“Ripped from the headlines” sermon illustrations.
Oct 19th by Jon- Tagged in:
- church,
- pastors,
- sermon illustrations,
- sermons
I don’t want to lie, if I was a pastor I would have used the balloon boy incident in my sermon yesterday. (If you missed it, a few days ago folks were gripped for hours by watching a homemade weather balloon float 7,000 feet in the air because we all thought there was a 6-year old boy named Falcon accidentally inside. Turns out he was at home in the attic the whole time and never in danger.) Given the pressure of coming up with a new sermon weekend after weekend after weekend, I would have totally ridden that kid’s helium coattails to fantastical sermon illustration awesomeness.
And I don’t think I’m the only one who sees national news events as potential sermon fodder. From the sermon success of Michael Phelps during the Olympics to recent celebrity deaths, it’s tempting to create a sermon illustration that is “ripped from the headlines.” If your pastor does, I hope they will use one of the three following techniques …
1. Make a wide sweeping comment about culture and society.
Start off with the phrase, “What does it say about our culture when, …” and then just add the news event. For example, “What does it say about our culture when in the midst of a million other more serious issues, we are all glued to the television in an overreaction to a balloon-related event that ended up being nothing at all?” If you’re a math guy you could possibly add up the cost of a multi-state rescue effort and how many real emergencies went ignored during “balloongate.” Or, since the kid’s parents were on the show “Wife Swap,” you could also talk about the dangers of a fame hungry, reality television addicted society. I don’t know the parents at all, but you could point a finger at people like me for watching the balloon chase on TV. I gotta tell ya, if you’re a pastor, that balloon thing was really a cornucopia of an event.
2. Tie the event to the Old Testament
If possible, try to tie your news event to something that happened in the Old Testament. Think of it as a way to bridge old and new, past and present, King James and LeBron James. For the balloon incident? A lot of pastors probably would have related it to that time Jonathan had to float in a helium balloon and signal to David that Saul was unhappy with him, but not me. I would have taken the easy route and gone right to the Isaiah 40:31 mount up wings like eagles verse. And the worship team would have played, Sugar Ray’s song, “Fly Away.” No, scrap that. We would have just hired the band Sugar Ray. We could probably get them at this point. I’m pretty sure they’re available.
3. Relate the incident to everyone in the crowd.
I said it before on Twitter and I’ll say it again, “If your parents name you ‘Falcon,’ balloon adventures, grizzly bear shenanigans & sword hijinks should be expected/forgiven.” Since Falcon was discovered hiding in an attic, instead of flying across the sky in a silvery balloon, some people got mad at him. Forget that, instead talk about the challenges we all face as parents. Granted, it’s going to be difficult to directly make this relatable on a large scale level. I would suggest you don’t say, “We all know what it’s like to be a parent. You’re doing your best and trying to raise up your children when suddenly one of them un-tethers your experimental helium weather balloon/alien chaser vehicle and floats into the collective hearts and minds of millions of television viewers. Who hasn’t been there before?” That sentence is going to bomb. But if you say, “Who here has a perfect kid who never makes a mistake? Who here hasn’t made a mistake themselves?” Suddenly you’ve made the escapades of Falcon very relatable.
Maybe your pastor didn’t drop a reference to the balloon boy yesterday. Maybe he had his sermon on lockdown weeks ago and didn’t do the “God gave me this message on the way here this morning” thing. But if he did go the balloon route, I hope he used one of those three techniques. They’re free. You can have them. They should probably be taught in seminary or something.
What’s the funniest/best “ripped from the headlines” sermon illustration you’ve ever experienced during a sermon?
Comments
I've heard many movie based sermons… not so many on news headlines tho… but it does sound like a good idea…
Twitter often comes up in sermons… a few sermons we have had a #hashtag leading up to the weekend that we could ask questions or comment on and they were put on screen during the sermon.. some examples are #mydad (leading up to fathers day) #whygather (about the importance of meeting together with believers ie. church) and we have had the chance to ask questions live (from any of our 4 campuses) and have them answered via twitter as well (q's asked via twitter with an answer given in a panel type style)
so i think media is very much influencing the way we do church…
Yesterday at church, the crowd voted for which song the worship band opened up with via twitter and text messaging. It was pretty wild. We ended up choosing "Hey Jude" instead of "Sweet Caroline" or Taylor Swift's "You belong with me."
Man.
I wish the 11am service chose "Hey Jude." Instead, I was sitting up in the balcony performing a face palm while listening to "You Belong With Me."
Did they have Eddie sing it or one of the female worship leaders? Did they change the lyrics up?
