What's a good testimony illustration about a hardened skeptic coming to faith?

Charles Finney, a young lawyer who dismissed the Bible until a dramatic 1821 conversion he described as 'waves of liquid love.' He abandoned the law the next day to preach.

What's a good illustration of someone converting from another religion?

Sundar Singh, a Sikh youth who had burned a Gospel in contempt, prayed in despair for God to reveal himself, reported a vision of Christ, and was baptised in 1905 — becoming a lifelong evangelist.

Is there a conversion testimony from outside the Western world?

Kanzo Uchimura, raised in a Japanese samurai family, was baptised in 1877 and founded Japan's indigenous 'Non-church' movement — Christian faith expressed in his own culture.

Who was the first African Anglican bishop?

Samuel Ajayi Crowther — captured into slavery as a boy in Yorubaland, freed and baptised in Sierra Leone in 1825, and consecrated in 1864 as the first African bishop of the Anglican Church.

Sermon illustrations

Conversion & testimony sermon illustrations

Preachers usually arrive at a testimony illustration with a specific need: a skeptic, a convert from another religion, a story from outside the Western church. Here are first-person conversion accounts answered to those exact questions — each free to read in full.

The skeptical lawyer — Charles Finney

Acts 9:3–6

Charles Finney was a young lawyer who treated the Bible as a closed case until, in 1821, he settled the question alone in the woods and then, back at his office that evening, was overwhelmed by what he could only describe as a baptism of the Holy Spirit. He left the law the next day to preach, and became one of America's most influential revivalists.

“It seemed to come in waves and waves of liquid love.” — Finney, describing that evening in his Memoirs

From Memoirs of the Rev. Charles G. Finney, Written by Himself by Charles G. Finney (1876) — read the account →

The convert who had burned the Gospel — Sundar Singh

Acts 26:14

A young Sikh so hostile to Christianity that he publicly burned a Gospel, Sundar Singh fell into despair and prayed that God would reveal himself or he would end his life by dawn. He reported a vision of Christ, was baptised in 1905, was disowned by his family, and spent the rest of his life as a wandering sadhu carrying the faith he had once destroyed.

From At the Master's Feet by Sadhu Sundar Singh (1922) — read the account →

Faith from outside the Western church — Kanzo Uchimura

John 4:23

Raised in a Japanese samurai household in Shinto, Buddhist, and Confucian duty, Uchimura came to Christ as a student and was baptised in 1877 — then spent his life working out a thoroughly Japanese Christianity, founding the indigenous 'Non-church' movement. A reminder that conversion is never merely the adoption of a foreign culture.

From How I Became a Christian by Kanzo Uchimura (1895) — read the account →

From enslaved boy to bishop — Samuel Crowther

Galatians 3:28

Seized by slave raiders as a boy of about twelve in Yorubaland and put aboard a slave ship, Samuel Ajayi Crowther was freed by a Royal Navy patrol and landed in Sierra Leone, where he was baptised in 1825. He became a pioneering Bible translator and, in 1864, the first African bishop of the Anglican Church — and went back up the rivers of his own homeland to plant the gospel. No life argues more plainly that in Christ there is 'neither slave nor free.'

From Journal of an Expedition up the Niger and Tshadda Rivers by Samuel Ajayi Crowther (1855) — read the account →

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Quick answers

What's a good testimony illustration about a hardened skeptic coming to faith?: Charles Finney, a young lawyer who dismissed the Bible until a dramatic 1821 conversion he described as 'waves of liquid love.' He abandoned the law the next day to preach.
What's a good illustration of someone converting from another religion?: Sundar Singh, a Sikh youth who had burned a Gospel in contempt, prayed in despair for God to reveal himself, reported a vision of Christ, and was baptised in 1905 — becoming a lifelong evangelist.
Is there a conversion testimony from outside the Western world?: Kanzo Uchimura, raised in a Japanese samurai family, was baptised in 1877 and founded Japan's indigenous 'Non-church' movement — Christian faith expressed in his own culture.
Who was the first African Anglican bishop?: Samuel Ajayi Crowther — captured into slavery as a boy in Yorubaland, freed and baptised in Sierra Leone in 1825, and consecrated in 1864 as the first African bishop of the Anglican Church.

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T.S. Baker Books — true stories of changed lives, free to read and quote.