A Daily Devotion

Ron Newhouse's daily internet devotions are sermon illustration-style. Go to the bottom and click on "Past/Current Devotions" to check out previous ones.

Assoc. Baptist Press archive

(Southern) Baptist Press

Two groups of Baptists in the South offer newsletters by email. The Associated Baptist Press is run by the moderate (break-away?) Southern Baptists (CBF) and sends out an email about once a week which usually focuses on politically-oriented issues.  http://www.abpnews.com.

The Baptist Press is run by the regular Southern Baptists. In my opinion this one has the best testimonies and sermon ideas and their email goes out every weekday.  For the free subscription, go here.

For other Christian daily emails, sign up for as many as you want at Crosswalk.com.

Autoillustrator Online

Changed to a for-pay site. [listing updated July 28, 2002]

Belief Net

What used to be "Daily In Box" has been taken over by BeliefNet.  If you like getting short emails with illustration potential, you will like this page. It includes Bits&Pieces, Quotes From the Masters, Messages From the Masters, and Chicken Soup for the Soul. Some are heavy in the motivate-for-success mindset but I have found good material on a regular basis. Warning: go on vacation and you'll need a shovel to get through this pile. [updated May 13, 2006]

Biblical Studies Foundation

Excellent site - hundreds of illustrations categorized alphabetically with each topic having several illustrations. Even better, many illustrations are categorized by Old Testament and New Testament verses. This is especially helpful for pastors who preach exegetical sermons and should be copied by other sites. You can also search for keywords and see the results in context. I believe this site is sponsored by Dallas Theological Seminary.

Christian Bible & Research Center

Online illustrations are presented after you choose from a list of 65+ topics. Most topics have three to five illustrations and they seem to be pretty fresh. It also has an "Illustration of the Week." Site has a very clean appearance and is run by Keith Smith; it is part of the Church of Christ webring.

Christian Quotation of the Day

Classic Christian quotes compiled by Robert McAnally Adams. The opening screen offers today's quote and an archive page. He now has indexes and a keyword search of the archive that is extremely helpful. You can have quotations sent to you for free by signing up. If you like daily devotionals he has links to other quality sites.

Colson's Breakpoint archives

Chuck Colson's pithy "Breakpoint" commentaries are archived at this site - look on the sidebar under "transcripts." Excellent for current social issues from a Christian perspective. You can also have Breakpoint emailed to you.

Cybersalt Illustrations

This e-Groups site has a database of 350+ illustrations which are searchable. Most are compiled by Rev. Tim Davis but other submissions are encouraged. You can be part of the e-Group and get illustrations by email by subscribing for free at illustrations-subscribe@egroups.com . I see the potential for more stars if more contributors participate, but nothing has been added since 2002. Note that the search engine sees "Psalm 15" as "Psalm" and "15" so Bible references are difficult to search.

Desperate Preacher

Not an illustration site exactly, but a forum for sermon ideas that sometimes contains illustrations.  You follow the discussion on specific texts.  More resources are available with a paid subscription.  [listed Jan 20, 2004]

Discipleship Journal archive

Archive site for Discipleship Journal. This magazine is one of my favorites for sermon preparation. It is searchable and there is a cumulative index in PDF format. About four years are online. They do request an e-mail address but don't seem to put you on a junkmail list.

Elbourne's Illustrations

Don Elbourne Jr. is a computer-whiz who has constructed a massive illustration site which could get substantially larger. Best of all, it is free. You can click on the alphabet bar or use the Search menu for Topic, Title or Text and it is very speedy. He has future plans to add to the site but it has been static for a while. [listed Jan. 19, 2001]

Fair Dinkum, Australia

This is an on-line fundamentalist Christian magazine from Australia. There is no index or search engine but I have found some outstanding illustrations in the back issues. Most of the articles are illustration-length and many are current. Some are rather extreme for my taste but the whole site is definitely worth checking out.