Chrystina Fincher sang it and Eddie sang backup vocals (some of it falsetto, no less!).
I don't *think* they changed up any of the lyrics, but I could be wrong.
That's called the awkward starfish….as if a starfish is attacking your face…because the situation is so awkward.
That's funny – gonna have to note that.
Of course, it wasn't really so much awkward as it was disappointing that Taylor Swift (who I really have nothing against) beat out the Beatles. Maybe it's more of a testament of the 11am congregation. Who knows.
And..your name…I feel like I'm replying to myself.
Yesterday our backup leader ran things. He always picks songs from the 80s and 90s … and not the fast fun ones.
This is what I get for getting to 12:45 late. Bummer. I would have totally voted for Taylor Swift.
:facepalm:
I don't think I've referenced twitter ever, but I do talk about blogs I've read. I used one as an illustration last night. It wasn't in the most positive light so I'll keep the who and what a secret though. I really respect the person but didn't agree with their opinion in this instance.
haha yes! Just a few weeks ago my pastor likened the book of Proverbs to twitter. (not a whole sermon illustration, just a reference I thought was amusing.)
With youversion live hitting the smart phones and churches I think this will change a lot of the way we use technology and church.
I'm a newbie of a New Thing, only five years into this Christ Following thing. I don't know that our church has ever tied a message to a current event (in my time there). However, we do use pop culture songs and movie bites to make connections. Sometimes I get those, sometimes I don't. But I'm sure it's all my and my lack of connective skills. My creative arts director is way more hip than I am. Of course he is, he turned me on to this blog…
Not sure if you are at fault or if the connection is poorly presented/stretched thin. I've seen plenty of illustrations that don't make sense because they are relevant culturally just not relevant to the sermon.
As a Youth Pastor I have to agree with Nick on this one:
1) I've been puzzled by other people's illustrations/stories/tie-ins
2) I'm sure I've been guilty of it making sense in my head but not being able to effectively communicate that to anybody else
It could be you but it could also be the speaker…if confused just focus on what the Bible passage says – that's all that matters anyway, the rest is just meant to help us understand/connect with scripture
This summer, our church did a study on the Psalms. We were on Psalm 42 and the sermon title was "Who needs God?" It just happened to be the week that a legendary high school football coach in our state was murdered. We watched a video and heard the story of who the coach really was and how his family immediately embraced the family of the murderer knowing what suffering they were experiencing as well. There was not a dry eye in the house….that seats over 2000. Bottom line, regardless of circumstances, we ALL need God.[youtube s3Lq95Kg9Ug http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3Lq95Kg9Ug youtube]
Selah,
I love that you go to my church!!
The recession definitely comes up a lot, and I heard some moving sermons immediately following Hurricane Katrina, but I have nothing balloon boy-esque to share. Shame.
Going for the gold?
Try setting your sights higher
God commodities
http://ChristianHaiku.com (Economy sermon headline inspired Haiku:)
1 Peter 1:7, Acts 3:6, Proverbs 16:16…
Here's a thought…. Preach the word. So many of todays Pastors are more concerned about entertaining the seeker than they are preaching the Gospel. There is more focus on being culturally relevant, funny and not boring like so many of the "other churches" than there is on theology. Consider the comments from the typical church "seeker" after an "experience"…. "love the music", "loved the light show", "loved the drama…"
"very funny", etc, etc. The seeker/purpose-driven/emergent Pastor is determined to convince the seeker that they are cool and relevant in hopes that the person will then like Jesus too. Please…. get back to the word. God doesn't need clips from "The Matrix" to help us understand His message. He doesn't need the latest & greatest multi-media tricks to keep His word interesting and theology is never "boring" to the true follower of Christ. Church was never intended to be FOR the unsaved but for the believer so stop trying to make it LIKE the world to draw IN the world.
John –
I agree with you that there are times when we as Christians pendulum swing so far into the "be relevant" side of things that we lose sight of what matters. But at the same time, I think Christ was relevant to the people he talked to and spoke to them using examples that made sense of where they were in life. When he told the parable of the seeds, he was using a parable that a culture based on agriculture could relate to. Same with the woman at the well. He framed the truth he shared with her in a very relevant way. She was there to get water, he related the hope of God to water. Do we sometimes razzle dazzle the message so much that it can get lost under all the glitz? I think so, but I also think that "preach the word" does not mean we shouldn't be relevant, because Christ was relevant and not above framing his message in a way that applied to a crowd. When Christ called some of the disciples, he didn't just say "Come." He was talking to fisherman so he made the message relevant to their current experiences and said, "I will make you fishers of men."
