Subscribe!

Because of the horrifying tragedy in Myanmar (rescue officials think the death toll may climb as high as 100,000), many of us will probably want to lead our congregations through difficult issues like pain and suffering. We've gathered a few illustrations and tagged them as "Free" for the next 30 days to help you in your preaching. Most of these stories come from past tragedies—the tsunami that killed over 400,000 people, Hurricane Katrina, the attacks at Virginia Tech—and obviously speak to the heart of what we're watching unfold in Myanmar.

Every week, Preaching Today posts new illustrations - a mixture of stories, statistics, quotes, humor, and scenes from popular movies or TV shows. As a regular part of our PT Talk sessions, Brian Larson and I would like to take a moment to talk about how we might use some of our illustrations in a sermon. We decided to try this out on a classic: Master Violinist Goes Unrecognized. We felt it was the best illustration of 2007.

To hear us talk about specific and more abstract ways to use this illustration, click "Play" on the audio player below to listen to PT Talk via audio stream. If you'd rather download the audio file so you can have it on the run, there is a link just below the player.

To download this episode of PT Talk, click here.

Share this:

Here's what people are watching, reading, listening to, and learning about...

Top Five Movies (according to box office returns)
1. Street Kings (Rated R)
2. 21 (Rated PG-13)
3. Prom Night (Rated PG-13)
4. Nim's Island (Rated PG)
5. Leatherheads (Rated PG-13)

Here's what people are watching, reading, listening to, and learning about...

Top Five Movies (according to box office returns)
1. 21 (Rated PG-13)
2. Leatherheads (Rated PG-13)
3. Nim's Island (Rated PG)
4. Horton Hears a Who (Rated G)
5. The Ruins (Rated R)

Because we're well aware you're knee-deep in preparing sermons and meaningful worship gatherings for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday, we've combed through all the materials in our database and put together a special Hot Topic on Easter. Click here and you'll find plenty of illustrations, images, and videos that deal with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

Our sister site, FaithVisuals, has posted a list of what it feels represents the top media of 2007. You'll surely find some helpful videos, worship loops, and video curriculum to enhance your preaching and teaching.

Some of the richest theology concerning Advent is found in the songs we'll sing together in the weeks ahead. Theologians, professors, and preachers have much to offer, but both head and heart are often most moved by the work of musicians. It's maddening, isn't it? You slave over a sermon for hours on end, but it is only when the little girl with blonde curls stands up to sing "Away in a Manger" that the crowd swoons over the startling majesty of the Incarnation.

Here's one of the ten illustrations we have to offer this week to members of PreachingToday. After you've taken a moment to read it, please brainstorm with us in the comments section. How would you use this story in a sermon?

Philosopher J. P. Moreland's Healing

The Sunday evening service on February 20, 2005, had just ended and I wanted to get home. I was frustrated. …The previous Thursday a virus landed in my chest and throat, and in a period of less than three hours I went from being normal to having the worst case of laryngitis in the thirty-five years since college. On Friday I went to our walk-in clinic and received the bad news. The doctor warned that this virus was going around, she had seen several cases of it in the last few weeks, and there was nothing that could be done about it. I just had to wait it out. The laryngitis would last seven to ten days.

Here's one of the ten illustrations we have to offer this week to members of PreachingToday. After you've taken a moment to read it, please brainstorm with us in the comments section. How would you use this story in a sermon?

Experiencing Emmanuel in Prison

Locked behind the razor-wire fences of a Florida prison is no place to spend a holiday. I'd spent 15 Christmases under these less-than-festive conditions, but this year my situation looked even bleaker. I was stuck in confinement—a prison inside a prison where the supposed troublemakers are sent. In reality, anyone can find himself in the hole by irritating the wrong person.

Here's one of the ten illustrations we have to offer this week to members of PreachingToday. After you've taken a moment to read it, please brainstorm with us in the comments section. How would you use this story in a sermon?

Holding All Things in Common

I had been praying regularly with the deacons for one of our members. His wife, Pat, attended our small congregation faithfully, but John hadn't been to church in years. So every Sunday afternoon before the evening service, we prayed for ways to communicate our commitment to John and his family.

