And we're adept at finding stories and anecdotes to hook or engage.
All of this is good and necessary. But let's not forget the power of a pithy phrase or penetrating quote.
Take these for example (talk about summing up the idea of these subjects in just a few words!):
Affliction: "Storms make oaks take deeper root." (George Herbert)
Prayer: "To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing." (Martin Luther)
Scriptural Authority: "If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself." (Saint Augustine)
Scripture: "It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me; it is the parts that I do understand." (Mark Twain)
Learning: "Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body." (Richard Steele)
Wisdom: "The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is the knowledge of our own ignorance." (C.H. Spurgeon)
Pride: "A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you're looking down, you can't see something that's above you." (C.S. Lewis)
Quotes, when used well, can be powerful tools in the teacher's/leader's tool box. Here are some place on-line where you can find quotes pretty easily by subject:
http://www.bible.org/ (go to sermon illlustrations, arranged alphabetically by subject)
http://www.christianquotes.org/ (searchable at http://www.christianquotes.org/search.php )
http://www.librayspot.com/ (especially http://www.libraryspot.com/quotations.htm )
http://www.refdesk.com/
http://www.bookreporter.com/community/quote/index.asp (bookreporter.com’s quote-of-the-day page)
http://www.1-famous-quotes.com/
'Til next time,
Joan
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