Gibson's Illustrations and Jokes

This is a free downloadable archive in the form of a Windows help file. It is very well done and includes around 350 illustrations and 300 quotes which are accessed from a list of topics. (Listed Nov. 20, 1999)

Gibson's Online Illustrations

Searchable online illustration database, plus a topics page. The white box on the left-hand side allows you to type in search words, or you can click "Main Menu" to browse through a list of topics.  Each topic has several illustrations and many have links to related topics.  It appears that many of the illustrations in his archive program have been adapted to the internet. Site was give a major revamping in early 2005. (Listed Jan. 7, 2002, updated Jan 17, 2005)

God's Work

Archive of over one hundred devotionals and some smaller collections of illustrations and poems. Webmaster is 23-year-old Dwayne Savaya . He has a "Prayer and E-mail Encouragement Ministry" that sends out material two or three times a week; you can sign up for it at Dwayne@godswork.org. [listed July 4, 2001]

Heartlight archive

Archive of two-minute devotionals by Phil Ware. Good for sermon ideas. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a search engine.

Higher Praise

Site claims to have 10,000 illustrations, which are grouped in topics.  No overall search feature, but many of the illustrations are current and quite good.  [listed October 14, 2001]

Holwick's Illustrations

This is my own site. The only online illustrations are contained in the online sermons.

My main offer is a free, and massive, sermon and illustration database.  It used to require Microsoft Access 97 but now it is also available in a generic freeware format called S.I.D. for Sermon and Illustration Database.  Both versions allow the downloading of literally tens of thousands of evangelical sermons and illustrations.  You can search by Bible verse, topic or even phrases.  The main page for both versions is here.

For those who want a smaller program, my Holwick's Illustrations for Win 98 has 2,100 illustrations in a Windows help file. It is easy to use, has powerful search capabilities, and is free of course. ZdNet gave it five stars when it first came out. (The format is similar to Tim Gibson's archive.)

Everything at my site is free as long as it is used for God's Glory.

Illustration Exchange

[this site is no longer functioning but seems to have been taken over by Yahoo Illustration Exchange. [updated July 2003]

Inspirational Stories & Poems

Joyful Heart newsletter

Searchable index of devotionals by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson.

Kent Crockett's Illustrations

Site is by a Christian author who has arranged illustrations and quotes from his material under 90+ topics with 1 to 5 entries per topic.  He continually updates it.  [added February 7, 2005]

Kir Shalom Illustration Links

Kir Shalom sermon illustration link page. Lots of other stuff here, too.

Leadership's "To Illustrate..."

The granddaddy of online illustrations but now a pay site. Those visiting the site can check out a single free illustration each week; most of the other illustration features appear to require a subscription to the site.

Lifeway Illustrations

Lifeway, the Southern Baptist publishing house, has an illustration collection on its website.  It has around 100 illustrations but more are being added (and my rating will increase as it does).  There is no search engine but the illustrations are grouped under topics.    [suggested by GW Glidewell and added June 17, 2005]

Mission Frontiers

Mission Frontiers magazine has excellent articles on the modern mission movement. Many of the articles are inspirational, as are the illustrations from the lives of missionaries. It is free, and better yet it has a fantastic search engine that shows your search word(s) in the context of the article. An excellent resource. [listed June 7, 2001]

Moody Magazine

Moody Magazine stopped publishing in 2003 but they have an extensive archive at this site.  The search engine is excellent. [listed April 30, 2005]

Moody's "Today in the Word"

Daily Bread-type devotions which focus on a Bible passage and often lead off with an illustration. The whole collection of devotions can be searched with a decent search engine, so you can look up a particular Bible verse or topic.

NewsDirectory:Magazines:Protestant

NewsDirectory is a link site for dozens of religious magazines. The Protestant section is just one of many.

News of the Weird

Skeptic Chuck Shepherd has an interesting site with very strange real-life stories of stupid criminals, ignorant politicians and lots of other folks you will recognize. You can use his search engine to look up stories matching keywords, such as the state you live in. Archive seems to be limited to pre-1995.

Motivating Moments

User-submitted submitted poems (lots), quotes, and stories (mostly fiction). Much of the material is in the genre of Chicken Soup of the Soul. Organized by category and date submitted.