Jon
I’m actually struggling with this right now – feeling like my church is relying too much on “the show” to get the point across. I agree that cultural relevancy is important in the message, but can’t that message be delivered without all the stage activity??
Sure it could, but does that mean that it shouldn't? Why do we have to do one to the exclusion of the other? I'm only engaging this conversation because, being a worship director, I have had this struggle as well. I do not see why it has to be excluded just because it COULD be excluded. Was a burning bush necessary? I don't believe it was, a loud thundering voice coming from nowhere probably would have done the job. Quite the attention-grabber though.
I was in a leadership training program for 9 months a few years ago. One of our assignments was to write a paper on which is more important–the message, or the method? We all wrote what we thought would be the right answer (aka what we thought our director would like to hear). After we all read our papers aloud, he told us his answer (and had Scripture to back it up). They are both EQUALLY important. Without the message, there is no truth. But without the method, the message will never been carried to those who need it. They go completely hand-in-hand. The question is…how do you find the equally important balance?
I've been pleasantly surprised at the reaction in my Youth as I've switched over to a more Bible study scene on Wednesday nights and fun hang out time on Saturday. I have never avoided the Word, but I've been really digging into what Jesus taught. The past 3 weeks have been on Matthew 5 alone. This week we are finally moving on to chapter 6. This is the blog post I wrote about how it is going Picking up Cars with Boys. In short, I expected about half the students to stop coming on Wednesday night but most are still coming and really getting into it.
I've been pleasantly surprised at the reaction in my Youth as I've switched over to a more Bible study scene on Wednesday nights and fun hang out time on Saturday. I have never avoided the Word, but I've been really digging into what Jesus taught. The past 3 weeks have been on Matthew 5 alone. This week we are finally moving on to chapter 6. This is the blog post I wrote about how it is going Picking up Cars with Boys. In short, I expected about half the students to stop coming on Wednesday night but most are still coming and really getting into it.
Jon, I'm pretty sure that the Sugar Ray song is just called "Fly." But thanks for mentioning "Fly Away." Now I'll have, "I'll, fly away oh glory, I'll fly away," stuck in my head for the rest of the day. I hold you directly responsible
And I'll hold you directly responsible for same.
Having said that, I'm still glad I boght the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack.
"FLY AWAY" is an awesome Lenny Kravitz song. Now THAT is a song I wish my church covered. Plus Lenny is uber cool. (oh crap I used 'uber' – I'm only allowed one 'uber' a day)
My senior class song (and I'm not kidding one bit) was "I Believe I Can Fly" (R Kelly). I still have nightmares, and if I were male or in a different denomination, I would preach about how we can't fly. God has to give us that ability. Or anything else I could think of to argue with the lyrics of this song.
Raising concerned eyebrows (a la Jason Priestley circa 90210) and shaking my head in silent disbelief.
I seem to remember Michael Jackson's baby-dangling pranks referenced once at a prayer conference, but that was hardly a recent headline…
That's funny, I thought the moral of the story was the pointlessness of watching 24-hour cable news…
These three techniques should definitely be taught in seminary. This is gold!
I'd say better than what I was taught, but I had the best prof. Now the head of the department went on to great things like a lesbian murder conspiracy where she plotted to killer her lovers husband so they could be together. I'm not saying this directly affected her teaching ability but I am saying that ever female friend I had that took her loved the class and every male friend felt unfairly graded and hated the class.
Hmm, the problem of using the news for sermon fodder is twofold. First the news is sensational and not too concerned with the facts. At some point a reported probably wanted to ask "have you looked in your attic or other more reasonable places?" but decided against it because the balloon is much better TV. There are a lot of facts that get dropped because they don't show well.
Second, the stories are usually still unfolding for the first several days. This happened Friday and I remember thinking, "I seriously doubt the kid is actually in there, this sounds like a publicity stunt if I ever heard one." Last night I caught a news segment where it turns out the boy said on live TV, "but I thought we did this for the TV show." Now authorities believe that it was a hoax. That would be a very important piece of the sermon illustration. I'm just sayin.
It's not the funniest but we get A LOT (and I do mean a lot) of sports references. If it just happened on ESPN, we are hearing about it. Plus pastor is notorious for slamming the Raiders and their flipped out wack-a-do fans (and {unrelated} anyone who lives in Arkansas). If for no other reason than my pastor being super smart about which team to rip, I will stick with this church (pastor).
Jon, we all know that the best application would be to talk about how when Jesus ascended into heaven – he used a silver helium-filled balloon. Look it up – it's in the original Greek. I have also heard that in Revelation, it says that is what will happen in the last days too. In fact, rapture literally means, "to float away to heaven attached to a spaceship-looking balloon."
