Illustration Appreciation - Part 2

There is an Arab proverb that says, “The best speaker is he who turns ears into eyes.” Helping the listener picture the point we are making is a key to effective communication. The word “illustrate” means to illuminate, put luster upon or make clear. Someone else said it this way: “Illustrations are like the windows in a house—they let the light in”

Illustrations do not just illuminate truths taught; they also give those truths sticking power. According to pastor and illustration collector, Leslie Flynn, “The difference between acceptable and exceptional communication is often a good illustration which clinches an important truth in the listener’s mind for years.” Flynn goes on to say, “Illustrations can enlighten, prove, paint, arouse, appeal to the mind, stir the emotions and persuade the will.”

Of course, the wrong illustration, too many illustrations or an illustration presented in a wrong way can detract from your communication. So, what is it that makes a good illustration? Following are some guidelines from Leslie Flynn:

• Good illustrations are fresh and timeless – While illustrations drawn from classic works have their place, some can become dated and stale in the re-telling. Be especially careful of illustrations that are popular with a lot of teachers or preachers. If, from the first sentence your audience recognizes the same old story or quote they’ve heard many times before, your point will be lost.



• Good illustrations are relevant to the subject – Even though an illustration is compelling, it may not be relevant to what you are teaching. Consider what point the illustration makes and whether or not it will help shed light on some aspect of your subject. If not, file the illustration to be used another time with a more appropriate subject.



• Good illustrations are relevant to the audience – Take a look at those you are teaching: Are they mostly men or women? What is the average age? What is their general understanding of your subject? Answers to these questions should guide your selection of illustrations. When your students can personally identify with the illustration, they will be more likely to be moved and challenged by it.



• Good illustrations are accurate - If you are using statistics as an illustration, be sure they are as current and correct as possible. If you are sharing a testimony, be certain that the names, dates and facts are accurate. Also, try to verify that the story is true! If anything is doubtful in an illustration, don’t use it.



• Good illustrations are brief – Remember, the illustrations are the windows – they are not the walls! Illustrations that are too long are hard for your audience to follow and they may lose the point you are trying to make. If you want to share a story that is long, edit out the extra details and tell just the essence of the story that helps to make your point.



• Good illustrations do not reveal confidences – Sharing a conversation or someone else’s personal experience without permission is morally and ethically wrong. Even a positive testimony should never be used as an illustration without the permission of the person involved.



• Good illustrations do not seek to exalt self – If your illustrations are consistently about you—how you accomplished something; how you “saved the day”; how you did right when everyone else did wrong—you will soon damage your credibility. Your illustrations should shed light on your subject, not draw attention to yourself. Certainly, from time to time, you can share how God used you in a particular situation, but do not over use such illustrations. Occasionally, it is good to share with your audience a time when you did not succeed, so they will know you are human just like them!

• Good illustrations have variety – Remember, illustrations can be any number of things such as stories, testimonies, poems, quotes, statistics, etc. Try to vary the type of illustrations you use from class to class. Don’t become predictable to your students (“We’re reaching the end of the class session—must be time for the poem!”).
  
  Hopefully, these guidelines will help you in determining the best illustrations to use in your classes. In our next post, we will consider some things to avoid in choosing and using illustrations. These are dangers that can be deadly to your teaching! So, come back to the Café next week for part three of our series!

Illustration Appreciation

There are a number of ways you can tell if someone is an IOT:

They have excessive back pain from carrying large manuals

They get excited when the office store has a sale on page protectors

They respond to pretty much everybody by saying, “You could strengthen that next time by…”

They cannot do anything in public without first giving focus questions

But if you want to know if a person is a really good IOT, check his or her illustration file. We IOTs have a definite appreciation for illustrations!

In our TCE courses, we communicate a lot of information and train teachers in specific skills. However, our goal is to go beyond just giving teachers head knowledge. We want to reach their hearts and ultimately see change in their actions as a result of our classes. To accomplish this, we want to use illustrations that are well chosen and appropriately placed in our lesson plans.

A good illustration can drive home a point and stay with our teachers long after the class is over. The right illustration can even be used of God to change people’s minds.

For example, when you teach classes like The Importance of Conversion, helping teachers see the lostness of children, you may occasionally have someone question whether or not children are sinners. There is a definite trend in our culture to downplay the issue of sin—especially as it relates to children.

