ShepherdTools.org

Have trouble cutting and pasting from the Web?

Did you find the perfect illustration on a website for the sermon, only to have it come in bold, underlined font and color? Get rid of all but the text automatically: LINK

How Facebook taught me about Spiritual Warfare

I wrote a post on my personal website about a spiritual battle lesson Facebook helped me to learn: LINK

More Indexed (A-Z) Sermon Illustrations by Topic

A site I particularly enjoy when searching for the right illustration can be found here: LINK

Classical Theologians can be read online for free

If you need some essays on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, here is a good link. I have not found most of this helpful for my preaching, but study for the classroom and particularly seminarians have expressed a different opinion. You may find it useful, as it is well indexed by topic:  LINK

Sermon Illustrations found here!

An ever changing list of Preaching Illustrations is posted at: LINK. I find good material here, but don't like the layout very much. Other men have told me it works well for them, but they have gotten used to it.

In the World but not of the World (video)

Kosh Franer and Kary Oberbrunner's new work reminds us:

...Our difference from the world, not our similarity to it sets us apart. But even though Christ followers are called to be different, we’re also called to transform the world. Here lies the tension. We can’t be so far removed from the world that we lose contact, and we can’t be so much like the world that we’re no different from it... LINK

I Watch Videos!

I have a secret to tell you that is going to sound strange, but it works. When I am about to prepare a message, if I am struggling to focus and pray about the text I am about to dissect, I watch a Christian short clip video meant to be an illustration for a sermon. So many of them touch my heart, it works to get me in an attitude of preparation for what God wants to share with me. Try a site like this one: LINK and watch a couple 1 or 2 minute sermon videos. See if it works...

Finding Sermon Illustrations Easily and Quickly

Every week I spend a long time searching for just the right illustration or window to a specific idea in the text. I found my favorite two places to look quickly are:

net.bible.org/illustration.php: This site is well indexed and has something for each of the hundreds of topics.

www.sermoncentral.com/: a little harder to get right to what I want, but still a very good site. I search by illusrtation and do not invest time reading through sermons. If I was stuck on an idea for how to grab the thought of a passage, I may read some messages searching for the age old: "Why did God include this in His Word?"