Illustration Inside

This book is everything it claimed. It will make teaching, preaching and understanding complex issues easier due to the great and realistic illustrations. There is an illustration, story or quote for every topic imaginable and a scripture reference for each one. Young and old will benefit from this book.
Rating: 5 / 5

I had a preaching professor in seminary who said if you get one good illustration out of an illustration book, you got your money’s worth. Okay, so I got my money’s worth out of this book, but not much more. It suffers from several problems. One, many of the illustrations are directly from Tony’s life, and as such are pretty soggy and not really transferable. How many congregations want to hear a pastor repeatedly say, “A funny thing happened to Tony Evans awhile back…” And as I said, many of his personal illustrations simply have no affective punch. Two, of the non-personal illustrations, many are available elsewhere. Three, sometimes Evans says things that I just find offensive. On two separate occasions, he says that God is looking for “groupies.” I understand his point: God wants people who worship him with the same fervor they do their favorite entertainer. Still, the language is just tasteless. And far too often, his conclusions lack the punch that his premises promise. The illustrations simply die. The positive side of this book is that it might give pastors an idea of how to look for illustrations in their own lives. I have often found that the personal illustrations I come up with are just as good as ones I find in books. So, all in all, this volume is worth a glance, if you can get it cheap. Don’t expect too much, and you won’t be disappointed. Oh, by the way, the numbers in the index refer to the numbers of the illustrations, not the page number. The illustrations have tiny superscript numberings at the end of each. Just thought you should know.
Rating: 3 / 5