Testify! Project Encourages Congregations to Reclaim God’s Stories

 

“I believe that God heals because I’ve witnessed it and have heard healing stories,” Dr. Nick Peterson said. “These stories of God’s work show how God is interested in human life.”

The idea that believers can show and tell the living scripture is the basis of Testify!, a new five-year, $5 million initiative at Christian Theological Seminary. It is being funded through the Lilly Endowment National Storytelling Initiative on Christian Faith and Life.

Peterson explained that the core concept which attracted both him and co-developer, Julian Davis Reid, was the belief that stories can inspire us to love God and one another. “What better way to promote the awareness of God,” he said. “Combining lived experience and the narrative form can engage anybody and everybody.”

Peterson serves as Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Worship and Assistant Director of the Ph.D. in African American Preaching, Sacred Rhetoric Program at CTS. Reid (M.Div., Candler School of Theology) is a Black artist-theologian. The two met at Emory University and collaborated on earlier projects. They were inspired by the Lilly Endowment funding opportunity to translate their aspirations into action.

Describing it as “ambitious,” Peterson said that the project aims to reclaim the traditional practice of giving testimony in Black churches. Hearing the stories of believers helps generate information, passion, and witness for others (whether they are believers in Christ) and encourages community in an enthusiastic and personal way.

According to Peterson, historically African American churches would warm up with congregant testimony before the formal worship service began. Testimonies may include music or singing but are viewed as authentic demonstrations of a person’s faith. Peterson said that they were in the tradition of revivals where “fervor encouraged faith.”

“Since the 1990s, as services became more moderated (broadcast on radio and television, and then on-line), churches had to maximize their time,” he said. This “production church model” has become even more depersonalized.

The cost to this evolution, Peterson said, “is the loss of witness to each other.” Testify! seeks to combat that by reconnecting people and congregations with each other. The hope is that participants who share their own stories of faith will also communicate their experiences within their spheres to continually grow the model. This gives the project built-in sustainability. He emphasized that the testimonials do not have to be verbal and that Testify! will encourage a variety of artistic expressions of faith.

“We are building a new kind of team,” Peterson said. “We are not trying to get people to come to Indianapolis, but we are going to them – at least virtually.” He noted that CTS was able to draw upon its established network of Black church partners to both envision and implement Testify! because many potential partners already trust CTS as a leading learning institution. It was both strategic and appropriate to build upon those existing relationships. According to Peterson, who will function as the Grant Director, Testify! is in its initial stage. Over the next three months, their focus will be on building the team that will support the initiative and plotting out the timeline. Reid will function as the Artistic Director. The grant team will include digital media, technical, and support positions.

The Testify! staff will work toward four key outputs over the course of the grant period. First, there will be a web-based toolkit that will include a wide range of resources. There will be a variety of artistic, worship, narrative, and other resources for congregations. Not only will they be diverse in their production but will also be scalable for churches regardless of setting (urban vs. rural) or size. Peterson emphasized that the resources will be designed to adapt to any context.

The second and third initiatives will involve in-person events. First, each year a different city will host a story telling convention for lay and professional artists. Indianapolis will host in fall 2026 with Atalanta, Washington DC, Houston, and Chicago to follow. Similarly, the Testify! team will attend conventions and annual events with a large Black presence. They will encourage a “story booth” experience to engage people in giving their testimony.

Finally, the project will be working on an “online ecology” to help track how users around the country are implementing diverse ways of Testify! Each of these initiatives is designed to encourage current users, engage new participants, and illustrate the power of giving your own story of faith – helping others believe in a hands-on God.

More information about this project will be forthcoming over the next several months. Please visit the Testify! page to stay current on its resources and events.