And isn't there something in there about having a falcon involved as well?
I don't know about ripped off headline sermon attention getters, but what comes to mind right now is the way my old pastor used to pronounce "The Matrix" with a long "a" like "maw-tricks."
There are of course, the token end-of-the-world guys who tie some event in the news to revelation or something and turn out wrong, every single time. They're fun!
Speaking of sermons, yesterday the pastor said sarcasm is sinful. People actually turned around to look at me. Like I need their approval. Pinheads.
I think I heard sermons tied to movies and songs more than what was in the news. What I appreciated about this pastor is he used them as a reference, not the basis of his sermons. He's a very well read man and more often than not he would quote G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, A.W. Tozer (see a trend here?) and his "prop" might be something in the newspaper. I thought he was clever to tie in something culturally relevant but he would do so, carefully.
My pastor is a Texas A&M graduate so there are a lot of good vs. evil references where A&M is of course good and UT is evil. There are usually jersey's and football helmets involved. The following week there are always a lot of members wearing burnt orange in silent protest.
UT is evil, and Colt McCoy is the anti-Christ
I love when pastors make wide sweeping statements like You should vote for John McCain and not Obama, great times had by all at church.
I also like it when they talk about sports. Like last Sunday when the Cardinals were swept by the Dodgers the minister got up and seemed to be more depressed then usual. He mentioned the sadness of the cardinal game and then seemed to let that carry into his sermon. He had us in a depressed mood and used it to his advantage to call us to repentance…brilliant.
I think that if the news is relevant to the scripture being taught, then by all means, refer to it.
(kidding, of course!)
In Christian Love!
A famous dead European theologian (I'm too long out of seminary to remember which one) once said that preachers should preach 'with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other' – by which he meant that a good pastor/preacher can and should be both Biblically grounded *and* ready/able to apply Biblical truths to modern events.
I have used Star Wars references in sermons, and even actually brought in my kids' toy lightsaber once. I was going for point illustration on the sword of the Spirit/word of God (Ephesians 6). I'm not sure folks got it, though: they often referred to 'that time Pastor brought in a lightsaber', but never to why Pastor brought it in. Kinda made me rethink the whole 'culturally relevant' thing and go back to 'just' preaching from the Bible, and, ya know what? there's plenty of good stuff in there. It can and does preach, all by itself.
Very true, the bible has enough crazy stories of its own without adding today's headlines to it, though it is fun to have great stories about wild examples used in sermons, especially when the examples tie in perfectly to the listener’s Christian walk. Tag team wrestling for example. I heard this sermon over 10 years ago. I don't even remember the pastor's name any more, but it still reminds me from time to time that when life beats me up I need to stop grasping for control and "tag Jesus in," to fight my battle for me. This sermon came on the heels of Tyson’s ear biting incident. Very cool. Very effective..
So you're advocating a "kids these days" angle that sides with the parents? That's tough, considering criminal charges are in the hopper. I vote for more of a "parents these days" approach that enjoins people not to use their 6-year-olds as pawns in a pathetic bid for reality television fame. But that's just me.
Not at all funny, but when I was doing worship planning we scheduled the Johnny Cash video "Hurt" as a sermon illustration. He passed away that weekend.
Bahaha. I love the line, "They should probably be taught in seminary or something." Brilliant.
Love your blog, Jon, Funny stuff.
May I just say, Preach the Word, not current events/movies/TV shows!
Is this blog really about preaching, though? Cos personally I would say it isn't, and I'm kinda glad. I get enough preaching. I just want someone to make me smile about the silly stuff. If, every so often, I read something that "makes me think", that's a bonus.
On a completely unrelated note, I prayed for my Sunday School class yesterday, and 'just'-ed in the middle of the prayer. Once I realized what I did, I tried my hardest to stop myself. I couldn't. It's a disease.
I think it was Karl Barth who made the comment about preaching with the bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. Anyway, this post is funny to me because I did mention balloon boy in my sermon. However, I did not follow the three guidelines, and it was only a one-sentence mention. And I only mentioned balloon boy on the spur of the moment, after realizing my prepared illustration involving Icarus flying too high to the sun could possibly have a modern parallel.
thats a great point, I forgot about that from Barth
"For example, “What does it say about our culture when in the midst of a million other more serious issues, we are all glued to the television in an overreaction to a balloon-related event that ended up being nothing at all?”
Might be another finger pointing to crazy amount of power media has to set our agendas. Scary to think that many times our concerns are based on the stories the media monster decides should be important to us while some truly important issues are left in the dark, not even given the opportunity to be cared about.
