The purpose of religion or any philosophy is to teach people the correct way of living their lives. But nobody really wants someone to teach them such things. And if they are forced to listen then they tend to lose interest very soon. Maybe this is why we see that a lot of people now use funny sermon illustrations.
When you are giving a sermon, you need to do two things. You need to drive your point home and ensure that people remember what you said when they get back home. And you also have to keep them attentively listening to you throughout the length of your message. If you simply keep talking about the Bible or about some complex philosophy, this might prove to be very difficult.
The thing is when people sit down to listen to you, they do so with a lot expectations. Whether they stop listening after a while or not they start out with a lot of hope. But as they encounter things that they do not understand, they start focusing on other things like what people are wearing, or what hat somebody has on or they make lists of things that they have to do. And all the time you spent preparing the sermon would not achieve any results.
I guess this observation brought about the change and introduced the concept of including jokes and funny stories in their speeches. Someone somewhere must have realized that nobody is really listening and they are just sitting there out of respect. So, to keep people listening, sermon givers started including humorous anecdotes. And it proved to be a hit.
Using such humorous stories has another advantage. The topics that are normally taken up for sermons are those which we face in our daily lives. They tell us what our attitude should be when we face problems in different spheres of our lives. When we make light of such problems, relating to them and understanding what the correct way of dealing with such situations is, becomes easy.
Maybe you had a fight with your best friend and you stomped off angrily without hearing what she had to say. If you go to your mother and tell her about this you know you will have to hear a long lecture about how your attitude is wrong and you fight all the time and other such things.
But instead if your mom told you something funny that she did when she had a fight with her best friend and then how she made up, you would realize your mistake far easily or see her point. In the same manner, and on the same lines, sermons also include something funny and interesting.
It also should be ensured that nobody is targeted in the stories. Funny sermon illustrations help ministers teach people something new in every preaching without making things overly complex. And I think it works like a charm.
When you are giving a sermon, you need to do two things. You need to drive your point home and ensure that people remember what you said when they get back home. And you also have to keep them attentively listening to you throughout the length of your message. If you simply keep talking about the Bible or about some complex philosophy, this might prove to be very difficult.
The thing is when people sit down to listen to you, they do so with a lot expectations. Whether they stop listening after a while or not they start out with a lot of hope. But as they encounter things that they do not understand, they start focusing on other things like what people are wearing, or what hat somebody has on or they make lists of things that they have to do. And all the time you spent preparing the sermon would not achieve any results.
I guess this observation brought about the change and introduced the concept of including jokes and funny stories in their speeches. Someone somewhere must have realized that nobody is really listening and they are just sitting there out of respect. So, to keep people listening, sermon givers started including humorous anecdotes. And it proved to be a hit.
Using such humorous stories has another advantage. The topics that are normally taken up for sermons are those which we face in our daily lives. They tell us what our attitude should be when we face problems in different spheres of our lives. When we make light of such problems, relating to them and understanding what the correct way of dealing with such situations is, becomes easy.
Maybe you had a fight with your best friend and you stomped off angrily without hearing what she had to say. If you go to your mother and tell her about this you know you will have to hear a long lecture about how your attitude is wrong and you fight all the time and other such things.
But instead if your mom told you something funny that she did when she had a fight with her best friend and then how she made up, you would realize your mistake far easily or see her point. In the same manner, and on the same lines, sermons also include something funny and interesting.
It also should be ensured that nobody is targeted in the stories. Funny sermon illustrations help ministers teach people something new in every preaching without making things overly complex. And I think it works like a charm.
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