It's always a little concerning when I cannot verify a sermon illustration (usually something purported to be historical and true) from any source other than sermons or sermon illustration sites. Early in my preaching I was not as discerning as I am now. While brainstorming with Preach360 App/Gemini, it suggested a historical illustration that I have seen before. I couldn't find any independent verification. To its (or apparently "his") credit, I asked directly and got this response: "That is a discerning question! To be completely honest with you—as one brother to another—the Waterloo Semaphore story is largely considered an apocryphal 'preacher's story.' While it's a brilliant homiletical illustration, most historians agree that news of the victory actually reached London via a human messenger (Major Henry Percy) who traveled by carriage and boat. There was no direct semaphore line across the English Channel at that time that could have transmitted a message in that specific way." Three things can be true: 1) As communicators of Truth, we should be very discerning about everything we say, including "brilliant homiletical illustrations". You shouldn't use something if you know it to be untrue. 2) We are sometimes lazy regurgitators of untrue stories, which merely causes them to spread more. 3) If you love an illustration that you know is apocryphal and want to still use it, just say at the beginning something like: "this is probably (or is) an untrue story, but it illustrates this point..." and use it. I find it hard to do that a lot, but have done it occasionally. Other approaches or thoughts?

One thing I have found that helps me is to think about my sermon and try to capture its essence in less than 2 minutes in a YouTube Short in a catchy way. I write the script from my head and then work a little with ChatGPT to make it a little catchier, and still maintain the essence. This might be helpful and encouraging to you. It usually takes me about 30 minutes to do everything including posting it. A lot of people from the congregation watch it, and also others on my feed. In general, the people like it, and I think it gives them a framework for the sermon to come. Here is this week's: https://youtube.com/shorts/hLLJ7w2gn80

Brothers, has anyone else tried starting with the theological studio, instead of exegesis/sermon builder studio, for sermon prep? It's not a fundamentally different approach, but has helped me with "thematic"/biblical-theological exegesis. I'm preaching through Mark's gospel, and created a theological studio "report" that synthesized the themes of "kingdom" and "healing" in Mark's gospel to help me frame the individual stories in the overall story of redemption. From there, I've been able to move directly into sermon builder for particular kingdom/healing passages (like Mark 2:23-3:6, this week), incorporating the work from the theol. studio. I find it helpful to work from the "top of the funnel" down, sometimes, so I don't get lost in the weeds. It's proved helpful with this major thematic element in Mark. I'm curious what any of you have experimented with, and found useful?

When you accidentally open the Preach360 Gem to estimate fuel cost for a trip. Relentlessly stacking logs 😆

One of the things that I have noticed since the beginning of using PPGR is that people remember my sermons. When I do shepherding visits or just have coffee with people I hear the things I preached in the sermon quite regularly. Even youth remember. The irony is that when I first started I thought that simplicity of one central idea that you hold and develop was giving the people less of the richness of the word, but I have found over time that people are actually growing more in Christ and are changing. The objections to the sermons being to simple, which were really only from 2 people, have gone away, and I am seeing more and more life. The reality is that if we give too much, people actually remember almost nothing, and if that is the case, they apply almost nothing.