Comments on: #569. The sermon illustration score card.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:05:40 +0000

Minus points if the pastor doesn't get permission for the name drop.

Double minus points when the illustration is unclear and causes listenerers to ask PKS embarassing clarifying questions i.e. "was your mom the live-in girlfriend, or was that someone else?"

By: J. Kru

J. Kru — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:09:18 +0000

Don't forget the multiple Lord of the Rings illustrations:

. . . sin is like the ring
. . . even Bilbo never lost his taste for the ring
. . . Gandalf was more powerful after he had died
. . . being chased by Nazgul
. . . what is manna? It's like Lembas bread.
. . . when Frodo was entirely hopeless, his friend Sam (whom he had rejected) came to rescue him. (This one only works for Calvinists)

Bonus points if they refer to something in the book that is not in the movie, i.e. scourging of the Shire, Tom Bombadil, etc.

By: --Boldly Foolish

--Boldly Foolish — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 05:05:08 +0000

My favorite illustration was one an elderly associate pastor would use a high percentage of times when he spoke, but he didn't preach often, so it didn't seem overused. It was about a boy who carved a boat out of wood, but then lost it down the river. He's very upset and his dad gives him a dollar to take into town the next day to buy something to make him feel better (a large sum of money in those days). He's window shopping and spots the boat he made in a store, runs in and tells the clerk, "That's my boat!" The clerk informs him he bought it from someone, and if the boy wants it, it'll cost him a dollar. The boy pays with tears in his eyes, takes the boat outside and hugs it to his chest. He says, "Little boat, I love you. First I made you and now I bought you." Obviously, this is a picture of God's love for us: He made us then He bought us. I left out a lot of details here. It was always very moving when the old man told it to us.

By: Caroline

Caroline — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:44:00 +0000

I am so glad that someone else recognizes the power of Komodo Dragons (both as a story prop, and as an actual animal).

I went with my best friend to Best Buy once to get a new power cord for his computer, and the guy at the counter asked what happened to his other one. I jumped in swiftly to answer, "A komodo dragon ate it. It was brutal."

We also later wrote a song called "Panic on the Cattle Ranch!" which involved, guess what, a Komodo Dragon.

The uses just go on and on!

By: Ellie Cook

Ellie Cook — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:22:10 +0000

@Eric P – We had a similar thing at our church when the Pastor had a guy dress up as homeless man, and hang outside before the service, then about ten minutes in he came in to the church and stumbled down the aisle, which caused one of the old ladies in church to hit him with her handbag (awesomeness).

My Dad once had a quiz as part of his sermon illustration. He threw boiled sweets out into the congregation as prizes and hit a ninety-three year old woman right in the middle of her forehead.

By: Helen

Helen — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:15:32 +0000

@katdish Someone should have stood up and said "WHAT! THERE IS NO SANTA CLAUS! I got to go home NOW and find out who breaks into my house every Christmas Eve!"

In other words, why didn't you?

By: anicia

anicia — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:38:40 +0000

Way too funny.

One time in Sunday school I remember they used the illustration of when you light a match, blow it out, put it in a vase with a thin neck of some sort, then proceed to put a hard boiled egg on the top opening part…and the egg eventually slides down through the way too skinny part and into the bottom of the vase/jar…
I have no idea what the message was on because I was too busy wondering how that just happened.

By: Terry

Terry — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:14:09 +0000

i remember my pastor using Sumo wrestlers as an illustration..he got the 2 biggest guys in the church to dress up and actually perform a mock Sumo wrestling session before his sermon..was both funny and disturbing seeing those 2 huge guys in the sumo outfit.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:13:22 +0000

A few months back a guest preacher used the illustration of Billy graham asking to meet Marilyn Monroe shortly before she died, along with a few other sordid illustrations, all with the same theme, "God is not mocked," or something like that. I checked this story on Google when I got home, and found, first, all the illustrations he'd used together on the same web page, along with a refutation of each one. If I'd found the refutations of these illustrations so easily, why couldn't this pastor, instead of just copying them from the e-mail he got them from? -50 points for this guy.

By: Christina

Christina — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:06:31 +0000

This is totally make me think of the part in Churched where the Sunday School teacher burns a Barbie as an illustration of hell.