Motivational Quotes

Secular site with a searchable database of 3,500+ motivation-oriented quotes. Also has special pages with personality profiles and more. Lots of pop-up ads, too. [listed Jan. 7, 2002]

Pastor Jim's Net 153 Illustrations

Illustration topics fill the left frame and each topic holds multiple illustrations. Lots of Java and banners so it loads slowly but there must be over one hundred illustrations, most of them short. The Wesleyan music is a nice touch. His main page includes inspirational stories and a Christian online magazine.

Net153 weekly email

Weekly email with illustrations. You have several choices, among them Pastor Jim's study notes, quotes, and humor. [listed Jan. 7, 2002]

Parson's "Bible Illustrator" supplements

This site is maintained by Fredericksburg Church of Christ and includes lots of supplement illustrations for the Parson's program. My database has incorporated about 4,500 of them. There are more to come - I think they have 10,000 available for download, with small zipped collections and huge zipped archives (none are "online"). A must for Parson's fans.

These illustrations range from good to archaic, but I think the Parson's system is too skimpy on topics and Scripture references. A lot of pastors use it, though. Click here to see the original Parson's system laid out.

Preacher's Illustration Service

Fee-based, but one free illustration each month is online.

Preaching Now

Fee based Preaching magazine site offers free weekly email with high-quality illustrations.  There is also an archive of past newsletters.   [listed Mar 23, 2006]

Preaching Today

Fee based site offers one free illustration each week by email. A searchable illustration database, a journal, and others articles are available by paid subscription.

Pulpit Helps (AMG)

Online magazine which limits most of the material to paid subscribers but does have some free articles and features.  [updated Mar 22, 2005]

Reader's Digest humor archive

Laugh Bank of Reader's Digest with 4000 funny stories. [Link takes you to their main page because the Laugh Bank moves around.]

Ron Hutchcraft's "A Word With You"

The sign-up page to receive Ron Hutchcraft's daily radio messages by email. The current day's message is here.  Devotional length and each has his energetic style. These make great sermon starters.

Sermon Central illustrations

The sermons are still free but the illustrations have been moved to the fee-based "Pro" section. [listed Jan. 7, 2002]

Sermon Central newsletter

Free weekly email with 5 sermons and illustrations on a theme. [listed Jan. 7, 2002]

Sermon Fodder

Topics are listed in columns with each one popping up a one-page "...collection of quips, quotes, humor, paradox, etc., on the issues most used by ministers for preaching." Put together by Lyndale Press. More quote and thought oriented than classic illustration.  They used to have a monthly email but it seems to be discontinued.

SermonIllustrations.com

Very professionally laid-out site, especially the main page. Methodist pastor Brett Blair offers a free weekly e-mail of sermon illustrations that is the best of the lot. The site contains online illustrations accessed from an alphabetical page and seems to hold hundreds. He is also constructing an illustration page that is referenced by Bible passage. A search engine allows you to scan all the illustrations for keywords. He has some commercial plug-ins.

The signup for the weekly illustration email is at the upper left corner of the page.

Sermon Illustrations Plus (Tan)

Tan's famous "15,000 Illustrations" book is in a (very) condensed version at this site. Each of the 38 topics has four or five illustrations but the topics only go from A to G .

Sermon Illustrator

3,510 illustrations with a drop-down box with loads of topics that lead to multiple illustrations.  Illustrations are fairly standard but some are quite good. A search engine has been added which is very helpful. Promoted on July 12, 1999 to three stars.  This site makes consistent improvements!  A daily email is also available.

Sermon Notes.com

A commercial service that used to have illustration samples but now provides a free weekly email with a single illustration..

Sermons.org

Good source of online sermons and illustrations. The main page is a list of topics but only the ones in blue (a decided minority) link to illustrations. Links are also given for Parson's Biblical Illustrator and supplements, the Illustration Exchange, Sermon Illustrations.com and Leadership; each of which is commented on separately in my links. When you go to the links from here, the original program continues to frame it. There is also an extensive sermon index which highlights Baptist Bible Fellowship preaching. Site maintained by Pastor Shelton Cole.

