Pentecostal Testimony Must Leave the Witness in Charge

Pentecostal people know the power of testimony. A person speaks in a congregation and private suffering becomes shared praise. Fear is named, prayer is remembered, help is acknowledged and hope becomes audible. The testimony can restore dignity to someone whom illness, stigma or shame had reduced to a label.

Yet testimony also sits inside unequal power. A pastor controls the microphone. An editor controls the recording. A ministry decides which story proves the message. A platform can keep distributing a vulnerable disclosure long after the speaker’s circumstances, consent or understanding have changed. A dramatic ending can be preferred to an honest account of ongoing care.

On World Mental Health Day, the Church should hear a demanding truth: listening is not complete when a person has spoken. Meaningful listening changes who defines the problem, who designs the response, who evaluates the ministry and who may say that the story has been misused.

The governing principle is therefore: receive testimony as entrusted witness, and return authority to the person who lived it.

The World Health Organization’s campaign for 10 October 2026 is titled ‘Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change.’ It says people with lived experience of mental-health conditions possess knowledge that professional training and research alone cannot supply, and it calls for that knowledge to shape policies, services and decisions. WHO World Mental Health Day 2026