“Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation” (Mark 16:15.) In a “Peanuts” comic strip, Linus listens attentively as his little sister tells him about her potential as an Evangelist.…
Sermon Illustrations
“And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been…
A few days before Christmas, a five-year-old boy went with his mother to a big shopping mall. Their first stop was the toy department at Macy’s and soon the child was propped on Santa’s lap.…
It was the day before Christmas and little Bobby was in his room trying to be good. He was being so quiet that his mother called into him, “Bobby, what are you doing in your…
A few years ago at this time, a story was going around about a man in a department store during the Christmas rush who noticed a little boy trudging along all by himself. He didn’t…
Those of us who are looking forward to Christmas with joyful anticipation need to realize that for many people it is a season of horror. It is a season when their loneliness presses in on…
Christ climbed down from His bare Tree this year and ran away to where there were no gilded Christmas trees and no tinsel Christmas trees... and no powder blue Christmas trees hung with electric candles…
Several years ago, “Readers Digest” published a story about a parish “Adult Religious Education Class” that attracted a marvelously diverse group of students, in terms of race, ethnicity and economic status. One evening, a woman…
Someone once said that Church members come in three types: 1) The jawbones who talk and find fault. 2) The tailbones who sit and watch. 3) The backbones who willingly and tirelessly do the work…
Theologian Bernard Haring tells the moving story of his visit to a little church in Bavaria where he had been invited to preach. He says that as he went into the church for the first…
Recently, a West Coast pastor compiled a list of parishioners whose Christian powers he felt were withering with disuse. To them he mailed the following message concerning a forthcoming “no-excuse-to-stay-home-Sunday:” There will be: ...cots available…
A fellow declined an invitation to go golfing with his neighbor one Sunday morning, saying, “You know I go to Church every Sunday, yet you have asked me to go golfing on Sunday every week…
Why are fire trucks red? Well, fire trucks have four wheels and eight men; everybody knows that four plus eight is twelve. There are twelve inches in a foot, and a foot is a ruler.…
There is a wonderful story of an elderly woman in a nursing home who was faced with a very hard choice. Being an avid baseball fan, she had been following the World Series which was…
A certain pastor was the victim of a prolonged illness. During his absence, the parish secretary regularly posted an update of the pastor’s condition on the Church’s sidewalk bulletin board. “Pastor critical” was the first…
A couple was leaving Church after Sunday services. “Did you see that designer suit on the woman in front of us?” the wife asked. “And the hat on that woman across the aisle? And the…
“Dad, did you go to church every Sunday when you were a little boy?” a young lad asked his father. “Yes, son, I went regularly,” the father replied. “Well,” said the boy, “I’ll bet it…
On the Saturday religion page of a local newspaper, there appeared a pastor’s announcement of a special Church service to be held the following Wednesday. When Wednesday came, the only person to appear for the…
On a sunny Sunday morning, two men were out on the lake in a rowboat, fishing. The fish weren’t biting. Finally, one of the fishermen, a bit discouraged, said, “Well, it is Sunday, and I…
Several years ago, at a high school commencement exercise in Washington, D.C., one of the senior girls delivered a closing prayer which she had written. The young woman began to read her prayer at that…