SermonWriter

14 free back issues of a paid illustration service. Richard Donovan specializes in "True Stories" which tie in with a lectionary reading. For each reading he suggests a sermon title, sermon idea, and an appropriate true story, which is usually contemporary. I was impressed by several of them.

Sheep's Crib

Pastor (and blogger) John Gillmartin's illustration page.  About 100 topics on the left-hand side, often with multiple illustrations.  [listed April 7, 2005]

Soul Food

(Site Status Uncertain)  A searchable archive of short stories from the United Methodist Reporter (Interactive). Has many short histories of favorite hymns, as well as stories of personal faith and witness. It is no longer called "Soul Food." [updated March 2006]

Sutanto's Blog

A Christian blog from Danny Sutanto in Hong Kong.  He attaches topics (called "tags") to each entry so clicking on a topic will bring up related articles.  Most entries are short and devotional in nature.  The main blog page is here.   [listed March 2006]

This Is True

Weekly email by Colorado humorist Randy Cassingham. It is secular but has very funny stories that will grab your congregation's interest.

Today's Christian magazine

Formerly called Christian Reader magazine. Good for personal testimonies of well-known evangelical personalities and has some helpful articles. It is a page on the ChristianityToday.com complex, which I consider to be the best Christian material on the internet.

Wit and Wisdom

A daily email with short illustrations, quotes and trivia. This is one of the better ones. To Subscribe send a blank e-mail to subscribe-wit-wisdom@xc.org  [listed Sept 11, 2003]

Woodmont Hills "Fax of Life"

A weekly devotional sent out to the Nashville area business community. According to Preacher's Study, these are "Great sermon starters!"  Has a good index of titles.

(Bruderhof.org)

[As of March 2006, site no longer exists]

Daily inspirational email with quotes by "Arnold, Blumhardt, Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Romero, Sundar Singh, Tolstoy, and others."  Sponsored by Bruderhof faith communities, an Anabaptist organization.  [added Sept 17, 2004]

(Christian-Teacher.com)

[This site became "For-Pay" and now seems to be non-existent]

(Dynamic Preaching Online)

[As of May 2006, King Duncan's "Sermons.com" for-pay site appears to have been bought out by Brett Blair]

(EZ Illustrator)

[As of September 2003, site no longer exists]

Rev. L. E. Brown of West Sedona Baptist Church, Arizona, had a three-star site with excellent search capabilities.  Does anyone know what happened to it?  It was also called "Fresh Sermon Illustrations" 

(Hickory Valley Church)

[As of July 2003, site no longer exists]

(IFCA International)

[As of January 2007, their links page no longer exists, though there is a website at www.ifca.org]

"Sermon Illustrations, helps and devotionals." Mostly links to popular Christian magazines and radio sites.

(The Illustration Place)

[As of April 2004, site no longer exists]

Site has long list of topics, many with multiple illustrations. Author claims: "I have tried consciously to exclude the following: trite or clichéd stories; so-called 'preacher stories' which have circulated widely for years; and stories which have been published in other illustration compilations (public domain or otherwise)"  Topics are organized with the Nave's Topical Bible system. This site is an offshoot of The Sermon Place. Author says more illustrations will be added regularly.

(Sermons on the Net)

[As of March 2006, page no longer exists]

Campus Crusade for Christ, Canada, has a site with short articles which are more like sermons or meditations, most with illustrations.

(Quotes... which spark sermons)

[As of November 2005, site is no longer functioning.]

An interesting site that has the appearance of an internet bulletin board. The theme is "Take some ideas, and leave some new ones for others!" The editor is Doug Showalter. Many of the posts are excellent short stories or pithy applications. Contributions are encouraged. You will not "find" stuff here, but it is quite possible you will be "sparked." [listed Nov. 23, 1999; delisted Nov. 21, 2005]]

(Weekly Illustrations by Gillmartin)