Help Me Find Creative Message Illustrations
Last year, Perry started his message about Hell from a coffin. Troy had a video camera following him around for MyNakedPastor.com. Steven brought back music from the 80s to teach on the vision of Elevation Church.
I’m helping my friends at Outreach Magazine with a project. We’re trying to track down message illustrations from recent months. We want to find the ones that caught your attention and helped make a story or a message point more memorable. What are some of the most captivating “parables” you’ve heard or seen recently? Share the best from your church or another one that you follow.
By the way, I’ve already started talking with Outreach about the third annual innovative churches issue coming in January. We’re going to shake things up a little this year. Stay tuned for more details.
At our church, I was lowered the from a 55 foot ceiling while I was reading Mark Chapter 2. We were talking about how the men lowered the paralytic man to Jesus. We taught the first point while still being suspended from the ceiling.
I stayed up in the ceiling upside down during the whole time for worship so no one would see me.
It was an incredible point in our ministry.
Hope this helps
j Parker
We did a 4 week series called Prison Break, breaking free from Sexual Sin, Bitterness and unforgiveness, & a Poor self image. We built a prison cell and taught from inside of it. The first night I wore inmate clothes. We taught it to a group of highschool teenagers.
One week we preached on Hell… good iustration gone bad. We set up an aluminum gutter with a 3/4 inch rope in it soaked in oil. Looked sweet, preaching from a line of fire on all three sides…it’s a good thing we tried out the illustration beforehand, we watched it burn – and warp the gutter falling to the ground. That night we just set up a million teacup candles and preached from around them… after the night was over, we gave a burnt teacup candle to each person who had a burden for their lost friends.
We just recently did a series called “The Venti Life”, we got Starbucks Venti cups donated so for 4 weeks we served Pike Place in Venti Cups. We looked at Joseph, Job, Matthew 7:24-27 man who build on the rock vs sand, and lastly Heaven (the ultimate Venti Life). For four weeks we hammered what the Venti Life was all about — OBEDIENCE to God.
Currently we are doing a series called FUEL, what fuels you in your relationship with God. What you read, your relationships, your level of comfort, prayer, and worship. We intro’d with this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbvr95MkMcQ
I’m a youthpastor in Jacksonville, right now myself and one other person sit at a starbucks and try to come up with creative ideas for our messsages. Hard work, but it pays off. I appreciate reading your blog… and twitter :-)
Kevin Connell
http://www.pluth.org
I actually work for a campus ministry and we haven’t done it yet, but this fall, we are going to do a freeze on campus like the YouTube Grand Central Station video, and have all of our students that are freezing wearing t-shirts that will give onlookers a number to text on their phone that will automatically reply with info about our campus ministry and the series that we will be doing that will coincide with the freeze that includes an invite and location to our event.
Craig Groeschel’s interviews with satan.
in a message about the power of the Word of God – for our Series titled “Monster, Energize your life!” I used the illustration that the word is a lamp to our feet – a light to our path. God has a line he wants us to run in the race of life. During the message I talked about how driving a car like a honda was OK – it got you places – but it had no power. What if you drove a car with Power. Like a NASCAR – 855HP. I tied the idea of a powerful life with the power of the word of God to a video I showed where I actually drove a NASCAR
Very powerful teaching moment for our church. But the really cool thing was I talked about how little things could mess up the race, small sins, stuff we dont think of as important – but they can cause us to get off the line (path) because we arent following God’s word. I dont recommend this – it happened quite by accident – but when I was driving the Dale Jarrett Racing Experience – I blew a tire coming out of turn 4 at talledega at over 140 MPH. I probably picked up a screw or small bolt or other piece of debris – and it shredded the right rear tire. It took me off the line and messed up my race.
You can see the video from inside the car here
The illustration was even more powerful because of what happened. (although maybe not something you can duplicate. )
Note: the musical choice in the second video is because Chris Elrod calls me “Pastor Magoo” because I am accident prone.
Tattoo artist – on stage . . . Easter Sunday
Watch the link.
http://snipurl.com/28kgn
kary oberbrunner spoke at our church a couple of months ago and had all of the seats switched to in the round with a small stage in the middle. he than used it to illustrate the point that our position in Christ is changed when we make him our Lord.
Hi Tony!
At our church (www.adabible.org) the pastor, Jeff Manion is always using really great illustrations. For the “Story of the Christ” series recently, he went to Israel and did little mini-clips of his sermon from different places that he was teaching about, then the clip would end and he would walk up on stage to complete the idea. He also had google earth maps that would zoom in, then he would show video footage that he took. It helped me get a grip on where Jesus walked, and where his ministry was happening. Pretty cool!
Hope you’re doing great Tony!
First, let me say, that I love your blog… I don’t know how far you think it reaches, but I’m here in Kiev, Ukraine.
