Actuality : Real Life Stories For Sermons That Matter

Stories have a limit, but your reach doesn’t have to.During seminary, stories from dorm life or a former part-time job might manage to suffice for illustrative sermon material, but once a consistent preaching ministry begins, pastors run dry on stories in a hurry. Within a breathtakingly short span of time, most preachers blow through their personal stories and relevant antidotes.

Of course, what preachers need are not canned Internet illustrations, but true-to-life stories inside in which listeners will be able to locate themselves, thus opening them up to receive into their lives the grace of God that alone proffers hope and joy. This book teaches preacher how to cultivate personal habits of becoming consumers of art, journalism, and literature while letting the Word of God shine with a reality that is aptly fitting of a Gospel designed to save the real world.

Of course, what preachers need are not canned Internet illustrations, but true-to-life stories inside in which listeners will be able to locate themselves, thus opening them up to receive into their lives the grace of God that alone proffers hope and joy. Preachers need the insights of skilled novelists, who in fresh ways reveal the sad dynamics inside dysfunctional families. They need the wisdom skilled journalists bring to profiles of poverty and desperation. They need the storytelling skills of filmmakers, whose art is pure narrative.

But to get to these riches, preachers need to be inspired to read and to watch and how to keep track of it all so they can fruitfully bring forward the right amount of insight in a perfectly timed sermon.

This book teaches the preacher how to cultivate personal habits of becoming consumers of art, journalism, and literature while letting the Word of God shine with a reality that is aptly fitting of a Gospel designed to save the real world.