Editorial draft for review. “From the guide” sections are Parker's words; “Working it out,” examples and worksheets are editorial.
Guide sections: Building Illustrations That Work
Read
Read “From the guide” first, out loud if you can. Then read “Working it out.”
From the guide
Create an illustration library in your phone.
Tag everything:
- fear
- marriage
- prayer
- leadership
- failure
- grace
Add:
- stories
- quotes
- statistics
- personal moments
Weekly habit:
Add 3 illustrations every week.
Never search Saturday night again.
Remember:
Illustrations serve the text.
They don’t replace it.
Working it out
In your phone, because it is with you. Illustrations turn up in ordinary life. Capture them when they happen, in one place, with a tag.
Three a week. That is about 150 a year. Start with Parker's six tags and add your own as you go.
Serve, not replace. For each illustration in your sermon, name the point it serves. If it is memorable but points away from the text, save it for another week.
Permission and privacy (editorial addition). Ask before telling a story about an identifiable person, including family. Never use details from pastoral care if someone could recognize them, even with names changed. If an example is invented, say so. Note the source of anything borrowed.
Worked example (fictional, screening)
A preacher planned to tell a story from a recent counseling conversation. Screening it, she realized the person might be recognized. She opened her library, searched the tag “fear,” and found a personal moment she had saved in March that made the same point.
Discuss
- What does each illustration help listeners understand about the passage?
- Where do your best illustrations usually come from?
- Whose story is this, and do you have permission to tell it?
- When will you add your three each week?
Mentor: open your own library, or admit you do not have one and start it together.
Practice
Create the library in your phone with the six tags. Add three illustrations this week. Then list every illustration in your sermon. For each, finish the sentence “This helps explain ___ in the passage,” and check its source and permission. Remove or replace any that cannot finish that sentence; if every one can, keep them.
Worksheet
Copy onto paper or download below; nothing is saved here.
- Library created (where?)
- Three added this week (tag / type: story, quote, statistic or personal moment)
- Sermon illustration / “This helps explain ___ in the passage” / source
- True story or invented
- Permission needed / obtained
Review
Artifact: A started library and a checked list of this sermon's illustrations.
Complete when: The library exists with three new entries, and every sermon illustration finishes “This helps explain ___ in the passage.”
- Library exists with tags.
- Three entries added this week.
- Each sermon illustration finishes “This helps explain ___ in the passage”; any that could not was removed or replaced.
- Identifiable stories have permission; no confidential details.
Mentor feedback
Bring the work you made, not just your answers. Show one place where the passage shaped a decision. Name one strength, choose one useful improvement, and check the revision together.
- Name one real strength in the work.
- Name one priority improvement, based on evidence in the work.
- Revise, then recheck against the review list.