The pastoral leadership in my formal church taught in 4-6 week series. Nearly every series is a rip-off and pun off of a t.v. show…their present series is "Lifeswap", complete with the rip-off graphic of Wifeswap. Worse? They have a graphics guy but only allow him to copy the t.v. graphics: http://maranathachurch.org/
that should be "former", not "formal"
The funniest that I've heard is a friend of mines' pastor who incorporates popular music into the sermons. For example: Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" would be used in illustration with the beginning of story of Ruth. This might be ok if he also didn't break out into singing excerpts of the song…a cappella… and not well.
I would pay good money to see my pastor attempt to sing "Single Ladies"
Back in my school days, we had a pastor who didn't own a television – or at least didn't watch it. And yet, he would try to make TV cultural references somewhat often. I still remember him talking about Geraldo – with a "Gee"
Or you have the pastor that says, I don't watch TV, just to be cool. Love those guys.
But I really think they are lying and only want themselves to believe that they do not watch TV because they have other stuff to do.
well, it wasnt on headlines or anything, but in my town last April they just so happened to be shooting an indie zombie film and they were having extras line up a street over from our church for makeup and zombie lessons. you can imagine my pastor saying "thats sad when more people line up for a zombie film than for church". it was sad though, because me and dad had tried to get in line but it was wayy too long so we went to church instead. bahahahahaha.
Superbowl Sunday… Nuff Said
Just discovered your website while searching for missions trip letter writing inspiration. You've pretty much changed my life. Thank you!
I cant lie. i love current events in sermons. My pastor did use Michael Phelps examples and constantly uses Football references. (I dont get those..Heh).
I dont think my pastor talked about balloon boy but i was teaching kids church.
And all I remember from the Michael Phelps one is my pastor looking at a lot of the teenage girls trying to..make a point or soemthing. Haha
Sometimes it's really important to make these references though. I remember on September 16, 2001, our minister got up and said "You know, on Monday afternoon, I had this sermon locked up. The scheduled reading was the Prodigal Son, one of the easiest passages in the Bible to preach on. Then I saw the news on Tuesday morning." (Sept 11th)
Best or WORST? When I was going to a church in Tulsa, the pastor preached an ENTIRE SERMON from Top Gun. The movie. With Tom Cruise. And he illustrated every one of his 5 points (because all good sermons should have 5 points) with CLIPS FROM THE MOVIE.
I wish I were making that up. It sounds like the sort of scenario you would make up, Jon. Well, if I added unicorns.
If any church were to have a worship eagle, it would be that one. It was a crazy place. We finally left and went to a normal church.
No matter what I think of a "relevant" song, movie clip, headline used in church(used well or not),when I hear or see it later, my mind goes back to that sermon or gathering time and I remember a point that struck me. I will admit there are some references that are WAY out there but it still gets you thinking–one way or the other.
Like the time a former pastor retold the news story of the enraged man who tried to throw a woman off a bridge out of road rage screaming "b**ch! b**ch! b**ch!" at her–and said it as a part of the message. Can't remember his point but I remember it was the first time my friend's parents came to visit the church. They came back and stayed for several years!
We love the Gators here in FL, my pastor more than most. In his sermons he somehow manages to incorporate the Gators. Sometimes it works, but mostly it's good for laughs. I remember this other time when the Youth Pastor preached. I've forgotten the title, but i distinctly remember him talking about one of Liam Neeson's really cool quotes from the movie 'Taken' : I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.
Maybe he was talking about us being awesome Godly ninjas who would not give up in our pursuit of justice for the oppressed? Skillful prayer warriors battling for the lost?? I could paraphrase it thus (I think, using 'thus' makes me sound smart; imagine saying this to the devil on behalf of someone you're praying for):
I know who you are. I know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long and fruitful walk with Jesus. Skills that make me a nightmare for you and your posse (do people still say posse??). If you let [insert name of the lost or least here] go now, that'll NOT be the end of it. I WILL look for you, I WILL pursue you. And I WILL find you, and I will slap you upside the head with the power of Jesus that lies in me. Take that!!
Haha…Clayton King at Newspring just dropped a Balloon Kid reference! Love it!
This reminds me of a friend telling me his pastor used a sermon illustration talking about how gracious Beyoncee was to Taylor Swift during the awards ceremony fiasco with Kanye West, he said several people just looked around at each other like "who is Beyonce? Is it a group?" I love when pastor's use sermon illustrations from outside of christian culture and everyone else acts like they have no clue.
Nemo – the best redemptive, father loving child sermon I’ve ever heard.