We did an experiment… a church within a church… a youth church under the governance of the main church… We are winding down that ministry to simply become a “service” again after 6 months… It didn’t quite fit into the current cultural state… perhaps we were too edgy… however I think the edge is just getting sharpened as we prepare for what is coming up…
But that is beside the point… interesting illustrations, huh? Well, I don’t know how interesting or whatnot these are, but here are a few:
Well… In January we decided to shock the audience… first… I preached entirely in the Russian Language (a first for me) and we started with a explicit (not bad, just detailed) commercial for Tampons.
We we doing a series called “??????? ?????????” (The scandal of Grace) and we were looking in Isaiah 64… We wanted to prove that the point, which I stated: “Giving our best to God is like us offering a dirty, bloody, used tampon to God and saying: here is my gift to you, I bring you the glory that is this tampon.Take it in your hands.”
The point was that we are ALL under sin, and therefore all under grace and there is no difference (Romans 8) other than Christ.”
We had visiting pastors from other former Soviet States in the Audience. Our Senior pastor is the most influential (non-orthodox) religious leader in the Country. I wasn’t in trouble, but now, I run my Illustrations by people first.
When asked by the other pastors, if such things were allowed in His church; he simply responded: “It is the Word of God.”
The other idea, was to show a produced video of a man cleaning the bathrooms of a school with his t-shirt and then wearing that T-shirt around the school proclaiming how “clean” he was! There were no takers for the main role! But, basically we wanted to portray how many of us walk with our own righteousness, proclaiming ourselves clean and dirty-ing up all around us. Only when we have donned the white robes of Christ’s righteousness are we clean, and it is nothing we can claim of ourselves.
Doing a series called “?????: ????, ??????, ???” (Flame: Sex, Love, GOD) we chose to interview students at universities on their thoughts of Sex and God, and show the results. The interviewers were shown in bed together, until between them the preacher sat up and said: “Tonight we’re gonna talk about sex!” The montage ends with the question: is God in the middle of your bed?
In doing a series on what it means to be a disciple and to “grow up” in Christ we did a video where, I as the faithful pastor played the part of Satan: whispering in the protagonist’s ear. The guy goes through various temptations,littering drinking, etc. and always “dos what it right”. he eventually is tempted and goes to “be with” a girl he meets on the street and the next day he survives the “litter” temptation yet again. We were trying to show what the Christian life was for many: only that which is seen and in secret we sin greatly. I preached in my Satan outfit: pointing out that in many of our hearts we already listen to the words of the devil, so maybe they would hear me and move beyond mere visible actions.
I have more, but I have already written much at the moment… if you want more just ask…
as for now… we are gearing up to be risky… like make other church-goers hate us risky… Once classes start in September we are going to promote a Q&A forum on some of the campuses in the city…. the name loosely translated, means: Interrogate the pastor” (But in Russian its way better because its the word that the KGB used to use so using the entire phrase actually conjures up curiosity… as it actually was done) and… we want to hold the event in an empty strip club! Think about it: if your a humanist university student in a former Soviet country and you get a rave card advertising a KGB style interrogation of a pastor whose name everyone recognizes and it was at a strip club, would you go? I would! The kicker is this: any question of life and faith can be asked, and unless specifically about scripture the answers cannot come from there. They must only back up our other arguments and reason. We want to show that Yeas, as Peter said in John 6: HE alone has the words of life! …and his answers are the most wise and the most intelligent and we can prove it outside of the text! Should be fun!
apparently your blog doesn’t love the Russian alphabet as seen by all the question marks…. oh well…
i typed in my blog wrong…. its:
jsterlingbrown@blogspot.com
At our service a few weeks ago, I had all the chairs turned backward. Everyone on staff knew not to acknowledge this, but no one knew why. So people came in and sat down… and stared at the door they’d come in from.
Service started, and everything happened as usual… music, announcements, and even a video. A few folks turned their chairs on an angle… still, though, just looking over their shoulder. Then I got up to teach – one man out of the whole crowd turned his chair around to take notes, but everyone else didn’t.
I started my message in Acts 2 where the people who hear the message about Jesus are “cut to the heart” and respond to the disciples by wanting to step over the line of salvation. I then asked the people to talk with each other about someone they know who is far from God – really, really far from God – and if they could ever conceive of that person coming to faith. 95% responded no… which was when I hit them with the punchline.
“I’m curious,” I began, “why your chairs are still facing that direction.” Everyone laughed… finally it was acknowledged. I then read from John 14 where Jesus said that His disciples would do “greater things” than He did on earth… and I asked if they believed that.
This would require them doing more than accepting the way things are… they would have to make the effort to see things forward instead of backward. At this point I invited them to turn their chairs around if they were willing to start the journey of believing this. And then from the there the rest of the teaching continued.
we are doing a 32 week study verse-by-verse through the book of leviticus. :)
Since no one has posted on this entry since June, I may be too late in the ballgame? Would you be interested in a handful of examples from a workshop with Jon Weece from Southland Christian Church in Lexington, KY?