I’m Opening My Sermon Illustration Vault

Your sermon is nearly finished, but it’s still missing that one thing—the perfect sermon illustration or story that will make it unforgettable.

So, if you are like most pastors, you fire up the Google machine and search for “sermon illustrations.”

You then spend the next few hours reading through a bunch of outdated websites trying to find a diamond in a pile of rubbish.

Can you relate?

Maybe you have felt my frustration.

A Conversation that Changed my Preaching

Years ago, a great mentor to me gave me some advice that solved this problem forever. The conversation went something like this:

He said, “Brandon, you need to read one hour every day.”

I said, “No problem. I read all the time.”

“But you aren’t doing it right,” he replied. “While you read, you need to gather every good illustration you find. Then, when you need the perfect illustration, you have a gold mine to choose from.”

“Oh… That’s a really good idea.”

I took his advice, and my preaching has never been the same. The reading has helped me grow, and the stories have helped me become a better preacher.

Now, he suggested photocopying the book and organizing the papers in a file cabinet. But since we are in the digital age, I save mine in Evernote.

I have spent years collecting sermon illustrations so I can quickly pull them up whenever I need. And, if you are interested, I wrote a lot more about my process in my book.

My Sermon Illustration Database

This week I was reminded again of how many pastors still struggle to find quality illustrations. And I thought, “Why am I selfishly hoarding all these illustrations?”

So I have decided to open the door to my illustration vault.

I will be combing through my personal database, pulling out some of the best illustrations, and posting them here every week.

Soon I hope to have a solid archive of top-notch illustrations available for FREE.

Why don’t I just dump them all on a page for everyone?

My goal is quality; not quantity. I could easily post 2,000+ illustrations today, but they would be hard to sort through and may not be very good.

You all deserve better than that.

As I find time, I will be posting illustrations as blog posts. Once I have enough illustrations posted, I will be organizing them on an Illustrations page to make them easier to search.

If this sounds helpful to you, let me know.

My goal is for ProPreacher to be a resource that helps you save time and preach better sermons.