I remember an older woman in our church whose husband wanted nothing to do with Christ or his church. (He actually didn’t want much to do with his wife either, but that’s another story.) Eventually poor health meant she couldn’t drive so she prevailed upon her husband to drive her to church. He’d sit out in the parking lot the whole time. When the weather turned cold he came in after the service started and sat alone in a corner of the foyer. A few months later he’d come into the service, but he kept his head down and wouldn’t stand for anything. He’d never look at me while I preached. Until I told a story. Then he’d look up and follow me.

As a young adult, just beginning to think about preaching, I realized that every preacher I really liked told stories to reinforce their sermons, so I decided I wanted to learn how to do that, too. I’m devoted to expository preaching. The text comes first. However, effective illustrations allow people to hear the text more clearly, to better understand and apply it.

Preachers typically illustrate almost exclusively from their own lives (if they can think of something) or from what they’ve seen or heard in the last week (again, if they can think of something). The problem is that many of these illustrations are bland; they don’t have much oomph.

Other preachers are so committed to teaching every detail of the text that they see sermon illustrations as a distraction from the meat of the Word. I understand that pressure, but usually good illustrations help people grasp and obey Scripture.

Illustrating well is difficult. Generally, it takes time to find and to craft effective illustrations. Here are some things I’ve learned in my 40+ years of pastoral ministry.

Bible Stories

You’ll hear that we should tell stories because Jesus told stories. Well, yes, except his parables were often used to disguise truth so that only those with “eyes to see” got them. That’s not usually our goal. A better example is how God used narratives of every sort throughout Scripture. Sometimes stories convey truth in ways no other genre can.

Bible stories have a divinely inspired ability to pull us in. God wants us to identify with Jacob or Joshua, with disciples in the storm, the women at the tomb, or Philemon confronted with Onesimus. Every preacher knows the importance of bringing these stories into the lives of our people. Be careful about adding all kinds of imaginative details to spice up what the Bible gives us. The authors told us what they want us to know so highlight what they give us. They’re in charge. Tell their story.

Once I was asked to speak at an interfaith service at a retirement home. More than half the audience of maybe 75 people were Jewish so it was a delicate situation for an evangelical preacher. The Lord prompted me to tell Jesus’ parables from Luke 15 of the lost sheep, coin, and sons. I virtually recited the chapter once I set the scene. I paused here and there for effect, letting the images sink in, but I didn’t embellish or explain them. I left the response of the elder brother up in the air just as Jesus did. When I finished I looked at the audience, eyebrows arched, as if to say, “Do you have ears to hear?” Then I sat down. I could see the impact of the story in many faces but later the chaplain told me that a couple of the Jewish men had complained to her that they didn’t know what those stories were all about.

Different Strokes: Metaphors and Examples

Metaphors and analogies help us see. A metaphor, even if it is only one word or a short phrase (“you brood of vipers”), is a mini-illustration, a picture worth at least a few dozen words. We all use metaphors and analogies naturally, especially in trying to convey an abstract idea. The problem is that if preachers don’t work at fresh metaphors, we will almost always use clichés, and clichés don’t stick. People might understand what you mean but they won’t remember it.

Almost no one since Charles Spurgeon can come up with vivid metaphors on the spot. I certainly have to work at them ahead of time. For one sermon, I was trying to recognize how difficult it is for us as believers to stop worrying. I kept asking myself, What is that like? Finally, I came up with, “Putting our fears into God’s hand and leaving them there is like trying to tuck an octopus into bed.” That’s so much more vivid than saying, “It’s hard to stop worrying.”

A few years ago I heard Dr. Robert Smith Jr. preach. He spoke of the day “when we step on the other shore and wring the dark waters of our tribulations from our garments.” That was gold! (To really stir your imagine read Haddon Robinson’s extraordinary article, “The Dress of Thought.”)

Metaphors also work as full-blown stories. Bible themes like kingship, darkness, blindness, light, and many other abstract truths become clearer when carried by a story. Lesser-to-greater stories are another form. For example, use the story “a self-appointed guardian angel” who kept people from jumping off a bridge to portray evangelism. Or the Father’s search for prodigals pictured in Ernest Hemingway’s story of a father looking for his son, Paco. One of my favorites is drawn from Mark Twain’s novel, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. I’ve used it at Christmas to depict the heroism of Christ’s incarnation, “a king in commoner’s garb bearing death in his arms.”

When you read or see some curious or fascinating story from the news, science, or history, ask yourself, “What is that like? How could I use that?” For example, I read a story in the news about an antique dealer who salvaged a couple of grimy, nearly inaccessible windows from high up in a hundred-year-old church in Philadelphia. The congregation who had purchased the building wanted more light so they decided to scrap those dark old windows. But once they were chiseled out and hauled down, an appraiser told the antiques dealer that they were Tiffany stained glass worth up to $250,000. Now, what is that story like? When could you use it?

Metaphorical illustrations typically work better at the beginning or in the middle of a point, as you’re trying to set up or explain a biblical idea. Analogies and metaphors don’t persuade and motivate so much as they clarify and illuminate. They help us see. Our people see justification when we usher them to their seats at the defendant’s table in a courtroom. They see the love we’re to have for one another when we have them peer over Peter’s shoulder as Jesus washes his feet.

Also, these kinds of illustrations don’t have to be particularly contemporary. If the audience can picture it, it doesn’t matter if the story comes from ancient or modern times. You can draw from science, Shakespeare, or Scooby-Doo.

The most common kind of sermon stories are examples from people’s lives—whether good, bad, or perplexing. Whereas metaphors help people see a truth, examples help listeners identify with a truth. They are mirrors.

