by Stuart Strachan Jr. | Jan 21, 2020 | Baptism, Identity, Reconciliation, Sermon Illustrations
Peter Storey, the former Methodist bishop and president of the South African Council of Churches, a white man who opposed apartheid, tells a story about a party at which he and Archbishop Desmond Tutu were the honored guests. It was hosted by black South Africans who...
by Stuart Strachan Jr. | Jan 7, 2020 | Change, Sermon Illustrations
Editor’s Note: The following illustration came from one of my own sermons, as I was trying to help a congregation see itself not as a building, but the body of Christ. It has been adapted for TPW: Now, one of things I’ve realized, even in my own perspective on the...
by Stuart Strachan Jr. | Dec 31, 2019 | Comfort, Love, Sermon Illustrations
Maurice Sendak, author and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are and other children’s books, gets many letters from his young fans. A favorite was a “charming” drawing sent on by a little boy’s mother. “I loved it,” Sendak says. “I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on...
by Stuart Strachan Jr. | Dec 27, 2019 | Habits, Identity, Sermon Illustrations
The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu put it this way. Each of us has what he called a habitus: a set of dispositions to respond more or less spontaneously to the world in particular ways, without much thought. Your habitus is trained into you starting from...
by Stuart Strachan Jr. | Dec 17, 2019 | Identity, Modern Life, Sermon Illustrations, Storytelling
In his book Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth, Hugh Halter opens with an unlikely scenario: taking his teenage daughter to get her first tattoo. While watching his daughter get “inked,” Halter asked the tattoo artist (named Sean) a very interesting...
by Stuart Strachan Jr. | Dec 10, 2019 | Sermon Illustrations
If you read through G.K. Chesterton’s writings, it will not be long before you recognize the recurring theme of joy. Joy, Chesterton believed, ought to be a central experience of the one who realizes the absurdity of his life as a gift. What should have been a...
