How To Keep Illustrations Sharp
J. Alistair Brown
April 1, 1991
Sermon illustrations are tools. They can be used skillfully or clumsily. Poorly used illustrations dull the message and may even confuse the hearer. But illustrations deftly applied bring a message to life. Here are some rules I've used to keep my illustrations sharp. Make them fit the circumstance
No tailor tries to adapt his client's body to fit a ready-made suit. Yet we preachers sometimes try to shape a sermon to fit a great story we're itching to tell. A sermon illustration I hear often these days concerns the captain of a battleship who exchanges terse messages with a vessel dead ahead. Each vessel keeps telling the other to move aside. The denouement is that the other "vessel" turns out to be a lighthouse. That illustration seems to belong best in highlighting our need to give way to the lordship of Christ. But I've heard it used as a minister was being introduced to a new congregation (Who was to give way there?) and-I confess-I've used it at a wedding reception, stating it was a wise man who knew when to give way to his wife! It worked in each situation, but the story ought not be stretched too far just to allow an opportunity to use it. Obviously, the message to be preached ought to have priority over any illustration. If the latter is allowed too much latitude, we may lose the point of the sermon. Keep a clear link to the message
I'll never forget the horror of finding myself halfway through a dramatic illustration and realizing I had no idea whatsoever how the story applied to the sermon. Something must have caused me to jot the story in my notes, but I hadn't written any link to the main text. I had to cover the situation as best I could, but I'm perfectly sure that if I, the preacher, couldn't see a link, the congregation ...
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