Here's one of the ten illustrations we have to offer this week to members of PreachingToday. After you've taken a moment to read it, please brainstorm with us in the comments section. How would you use this story in a sermon?

Bad Relationships Are Bad for Your Health

Researchers from the University of Utah found there's a price to pay when couples don't get along. Videotapes recorded 150 husbands and wives discussing sensitive issues (how money is managed or doing household chores) and found the following:

Women who buried anger rather than speaking out were more likely to succumb to heart disease than wives who were vocal, the study found. And when women became domineering and controlling, rather than seeking consensus, damage was done to husbands' coronary health.

Here's one of the ten illustrations we have to offer this week to members of PreachingToday. After you've taken a moment to read it, please brainstorm with us in the comments section. How would you use this story in a sermon?

Brett Favre Breaks NFL Record

On September 30, 2007, Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre broke Dan Marino's record for throwing the most touchdown passes in football. His new record stands at 421 passes and counting.

The Associated Press has just released the results of a pre-Halloween poll that asked people about their supernatural/spiritual/superstitious beliefs. You can find the results here.

Here's one of the ten illustrations we have to offer this week to members of PreachingToday. After you've taken a moment to read it, please brainstorm with us in the comments section. How would you use this story in a sermon?

The Acadia, a Navy ship retired from service in 1994 after 13 years worth of trips around the world, now rests in Pearl Harbor. Officials had planned to use the old ship for scrap metal or as a location for special military training. Local community groups in Hawaii have their own set of plans. They want to turn the Acadia into a homeless shelter.

From a Garrison Keillor podcast of “The News from Lake Wobegon”:

[At] the Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church, they’ve been concerned about low attendance on Sunday mornings. They had about 20 people there this last Sunday, setting new low records.

When you have only 20 people in that sanctuary, the sermon does start to seem rather personal. Makes people uneasy and even fewer people show up.

Courtesy of David Neff, editor of Christianity Today magazine

Jerry Falwell, who died Tuesday of heart abnormalities, was spiritually and mentally prepared to face his end, a New York Times article reports. Just a little over two weeks ago, Falwell preached a sermon on a man or woman being " indestructible" until they have finished God's work, and told his congregation he was at peace with death.

For those who like to refer to TV shows in their sermons, here are some recent findings on the TV shows most discussed in the workplace:

American Idol (Fox): 37%
Grey's Anatomy (ABC): 17%
24 (Fox): 11%
CSI (CBS): 10%
Lost (ABC): 8%
House (Fox): 8%

Taken from USA TODAY Snapshots (5-8-07; pg. D1)

Alex Rodriguez, third baseman for the Yankees, may be off to "the hottest start in baseball history," according to one New York Times article. As of April 22, Rodriguez has hit 12 home runs this season (more than the totals of eight teams), and he is two shy of breaking Albert Pujols's April record.

The secret to A-Rod's rediscovered success--for those familiar with his bootless postseason, which had him eighth on the batting list and booed on a regular basis--is Kevin Long. Long, who previously played and coached minor league baseball, replaced former MVP Don Mattingly as the the Yankee's hitting coach. Though his credentials are humble, Long is quickly proving that the right coach is sometimes all you need to get on the right track.

This might work as an illustration on Christ's guidance, or even the power of mentoring or discipleship.

As a gunman stormed Norris Hall at Virginia Tech University and began killing fellow students, the students in professor Liviu Librescu's classroom could heard the shouts and gunfire coming closer to their room. Realizing what was happening, Professor Librescu--a 76-year-old Holocaust survivor--urged the students out the window as he braced himself against the door.

Free downloads from BuildingChurchLeaders.com and ChristianBibleStudies.com:
Answering Tough Questions
God's Purposes in Our Suffering

Articles from CT Library:
When the News Intrudes
Ministry at the Makeshift Memorial

A sermon from John Piper:
The Supremacy of Christ in an Age of Terror

An article from sister site FaithVisuals.com:
Using Media When Dealing with Tragedy

On Sunday evening, when I walked out to my car and pressed the button on my fob to unlock the door, nothing happened. I tried again and again. Still nothing. On Monday morning, the mechanic said he would call me with an estimate. He did, and it was painful.