The power of a story in any great novel, ballad, or movie lies in our ability to identify with the character, even if the setting is far different from our own. I get weepy every time I hear Jean Valjean sing, “Bring Him Home,” in Les Miserables, because I’m a father who misses his son.

Preachers often begin a sermon by telling about someone’s struggle or failure as a way to orient people to the answers in the biblical text. We lead them to questions like, Do you know what that feels like? Have you ever wondered about that? What would you say?

Examples of people behaving in godly ways, like someone who shares their faith or prays through a problem, often work best to conclude a point or a sermon. You explain a truth and then show how it is embodied. This may be the most important kind of illustration because it brings a truth to life. It’s worth searching to find that kind of testimony.

However, beware of over-preaching it. Let the story speak for itself. Sometimes the best way to end is to just stand there silently and wait for it to sink in. Let people discover the aha! One rule: almost never end a sermon with bad example. It’s a downer.

The king of all examples is when you can start a sermon with a story of someone’s hardship or failure and leave it hanging. Then in your conclusion you surprise them by picking it up again with strong Christian outcome. An illustration like that, my friends, is gold!

Alternatives

A variation on stories are video clips, but they are tricky. It’s easy enough to find something from a movie that illustrates a moral truth like courage or kindness, but very difficult to visualize spiritual truth, like godliness or the indwelling Spirit.

There’s also the challenge of setting up a video clip so that people understand what’s happening. It can take more telling than it’s worth. The most difficult thing is that it is very hard to get your audience back after a video clip. The lights come up and there you are, in all your ordinariness, expecting to carry on.

A testimony is another alternative. It takes longer and must be carefully prepared. Rick Warren talked about using a testimony in the middle of a sermon—the power of what he called “a satisfied customer.” Likewise, a good testimony can be a powerful conclusion if it fits to a tee. A video testimony also works and has the advantage of being edited well.

I’ve preached a handful of dialogue sermons where I basically preached the text while interacting with someone next to me who has lived it in a particular way. For example, I did this with a woman who raised sheep.

Occasionally a piece of art projected on the screens can do all the work. I keep a folder for art-oriented websites. Good art (not basic drawings) provoke interest and speak effectively.

Tell Well!

Several times my wife and I have attended the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee, the state’s oldest town. Picture huge tents set here and there near the quaint, hilly main street. It’s always the first weekend of October. Fall colors and apples sold on the street add to the delight. Listening to professional “tellers” is wonderful but for me as a preacher, the bonus was sharpening my skills.

I learned from the pros that every good story has an arc of three acts. Every movie has that arc, every novel and play, even many commercials. Act One: set the situation, the characters, the dilemma. Act Two: build tension and curiosity. Where is this going? Then what happened? Act Three: the conclusion, the point, the Aha! Sometimes you can do it in three lines; sometimes it takes five minutes. But don’t shortcut the arc. We’ve all heard people tell a jammed or jumbled story. It’s a waste.

The secret sauce is in the details; enough to engage but not so much that we get distracted from the flow of the story—a name, street, fragrance, environment, taste. (No preacher ever did it better than Fred Craddock.) If you don’t have time to tell it well, save it for another occasion.

Good storytellers take their time. They never hurry. They pause for listeners to catch up. They don’t have to tell us the point of the story. Preaching may be somewhat different, but most people get the point without the preacher hammering it down. Think how often in Scripture we’re told a story where the writer expects us to see the point without being told.

Even when you know the story well, write it out in full. We tend to get the blurts once we have an audience. I heard a preacher once tell a dramatic and effective story from his time as a prison guard. The problem was, he didn’t know when to stop. The crowd was eating it up, so he kept telling us more, long after the usefulness to his sermon was over. What’s worse, he had to shortchange his text.

By writing your story you can think through the flow (the arc) and find the most vivid language. You see how long your illustration is relative to the rest of your sermon. Is your story worth that much time? Also, you don’t want to be one of those speakers who gets about three sentences from the end only to say, “Oh, I forgot to tell you that ….” Ultimately, you can probably tell your story extemporaneously but writing it ahead of time will prepare you to do it well.

Some preachers have this aversion to the “canned story,” by which they typically mean some story found in a book of illustrations that smells like it’s been up in the attic too long. I’ll grant you, there are stories so dog-eared or clichéd that they should be given a dignified burial. Work at finding something fresh.

Lost and Found

Here’s the sad truth: a year from now you won’t remember a good story you found today and even if you do, you won’t know how to find it again. Look for good stories everywhere and if you find one, hang on to it. Keep a searchable folder of stories you’ve found. You might use key words for the story in the file name (e.g., grace, salvation, testimony) or use them as a heading in the file itself, so you can search for stories by topic.

For years I collected every book of illustrations I could find, and there are some good ones by preachers like Chuck Swindoll, Tony Evans, Fred Craddock, and others. The main weakness of books is that you can’t search for an illustration that might have multiple applications. The best source for illustrations that I know of is right here—on PreachingToday.com.

Illustrating a sermon takes time when we already feel pinched in preparation. In my mind, it simply had to be done. I often prayed for illustrations and even then, sometimes I couldn’t find one that worked. There comes a time to let it go and close-up shop. But seeing faces light up as you tell the right story—to see the smile, heads nodding, or someone jotting a metaphor in their notes—well, that’s one of the great delights of preaching.

Which reminds me of a story ….

Lee Eclov recently retired after 40 years of local pastoral ministry and now focuses on ministry among pastors. He writes a weekly devotional for preachers on Preaching Today.