Why Pastors are Bad Illustrations
I know most pastors don’t like to hear this, but to normal church people, you are not normal. In their minds, you’re not real. You have some kind of special deal with God, and the work you do is totally different than what they do. So, any time you use an illustration out of your own life, you are, by definition, not opening a window into their own soul about how they can make something you’re sharing real in their life.
For example, I recently heard a pastor of a large, very successful church, in a series on giving, mention that he had, several times over the course of his life, felt that God was calling him and his wife to give all their money away to a building campaign. And each time they had done that, God had proven Himself faithful and they ended up with more than they had before.
Now, how many normal church people do you think thought that was a good illustration that helped them get a good picture of how they could give sacrificially to God? Very few. Why? Because, in their minds, pastors have a special deal with God. They’re not real.
On the other hand, if that pastor had used an illustration of an auto mechanic or an elementary school teacher or an insurance sales person or a secretary or a computer programmer or a nurse or a janitor who had done the same, now that would have been a better illustration. However, an even better illustration of sacrificial giving would have been something less dramatic because most normal people will never drain their bank accounts for a campaign—ever!
As much as you might not like it, as a pastor, you’re not “real,” in the minds of your people. And that’s why you’re not a great source for illustrations. When you talk about your work or your week, you’ve just hindered the effectiveness of your message.
Where to From Here?
If you’d like to turn this around and help more of your people both understand God’s truth and know how they can apply it to their lives, I’d encourage you to implement the following seven practices.
1. Reduce Your Personal Illustrations to 10-20 percent of Your Total Illustrations.
I’m not saying you should never share a personal illustration. My issue is with the primarily pastor-driven illustration movement. Even though people may not think you’re “real,” it never hurts to help them understand that you are and that you’re one of them.
2. Change the Questions You Ask Yourself Each Week.
The questions you and I ask ourselves determine the answers we receive. If you want a different answer you need to ask a different question. Instead of asking, “What’s something out of my own life that kind of illustrates this point?” you could ask, “Who in my congregation would be a perfect illustration of this point?”
3. Use Your Staff to Help Uncover Illustrations.
I tell my clients that they should start off their staff meetings each week by asking for stories of their people. This creates a database of great stories. Plus, it’s a double win. Your staff members get to highlight someone from their ministry and you get to share a story of a “real” person in your congregation who’s a perfect illustration of the point you’re trying to make.
4. Raise Your Illustration Standards.
If your standard is, “Anything in the ballpark is fine,” or “What’s easy,” then that’s what you’ll shoot for. If your standard is that you’ll only be content with a great illustration that perfectly fits a point, then that’s what you’ll shoot for.
5. Don’t Use Yourself as an Illustration About “Churchy” Things.
Whether you like it or not, 99 percent of the people you’re preaching to will never be on a church staff. So sharing stories about your calling to ministry, for example, while cathartic for you, won’t be helpful to your people. You’d do far better to share how Joe, an ordinary guy in your congregation, felt God called him to open a nonprofit or go on a missions trip or lead a small group or help a neighbor in need, because Joe is considered normal to them.
6. Make Sure You’re Not the Hero of the Story.
Unfortunately, too many church people put pastors on pedestals. So, if you’re going to use yourself as an illustration, make sure you’re rarely the hero. For example, several years ago, during a message on pride I said,
“The interesting thing to me about our ego is that it often raises its ugly head in ways we would never anticipate. In fact, this past week I was sitting at a red light at the corner of Great Seneca and Clopper. I was in my Infiniti, enjoying some music, the sun was out and I was in a good mood. In the lane next to me, a young kid, in a little hot rod, pulled up. His windows were down, his music was blaring and he was revving his engine. When the light turned green, I don’t know what happened, or what force overtook my body, but somehow my foot forced my accelerator all to the way to the floor and I blew the kid away. My first thought as I looked in my rear view mirror and saw him behind me was, ‘Yes!’ My second thought was, ‘I can’t believe I just did that. I’m a 42-year-old community leader and pastor of a large church and I just drag raced a kid right near his school.’ What was that about? What caused me to do something I would never intentionally do? It was my ego. I just wanted to win.”
My people loved that story (and talked about it for a long time afterward). But the reason why it worked so well was because they thought, “Hey, he’s one of us.”
Note: This doesn’t mean you can never be a good example, it just means that you don’t want to do it too often or you’ll keep increasing the distance between you and them.
7. Make Heroes of “Normal” People.
If the goal of a great illustration is to help the people of your congregation not only get a point, but know how to apply it, then I’d encourage you to make a commitment to finding and using illustrations of “normal” people who are living out the principle you’re talking about. Don’t talk about your devotions, talk about Sally’s. Don’t share your evangelistic encounter this week, share Ahmed’s. Don’t talk about your reflections about the missions trip you just got back from, share those from the people who went with you.
Is all of this harder? Absolutely. But serving God has never been about doing what’s easy. It’s always been about doing what’s required so that we may present “everyone complete in Christ.”
If you want to be a better and more effective preacher, if you want to connect more deeply with your people, and if you want to help them become more fully-devoted followers of Jesus Christ, then I’d strongly encourage you to turn in your membership card to the Primarily Pastor-Driven Illustration Movement.
Some trends are worth bucking. This is one of them. I, and the people of your congregation, hope you will.