Communicators of God’s Word are living in a golden age of illustration. Tons of uncut gems are scattered over the terrain of our media culture.
To cut and polish these raw jewels for use in sermon settings, we need three special skills.
1. Identify the potential topics. An anecdote in a Time article may give me that tingling sense that “there’s an illustration there,” but until I can name it with a topic, it usually goes unused.
So the first thing I do with a find, after noting the date and source, is brainstorm the subjects it could illustrate. Letting my imagination run free, I turn an illustration like a gem dealer examining a rough stone. I meditate on it, paying attention to prominent features and the words they trigger in my mind. I ask: Does it illustrate something about the person or work of God? About people, their virtues or sins? About a Christian doctrine such as final judgment or conversion? About some spiritual reality such as spiritual warfare?
As I select potential topics, I note the associations triggered by the illustration. Is it positive and appealing, a negative example, quirky, humorous, or confrontational? Even if there was a preachable analogy, I wouldn’t apply a negative illustration, for instance, to some desirable aspect of the Christian life. An illustration’s color limits its useful categories.
If I have several possible subjects for an illustration but can’t yet say, “That’ll preach,” I ask, With what Scripture could I use this? No matter how good an illustration, if I can’t call a Scripture to mind, it probably lacks a useful sermonic category. When this happens, I put the clipping in a hold file just in case I see a connection later.
2. Choose the center. I can use illustrations profitably for more than one topic, of course, but they usually have a dominant center that offers the strongest place from which to bridge for application.
To find an illustration’s topics and center, I often have to narrow or widen the level of abstraction. A story that is useless at one level of generality can have great value at another level.
For example, if I find an interesting story in a magazine of someone losing his temper, I could use any of the following as a topic (listed from most specific to most general): temper tantrums, anger, harmful emotions, emotions, having the mind of Christ, discipleship.
We could picture this as concentric circles, with the subjects moving from specificity at the center to greater generality with each wider circle. The more specific subject fits within the larger circle of the next. In this case, discipleship would be the largest circle, and temper tantrums the center circle. (For more on levels of abstraction, see Jack Kuhatschek’s book Applying the Bible [Zondervan, 1990].)
3. Write a bridge sentence. One sure way to ruin an illustration is to take too long to transition into application. A bridge should be a sentence or two, not a paragraph. Illustrations wield power when there is one direct step from illustration to application.
“Like this woman, we all face times when we need courage.”
“In the same way that this eagle feeds its young, God feeds us.”
I determine the bridge sentence before I develop the body of the illustration. That way I have a clear idea what I’m working toward, which helps me select and exclude data to fit my purpose.
The difference between poor and proficient illustrators is not the raw materials they come across, but how skilled they are at cutting these stones for the preaching task.
Craig Brian Larson is editor of PREACHING TODAY and pastor of Lake Shore Assembly of God P.O. Box 1456 Chicago IL 60690
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