For such a simple illustration, drawn from my everyday life, it had a profound impact. For years following that sermon, struggling church members would come into my office, hang their heads, and softly say, "Pastor, I slipped into an old pair of shoes this week." Immediately I knew what they meant. The power of a simple image had helped them recognize and deal with sin in their lives in a way that mere information probably would not have done.

A few words of warning about personal illustrations are worth mentioning. First, your illustrations can be personal, but they cannot be too personal. In other words, no one wants to know about your sexual practices or sins (no matter how long ago they occurred), your struggles with money, or your dislike of your in-laws. You can't talk about any sin or weakness in your life that is still unresolved or even too fresh. In the same way, you might get away with telling in a humorous fashion about an argument you once had with your wife years ago, but don't tell them about the fuss you had yesterday! They aren't necessarily sure your marriage will survive it!

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And when it comes to illustrations about family, ask permission from any family member you will mention before you dare use it. Their answer will depend on their personality and their confidence in you, but if they say no, respect it and accept that answer. Do not let your family feel like they have no privacy or control of how their private lives are presented to the congregation. Let sanctified common sense guide your use of personal illustrations and you will find them worthwhile.

Look for illustrations everywhere. If a pastor averages preaching just two sermons a week, fifty weeks per year, he will preach one hundred sermons. And if he uses one illustration for every introduction, conclusion, and each point of sermons that average three main points, then he requires five illustrations per sermon and five hundred illustrations per year! If he stays in one church for long, he will discover how difficult coming up with fresh illustrations can be. Many pastors have actually discovered that they can repeat whole sermon series in the same church years later — so long as they change the illustrations. But if a pastor repeats an illustration, no matter how good it may be, his congregation may think of his preaching as tired, worn-out, and stale — even if the sermon is new and only the illustration is repeated.

Obviously, the constant pressure to find new, relevant, and appealing illustrations is a consuming fire. Deal with it. You can get better at diagramming, outlining, and communicating, but finding fresh illustrations seems to get harder the longer one is in the ministry. Buying illustration books is seldom the answer. Craig Brian Larson's books and those in Leadership magazine are rare exceptions, but most collections have more useless material than anything. High-priced illustration subscription services are not any better, unfortunately. You will find that you often have to read one hundred such illustrations for a single serviceable story.