Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks : 100 Attention-Getting Stories, Parables, and Anecdotes

by Wayne Rice

• ISBN13: 9780310402619
• ISBN10: 0310402611
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1994-05-01
• Publisher: Zondervan

Summary

Veteran youth worker and nationally-known speaker Wayne Rich has carefully selected and crafted 100 of the best stories, parables and anecdotes available anywhere. These illustrations cover the spectrum - some will make you laugh, some will make you cry, and all of them will make your think. What they all have in common is that they work with teenagers.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

CONTRIBUTORS

INTRODUCTION

HOW TO CHOOSE AND USE ILLUSTRATIONS

HOT ILLUSTRATIONS

Alexander the Great

An Answer to Prayer

Awesome Obedience

The Battleship and the Lighthouse

The Bear in the Cave

Beauty and the Beast

The Bee Sting

Beware of Curare

Big Adventures

The Big Rock

The Blind Date

The Blind Men and the Elephant

The Blood of an Overcomer

The Boat in the Window

Bonny’s Bunny

Born to Fly

The Bottle

Bought to Be Freed

The Boy and the Circus

Brandon’s Mess

Caught in a Blizzard

The Chicken and the Pig

Choosing Mary

The Circus Clown

The Cliff

The Coffin

Coming Home

Computer Grace

The Cookie Snatcher

Deadly Marbles

The Diamond Merchant

The Emperor Moth

Eskimo Wolf Hunters

Excuses, Excuses

Face the Music

Finish the Race

The Flying V

The Flying Wallendas

Footprints in the Sand

France, 1943

Getting the Word Out

The Glove

The Greatest Hitter in the World

The Greyhound Races

The Grocery Store Clerk

Hannibal’s Fire

The Hermit’s Gift

The Hopeless Baseball Game

How to Catch a Monkey

The Insurance Claim

Jesus and the Football Team

The Jewelry Store Caper

The Jigsaw Puzzle

The Job Applicant

The Kebbitch Itch

The Kiss

“Lambing” in New Zealand

Laying Bricks or Building Cathedrals

The Lifeboat

The Lifesaving Station

The Little Girl and the Piano

The Long Jump

Lost Dog—$50 Reward

Love, Julie

The Mirror

A Night in the Haunted House

Not Much of a Man

The Oil Refinery

Out at Home Plate

The Painting of the Last Supper

Pepe Rodriguez

The Prince of Grenada

The Queen of England

Real Friends

The Reverse Thread

Right Decisions

Rudolph and Olive

The Secret

Sharpen Your Ax

The Smartest Teenager in the World

The Society Woman

Sparky, the Loser

The Suicide Attempt

Teddy and Miss Thompson

Telemachus Goes to Rome

Thermometers and Thermostats

Thomas Edison, the Failure

The Three Spinners

The Tightrope and the Wheelbarrow

Too Many Engineers

The Tractor Pull

The Turtle Picnic

Uncompromising Determination

The W.C.

We’ll Get Back to You

What Life?

When Do I Die?

The Window

Wrong Way Riegel

You, Too, Can Be Beautiful

We want your Hot Illustration!

Excerpts

Nathan the prophet was the guest speaker. King David was the audience.
Nathan had a message from the Lord to deliver to David, and, being theexcellent communicator that he was, he opened with a story:
There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him (II Samuel 12:1-4).
The story, of course, had King David on the edge of his seat. He took it seriously and responded with gut-wrenching emotion: “As surely as the Lord lives, the rich scoundrel who took that little lamb deserves to die!” Bingo. The rest of Nathan’s message required few words. All he had to do was apply the story to his audience: “You, sir, are that man.”
Nathan knew what every good speaker and teacher knows: a picture is worth a thousand words. A captivating illustration that is thoughtfully chosen and skillfully used communicates more, is remembered longer, and has greater impact than thousands of words that may be truthful and important, but which are abstract and tell no story.
Jesus knew the value of a story, too. He spoke in parables. In fact, Matthew 13:34 records that Jesus never spoke without using a parable. He consistently sprinkled His talks with stories and illustrations to drive home the point He was making. He drew His illustrations from everyday life in the Middle East, describing farmers and families, sheep and goats, barns and wheat fields. People were amazed at His teaching.
Unfortunately, amazing is not often the word that teens use to describe speakers and teachers in the church today. The word boring seems to be more in fashion. A few popular speakers, however, know how to communicate well with kids, and invariably they use stories and illustrations effectively in their talks.
Hot Illustrations is a selection of stories that have been used effectively in youth talks by several of those popular speakers. I have used many of them myself. All of them can work with kids if the stories are chosen properly and communicated with conviction and purpose.
This is not an exhaustive collection of illustrations for youth talks. The books that claim to be exhaustive are often so large that they are difficult to use. One book on my shelf boasts nearly eight thousand illustrations in it. But to be honest, it’s difficult to find one good illustration in that book when I need it. My goal for this book has been to offer you quality rather than quantity.
Selecting and using illustrations is a subjective and personal task; what works for you may not work for me (and vice versa). Even so, this book offers you a sampling of illustrations that I recommend without reservation. Much of that has to do with the quality of people who contributed to this book. (Their names are listed on pages 7 and 8). Good illustrations are extremely valuable and hard to come by. Many speakers prefer keeping them to themselves. That’s why I’m grateful for these contributors who were willing to share some of their best illustrations with us.
AIM TO HIT YOUR TARGET
The most important thing to remember as you use the illustrations in this book is that they are only illustrations. They are not the points to be made. In other words, don’t build your talk around these or any other illustrations. Begin with the point (the truth) that you want to communicate, and then find or create the illustration that supports that point.
A young boy received a bow and arrow from his father and immediately went outside to shoot it. A few minutes later, his father went outside and saw that the boy had shot his arrows at several targets that had been drawn on the side of a fence. To his amazement, each arrow had hit a bull’s-eye. The father was impressed and said to his son, “I didn’t realize you were such a good shot!” The boy replied, “Oh, it was easy. I shot the arrows first; then drew the targets around them.”
When you use illustrations simply because they are good illustrations, you are drawing targets around your arrows. Begin planning a talk by deciding what the point (the target) is. Enhance the talk with an illustration only if it effectively drives home that point. Keep in mind that it takes different kinds of arrows to hit different kinds of targets. In the same way, be selective in filling your quiver with illustrations.
With each illustration in this book, I have suggested one or two points that can be supported by the illustration. Every illustration has multiple applications. A list of general topics that will help you to select illustrations more easily can be found in this text.

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Excerpted from Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks: 100 Attention-Getting Stories, Parables, and Anecdotes by Wayne Rice, Anthony Campolo, Zondervan Publishing Staff
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.