Ten Preachers Talk about Sermon Illustrations
Knowing where to look for good sermon illustrations can make an important difference in your preaching. Ten well-known preachers share their resources.
Daniel W. Pawley
July 1, 1981
One of the most difficult tasks of sermon preparation is finding appropriate illustrations. LEADERSHIP decided to ask several notable preachers how they have done it. Assistant editor Dan Pawley talked with fames Boice, Herschel Hobbs, Oswald Hoffmann, David Hubbard, Calvin Miller, Norman Vincent Peale, Paul Rees, Haddon Robinson, Paul Smith, and Charles Swindoll. Each suggested places to look for illustrations and gave examples of illustrations they've used in their sermons. When Immanuel Kant sent a draft of his 750-page Critique of Pure Reason to a colleague for comments, the man read part or it and told Kant, "I'll go mad if I try to finish reading this. You have included no illustrations." Kant was sixty years old, and he feared he'd never finish the manuscript if he stopped to illustrate his points. Thus, he produced a cumbersome work, too windowless for even his philosopher friend. "Windowless," is the term Clarence E. MacCart-ney used in describing some ministers' sermons. "In eastern Russia," he noted, "one can see strange-looking houses. They are built like towers, solid, substantial, lofty, but without a window." Sermons need windows so light can stream in and illumine the abstract interior. Haddon W. Robinson, president of Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary, says, "Good pulpit communication moves back and forth from the abstract to the concrete. Each time the preacher states a deep, broad, general truth, the mind of the audience asks. Tor instance?' That's when you need an 'abstraction lighter,' a concrete example which applies the truth." Concrete examples, however, are not always easy to find. David A. Hubbard, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, admits, "I have to confess that illustrations are hard ...
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