The strongest argument you can make for teaching that children sin comes, of course, from Scripture. We must remind teachers of the universal truth found in verses like Romans 3:23 and Romans 3:10.

But we can further illuminate this truth through illustrations. Statistics and stories can help solidify this point for many of your teachers. Many times, you can find such illustrations in the news media.

For instance, last April, Russ Bynum of the Associated Press reported a story from Waycross, GA about a group of children who planned an assault:

A group of third-graders plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job, police said Tuesday. The plot by as many as nine boys and girls at Center Elementary School in south Georgia was a serious threat, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said.

"We did not hear anybody say they intended to kill her, but could they have accidentally killed her? Absolutely," Tanner said. "We feel like if they weren't interrupted, there would have been an attempt. Would they have been successful? We don't know."

The children, ages 8 and 9, were apparently mad at the teacher because she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair, Tanner said. A prosecutor said they are too young to be charged with a crime under Georgia law.

School officials alerted police Friday after a pupil tipped off a teacher that a girl had brought a weapon to school, Tanner said. Police seized a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape, electrical and transparent tape, ribbons and a crystal paperweight from the students, who apparently intended to use them against the teacher.

The scheme involved a division of roles, Tanner said. One child's job was to cover windows so no one could see outside, he said. Another was supposed to clean up after the attack.

"From what I understand, they were considered pretty good kids," Martin said. "But we have to take this seriously, whether they were serious or not about carrying this through, and that's what we did."

Using a current, real-life illustration like this one drives home the point and increases retention. If you can find news articles from your local area, the effect is even more pronounced.

Some of you are new IOTs, just starting to gather illustrations for your class sessions. Others of you have been teaching TCE courses for some time now. You may have an extensive illustration file. But maybe you’ve become a little rusty in this area. Perhaps you’ve come to rely on illustrations you’ve been using for years.

Over the next several blog posts, we are going to take a closer look at this area of our teaching. We will consider what makes a good illustration, what criteria to use for choosing illustrations, how to use illustrations effectively in our teaching and where to find illustrations that have impact. Hopefully, whether a new IOT or a veteran, these upcoming posts will help us all increase our illustration appreciation!

The Hand-Off

January is not just the first month of a new year. In America, this is also the month for football playoffs and the Super Bowl! Here at the Café, we realize that we have a number of instructors, both male and female, who enjoy an occasional inspirational thought from the sports world. So, as an equal-opportunity blog, we want to share the following, especially for the athletically-minded men and women in our IOT family!

Being somewhat athletically challenged, however, we can’t take credit for the ideas in this article—they come from Stan Toler’s leadership newsletter. We have adapted his points to fit our ministry as IOTs. So, sports-lovers, read on!

In football a successful hand-off from one player to another could mean the difference between a win and a loss. As an IOT, mentoring your students gives you a similar opportunity and a similar responsibility. Someone needs your hand-off; someone needs the wisdom of your training and life experiences. What will you hand-off? Hopefully several things:

1. Faithfulness By choosing to cheerfully share your time and energy with your students, in spite of crowded calendars and pending duties, you will teach them that people are more important than projects.

2. Affirmation By accepting students for who they are rather than for what they should be, you will teach them that acceptance is a mark of leadership.

3. Patience By sticking with the game plan no matter how many times students fumble, you will teach them that a mistake is a bridge to improvement rather than a road to failure.

4. Encouragement By handing out some "Attaboys!" (or “Attagirls!”) to your students, you will teach them that appreciation is an important incentive to reach goal lines.

5. Openness By being honest about your students’ strengths and weaknesses, you will teach them that learning to accept yourself makes you more effective with others.

Leadership isn't just about Super Bowls; it's also about the playoffs. It's about successfully executing plays along the way. You're here, as an IOT, because someone made a good hand-off. And someday, someone will stop in the middle of their ministry and remember you and thank you for being their player-coach.

As we launch into another year of training teachers to reach and disciple children, let's be aware of our responsibility to hand-off what God has given to us. The Apostle Paul put it this way:

"Pass on what you heard from me . . . to reliable leaders who are competent to teach others" (2 Timothy 2:2 MSG).