A recent New York Times article reports on multiple studies tracking the increasing secularization of Hispanic immigrants to America. Decades of research shows that more and more Hispanics are abandoning faith--and two-thirds of those who claim to have "no religion" profess to being former churchgoers.

One interviewee suggests American culture makes forgetting about God too easy: "We pray to God when we feel the need to, but when we come here to America we don’t feel the need.”

A heartbreaking New York Times article tells of the mission of Colonel David Sutherland, commander of the American combat brigade in Diyala Province, Iraq. Sutherland and his brigade chaplain, Major Charlie Fenton, personally lay hands on and pray over the body of every dead or severely wounded soldier in their 5,000-strong unit.

While he will continue this ministry to the fallen, Sutherland had to realize his primary responsibility is to the men who remain on the front lines: "I needed this brigade to go on, and these soldiers needed to go on, for the living. Our reactions need to be for the people here, who need me and my soldiers to make the right decisions.”

In 1981, Andrea Jaeger was the world's second-ranked female tennis player at the tender age of 16. Now, Jaeger claims to have been "relieved" when a shoulder injury ended her tennis career shortly after the 1983 Wimbledon finals. Why?

"I thought, 'Finally I can go and be me,'" she says, as reported in the February 2, 2007 issue of THE WEEK (pg. 8). What that looks like for her is serving the Lord as an Episcopal nun. She further explained her joy: "God gave me a gift to play tennis, but it wasn't my right to say whether I had it for 5 years or 50 years. It was his right."

This illustration could be useful for several sermon themes: calling, gifting, God's sovereignty, witness. Other ideas?

Our houses are bigger; our families are smaller; but Americans are still running out of room to put all their stuff. We currently devote a whopping two billion square feet to rental storage space, and 11 million U. S. households are renting storage units--an increase of 90 percent since 1995.

A New York Times article comments on the proliferation of junk and a new type of patient: the "pathological hoarder."

Subscribers to PreachingToday.com may also want to check out this illustration:"Americans Busy Storing Their Stuff."

In a front-page article in the Monday February 19, 2007, USA Today (the office copy made the rounds very slowly), titled Katrina "voluntourists" make labor a vacation, there is a useful phrase--"mucking out" a flood-damaged house--that has obvious relevance for sanctification, repentance, and so on. The photo accompanying the article shows a man dressed in white, chemical-waste protective gear and scraping a large white shovel along the floor of a ruined house. Article author: Larry Copeland.

I heard a phrase recently that could make a nice illustration or sermon idea. One of the other guys in the office said he was not driving on a particular errand because he wanted "to reduce my carbon footprint." I googled to find the meaning of the phrase and found the carbon footprint website.

Several phrases come to mind as possible uses in a sermon: gospel footprint, spiritual footprint, sin footprint, righteousness footprint. Other ideas?

"God is not on facebook. We hereby demonstrate that our souls are not enslaved to this vice."

So claims one student in a Chicago Tribune article on a new Lenten trend among college students--fasting from Facebook. Students assert that abstaining from their favorite social network is more difficult than giving up sweets or soda, and plan to use the extra time for prayer and "old-fashioned communication."

Evolutionary science doesn't care whether God exists--that's the battleground of theologians and philosophers. It does care, however, about why anybody would think he does.

A recent New York Times Magazine article wonders, "Are we hard-wired to believe in God? And if we are, how and why did that happen?"

The midnight wanderings of "ambulatory" children are disrupting marital beds nationwide, and a New York Times article shares stories of the co-sleeping pandemic.

One mother admits, “It’s just so oddly part of the routine. [My husband] and I wonder, will we ever sleep together again?”

There's a new study out on narcissism among college students.

"We need to stop endlessly repeating 'You're special' and having children repeat that back," said the study's lead author, Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University. "Kids are self-centered enough already."

In this section of the blog, we'll be providing illustrations or links to stories for use in your preaching. Below is an example of what these will be like.

Brittany McComb had seen plenty of success. Having excelled in music, swimming, photography, and all her classes, McComb was prepared to graduate as valedictorian of Foothill High School in Henderson, Nevada.

But McComb had seen enough of success to know that it was not the answer. All her achievements had failed to grant her fulfillment and self-worth. So as she penned her valedictory speech, she shared the secret of true victory with her classmates.

Or, she tried to.