Should I Use this Sermon Illustration?

You know, we're a democratic group here at the Beaker Folk. Believe in every-member ministry. I certainly do. Cuts my work right down, that does. So we let people lead worship, or even preach sermons. And there's nothing helps a dull sermon better than a good illustration. And people often come to me when they're writing sermons, and they say to me, "Archdruid, is this sermon illustration useful?"

To which I'll normally say, "No. God is nothing like a meerkat" or "Geraldo's healing from piles may still be something he's not shouting about" or "Your son is now 14. Telling the story of how he covered himself in dog food and thought he was a casserole when he was 4 may scar him for life."

But I refer you to my comment earlier about cutting my work down. And the way I can best do that, I think, is by cutting out all the obvious, stupid questions at an early stage.

So here is a flowchart you can use, if you are ever called upon to write a sermon, to decide whether a sermon illustration's a good idea or not. From now on, if you ask me what I think about one, that's gonna be a fiver.