A LITTLE LEAVEN

Have you seen this clip of Mark Dever, Matt Chandler and James MacDonald talking about some of their preaching gaffs?


Preaching Goofs from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.


It's interesting that the guys say illustrations about sport often come off badly. This is certainly my experience - in the UK there can be an assumption by football fans that everyone likes football and will relate to a football illustration. But most people (in absolute terms) are actually not that interested in football, and tend to be immediately alienated by footballing illustrations.


Illustrations, period, are fraught with danger.


I tend not to use many illustrations in my preaching. Partly this is because it is just not a style that comes naturally to me, but it also reflects a concern expressed by Martyn Lloyd-Jones in 'Preaching and Preachers' - that illustrations can be merely distracting. Often we can come away from a sermon thinking, 'that was an amazing sermon' when in fact it was a talk with some very captivating illustrations. If I then remember only the illustration, and not the point of the sermon, well, I may as well have stayed home and watched TV.


It is interesting that when Jesus used illustrations it was always in the form of a story, which helped to cement the point in his hearers thinking. For example, this morning I was reading Luke 7, in which Jesus tells the story of two debtors:


"A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon answered, "The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt." And he said to him, "You have judged rightly."


Now that is an illustration, but it is one that completely underscores the point, and ensures the point is memorable. Which is very different from the kinds of illustrations I have heard which tell me a lot more about the preacher than they do about Jesus. 


Preachers can spend a long time thinking of the perfect illustration. Or - worse - build their whole sermon around an illustration they have found that is such a good illustration it just has to be told. Better, I think, to worry less about whether the congregation considers us entertaining, and more about whether we are actually preaching Christ. If we're not doing that, even the best illustration is simply a preachers gaff.