Christian Chaff
Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice
by Tim Lien
Recently, someone sent me this link: http://www.sermonspice.com/listings/2/sermon-illustrations/
Basically, it’s an online version of a sermon illustration book—the bane of all diligent ministers. It has “powerful illustrations” indexed by topic and user rated for its heart-rending effectiveness. Once the perfect illustration, video, or movie is discovered, you simply add it to your virtual cart. Prices range from $15 to $89 (from what I perused).
There are many things wrong with this approach, but I will only highlight several
1) It prevents the minister from properly dividing the Word of Truth.
Instead or reading the Greek, Hebrew, commentaries, and other fine literature, I can just “click to download.” It doesn’t promote labor, good thinking, or habitual discipline.
2) Sermons are reduced to ear-candy
Sermons begin to be rated by their interesting stories, not by their truth-laden content.
3) Promotes sensationalism and emotionalism (read: manipulative)
User-rated responses highlighted the illustrations that evoked the most powerful emotive response. (Yes, illustrations can be emotional, but that cannot be their primary attribute for selection)
4) Promotes moralism through topicality
Since these illustrations are not tied to specific texts under examination, it easily leads to superficial, topical fluff, that is devoid of a broader (redemptive-historical) and specific (textual) contextual considerations.
5) A steady diet of fiction leads to sentimentality
Akin to email forwards that relay an emotional and/or fictional story, this leads well-meaning Christians down a road of the “unreal and fantastical.” Our faith should always be grounded in reality. Justification in the midst of the grit and pain of reality. It reminds me of the well-intended WWJD fad—based on a completely fictional book that “transformed an entire town” because they uttered, “What would Jesus do?” before every action.
Please comment on this site’s validity and worthwhile nature, because I might have written this during an excitable state of mind.
Posted by Tim Lien at November 28, 2006 02:48 PM
You’ve got to be joking. Comment on its validity and worthwhile nature? What validity and worthwhile nature? Every criticism you mention is valid.
I took the time to listen to the one entitled “Let’s give thanks,” which has the highest user rating possible. User Mary Massey reviewed with this keen insight: “I love the upbeat music.” Is this the worship of the eternal God or American Bandstand?
Yeesh.
I feel like the guy who is holding the hand grenade w/ the pin already pulled out: “So help me, people, one false move and I’ll use one of these illustrations on you!”
I’ve seen it mentioned on several postings and comments here before and even in a sermon at least once (you see Tim, I’m actually listening every now and then and not just figuring out how to mimic you) about discernment and only accepting that which is excellent. What struck me from that page was the Evangelism linebacker, clearly a Christian (and thus good?) take on the Terry Tate: Office Linebacker commercials for Reebok that came out a few years back. A disclaimer: I haven’t actually seen the one on the aforementioned site, but I can imagine what its content is based on its description (plus my recent viewing for research purposes various versions of the Reebok commercial).
Certainly illustrations to get a tough theological idea across are warranted (Jesus’ parables, for example) but illustrations that reduce the Gospel to “Christian” (thus good?) takes on pop culture (Evangelism Linebacker vs. Terry Tate) do indeed fall woefully short of being excellent and discerning. This post and its comments only echo what I’ve heard countless times from Tim et al.
Like Clay said, “What validity and worthwhile nature?” Maybe you, Tim, did write this during in an excited state of mind, but you are certainly justified in your criticisms…excited state of mind or not.