As Christmas approaches the problem for youth leaders everywhere is how to present Christmas with excitement, in a way not done previously, yet without compromising the message. The challenge this month is how to illustrate Christmas, and along the way to think about illustrations for talks generally.
The difficulty with illustrations is that they can be too good. We see a video clip, or hear a song and immediately see its potential for use as an illustration in a talk. Then the illustration begins to burn a hole in our notebook; it has just got to be let out. We end up falling into the tempting trap of writing the talk around the illustration. I fell into just such a trap with the film The Matrix. It is a rich source for illustrative material. There are some fantastic bits of dialogue seemingly purpose written for talks about the Christian faith. So I used and overused certain clips until, fortunately for all those who listen to me, I lost the cassette.
Giving it a swerve
Here are several ways of side-stepping this problem. I have to admit to still learning the art of illustrating talks. My notebook still has too many holes.
