Raisins in the Oatmeal: The Art of Illustrating
Mark Littleton
An illustration is like a row of footlights that shed light on what is presented on the stage. If you turn the lights onto the audience, they blind the people.
Haddon Robinson The greatest convincer preached with stories — a woman's lost coin, treacherous renters, faithful servants. The simple stories communicated to depths that profound propositions would never reach.
Even the gospel itself is a story — a living (and dying and living again) illustration.
What preachers gather and swap and treasure like stamp collectors, they also want to use effectively: their sermon illustrations. But how? How can a preacher know when enough yarns have been spun? At what point does an entertaining illustration bully the text out of the spotlight? When is an illustration demanded? And when does one demean?
Mark Littleton is a Christian communicator who has asked those questions and arrived at some answers — answers he utilized in his former pastorate at Berea Baptist Church in Glen Burnie, Maryland, and answers now used in his writing ministry. Having made the common mistakes and learned from them, he offers his observations in the following chapter. Anyone who must preach two different sermons on Sunday and a third on Wednesday, plus teach, give children's sermons, and offer "a few words" here, there, and everywhere, knows the power of good illustrations. They bring fresh air to musty monologues. They grab the heart as well as the head. They help apply truth to life. That's why I collect, make up, steal, borrow, and beg them from everyone. My three-by-five card file of illustrations is so cherished I keep a picture of it in my wallet to show friends. "Get a load of this baby," I say. "Beautiful tan finish, full of laughter and babble, always ...
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