He (Jesus) saved me. Y’all don’t understand. I was on my way to hell but He pulled me out.” Even if from a straight-to-the-point religious background, it is expected that the joy of being saved by Christ should make her defy the propensity to abridge testimonies.
There was this leper that Jesus healed and charged to “‘See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.’ Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer openly enter a town…” (Mark 1:44-45 NIV). That is how unhinged divine intervention can make the recipient. The flaws that must have set her down the slippery slope can’t be worse than the John 4:7-31, whose past with five husbands Jesus revealed, yet she went to town with the news.
Speaking about news, if broadcasters who are experts in information dissemination can deliver the news in detail after dishing out the snippets, it means that headlines can’t compensate for the full story. Ditto for testimonies, which don’t have to be abridged, to the extent that their very essence is silent! In a discussion forum where the story was posted, a blogger expressed disappointment, thus: “If you will not provide full details, why post on social media…abeg rest. It is called testimony for a reason.” As of the time of writing, that comment got the highest likes – an indication that the commenter spoke the mind of most.
In some blogs where the story was reported, commenters left the issue at hand to focus on Ivy’s personal life. The negativity and tantrums are immaterial and should not have caused the core of the model’s testimony to be concealed. While what is worth doing is worth doing well, the one who opts to testify, even so sparingly, has done more for the Kingdom than the quiet.
Although the testimony aspect of the Instagram story left more questions than answers, Ivy’s sharp opening sentence is quite didactic. She started with, “In a world ruled by the devil, you’re saved ONLY by JESUS.” (I took the liberty to capitalize more appropriately). One wonders why the blogs that mined the story from Instagram ignored that aspect of her post. Both statements aren’t disjoint but connected. That’s why they could conveniently replace the pronoun in the second paragraph with the subject of the first.
Perhaps, if they reported the full text, readers wouldn’t have missed or strayed from the point. The bloggers must have reasoned that reporting the saving grace of Jesus won’t get clicks and engagements, whereas that was why divinity became humanity. Here is what Matthew 1:21 says of Him: “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” His people, as used in this context, refer to those who believe in Christ. But how can they become believers if not convinced? Storifying testimonies goes a long way in securing that conviction!
In my other life, I had cause to expound on how storytelling beats reeling out facts and stats. While researching the topic, I stumbled upon the work of the American psychologist Jerome Bruner, who discovered that stories are remembered up to 22 times more effectively than facts and figures alone. There goes another reason Ivy should have narrated her testimony rather than just stating the obvious. Every opportunity to make the unbelieving understand how Jesus saves must be maximized for the sake of the Kingdom. We can then trust the Holy Spirit to utilise their remembrance of the story to do the conversion.
In the same vein, Bruner’s hypothesis buttresses the need for Churches to allow worshippers adequate time to express their testimonies. Where a testifier veers off point and starts sharing unnecessary detail, the moderator can then step in to politely summarise the testimony for the garrulous. Under no circumstances should testimonies be treated with levity. This is because they can be God’s way of specifically addressing the worshipper bored by abstract or hackneyed biblical stories. Some pastors are known to occasionally abridge their message, pointing out that earlier-shared testimonies have done much of the preaching. What a smart way to close the service on time, without thawing the impact of testimonies!
What’s more? Testimonies need to be comprehensively shared to quieten those questioning the supernatural move of God. Properly recounting the goodness of the Lord before the world will deny enemies of the Gospel any foothold, as in Acts 4:16. In the final analysis, the same enthusiasm that animates worshippers whenever prayer sessions delve into dealing with the enemy and forces of darkness should be brought to bear in the sharing of testimonies. This is because Revelation 12:11 identifies the words of our testimony as the other way to overcome Satan and his minions.
VIS Ugochukwu, a Sage, Storyteller and Media Trainer, is open to debating this POV on X via @sylvesugwuanyi.
