THE MAN WE WANT Since it is now football season (with the coming of the new league when is it not football season?) here's a story that was sent in by Dale Bean, Pastor of…
Sermon Illustrations
EASTER'S REAL MESSAGE from Martin Marty's Context and Sources and Resources. Eight-year old Stephen was mentally retarded -- and his problem was worsening and was becoming even more noticeable to his classmates in Sunday School.…
TO FLY ON RAINBOW WINGS Guy Robinson, pastor of Plainview Friends Church in Plainview, Nebraska sent in the following story which he found in an Aldersgate Sunday School book. Four additional months will be added…
BRILLIANT BOOKS If you're a fan of short, pithy sayings (as I am) you'll find a great resource in Ashleigh Brilliant's book, Appreciate Me Now And Avoid The Rush, a gold mine of succinct and…
PERSISTING IN UNBELIEF I have a story that came from one of the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts in the Bahamas -- but I have no name attached to it. It's the one about the…
GETTING THE ODDS ON YOUR SIDE Michael Colvin, Pastor of the Church of the Brethren in Woodbridge, Virginia sent in the following, which he gleaned from Dr. Jerome Frank, Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins…
EXCELLENCE / MEDIOCRITY A resident in a seaside-hotel breakfast room called over the headwaiter one morning and said, "I want two boiled eggs, one of them so undercooked it's runny, and the other so overcooked,…
THE HAND OF LOVE Thomas Phillips of St. Albans Episcopal Church in Wilmington, Delaware sent in this story which he found in a sermon by Fred Craddock of the Chandler School of Theology. It was…
DEATH Once a dying patient asked his doctor, who had come to make a housecall on him, what death would be like. The doctor fumbled for a reply and then he heard his dog scratching…
SAY IT CLEARLY As ministers of the Gospel we must be communicators, sensitive to those things that help or hinder the understanding of the message. Sometimes we need assistance in getting that message through. I…
GETTING THROUGH? One of our Saratoga church members, Ken Christiansen, shared this story with us the other night -- on the problem of assuming you are on the same wave length -- when you aren't.…
NOT A BIT OF INFLUENCE My friend Ronnie Patton told me the one about the market research interviewer who was stopping people in the grocery store after they picked up their bread. One fellow picked…
THE NAME IDENTIFIES Robert Mentze, Associate Pastor of the Westminster Presbyterian Church of Escondido, California sent in the following item: Several centuries before Christ, Alexander the Great came out of Macedonia and Greece to conquer…
ACTIVE MEMBERS The pastor of a small Southern church was on his way home when he met an acquaintance from town who was not a member of his church. After chatting awhile the man asked…
CASUALTIES IN THE HUNGER BATTLE More people died as a result of hunger in the past five years than those killed in wars, revolutions and murders over the past 150 years. As reported to the…
EVENTS THAT REVEAL I was recently speaking on the theme of "Revelation" or "Apocalypse." Crucial events often reveal otherwise hidden truths -- for good or for ill. I used the story I found in Reader's…
FORGIVENESS I found this story in Sunday Sermons. A certain seminary professor always introduces his class on the New Testament with a story from his own life. It seems that years and years ago he…
MAGNIFICENT WORDS TO PRICK UP YOUR EARS "I shall rise from the dead, from the prostration, from the prosternation of death, and never miss the sun, which shall be put out, for I shall see…
PROMISES TO KEEP Dr. Sullivan, former President of the Southern Baptist Convention tells the following story as related in Proclaim, Jan-Mar, 1979. It was submitted to us by Chris Cannon, Pastor of Antioch Baptist Church…
FORGIVENESS The following was shared with us by William F. Stehr, Pastor of St. James Lutheran Church in Jacksonville, Florida. He read it in Will Daylight Come by Dr. Richard Carl Hoefler. A little boy…
