In Sermon Illustrations: "The Church"

Division In The Church

Contributed by Davon Huss on Sep 6, 2014

Daniel Overdorf- A few years ago I visited a couple in their home. Both husband and wife had lived most of their lives apart from Christ and His church. Their marriage- a second marriage for both- had grown rocky. The 50 year old husband faced a frightening battle with cancer, and neither ...read more

Scripture: John 17:20-23

Tags: Argue, Church Unity, Disunity

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

A Dying Church

Contributed by Dr. Larry Petton on Oct 13, 2019

John MacArthur tells this awesome story: There once was an old church in England. A sign on the front of the building read, ''We preach Christ crucified.'' After a time, ivy grew up and obscured the last word and it read, 'We preach Christ.'' The ivy grew some ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 3:1-10

Tags: Church, Revival, Repentance, Mission

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

Church Is Open!

Contributed by Jonathan Spurlock on May 24, 2020

As I write this, it’s late May 2020 and this has been one of the strangest years I can ever remember. Much of the year has been taken up with the Wuhan Virus (also called COVID-19, the Corona Virus, and perhaps other names) and the effect on the world’s economy. For those of you reading this in the ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 122:1, Jeremiah 36:5

Tags: David, Church Attendance, House Of The Lord

Denomination: Baptist

Sleeping Church

Contributed by Rev. Duraimony Dickson on Sep 26, 2020

Martin Luther once dreamed that the devil was listening to reports from his agents on the progress they were making against the Kingdom of God. One reported, "A company of Christians were crossing the desert, and I loosen the lions on them, and all were lost." The devil replied, ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 25:5

Tags: Against The Kingdom Of God, Sleeping Church

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

Be Quiet In Church

Contributed by John Bright on Apr 27, 2021

One Sunday School teacher asked her class, “Why do we have to be quiet in church?’ A little boy quickly ...read more

Scripture: Acts 2:46-47

Tags: Church, Children, Worship

Denomination: Methodist

The Perfect Church

Contributed by David Parks on Sep 19, 2022

If you should find the perfect church Without one spot or sore For goodness sake! Don’t join that church! For it won’t be perfect anymore. If you should find the perfect church Where all anxieties cease. Then pass it by, lest you join it, And mar the masterpiece. But since no perfect church ...read more

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 1:7, Matthew 16:18, 1 Corinthians 13:1-10

Tags: Faith, Love, Church, Hope

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

Church Matters

Contributed by Dr. Fred W. Penney on Jun 1, 2024

Why do people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute? The tourists are having coffee and doughnuts on Deck C. Presumably someone is minding the ship, correcting the course, avoiding icebergs and shoals, fueling the engines, watching the radar screen, ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 16:18, Ephesians 4:11-13

Tags: Eternity, Church, Mission

Denomination: Pentecostal

Mockery Of The Church

Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Feb 22, 2025

New Zealand, Feb. 26 [2016] (UPI) -- Members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, otherwise known as Pastafarians, registered their first official marriage celebrant in New Zealand. The group announced the news on its Facebook page, although the first couple that was set to be married by ...read more

Scripture: Galatians 6:7, 1 Timothy 3:15

Tags: Religion, Mockers, Mocking, Mocking The Church, Mocking Christianity, Ridiculous  (view more)  (view less)

Denomination: Independent/Bible

Live Churches Verse Dead Churches! (Adapted, ...  PRO

Contributed by Wade Martin Hughes, Sr on Jul 10, 2003

LIVE CHURCHES VERSE DEAD CHURCHES! (adapted, WRITER UNKNOWN) Live churches constantly change, --- dead churches resist and refuse change... Live churches love to try, dead churches feel they don’t have to... Live churches have youth that are noisy and can’t be still, dead churches are very ...read more

Tags: Leadership General, Church General

Denomination: Assembly Of God

Church Finances: The Average Church Budget Size ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 18, 2006

Church finances: The average church budget size is $292,790 (median: $203,590). Senior pastors earn a median base salary of $31,006 and a median housing allowance of $15,250. 66% of church treasurers are responsible for the oversight of church expenditures. 57% of churches use debt only as needed ...read more

Tags: Church Practices

Church Debt: Your Church Magazine Reports That ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 27, 2006

Church Debt: Your Church magazine reports that 54% of all churches carry some kind of debt. 32% of small churches (annual budget up to $100,000) carry debt versus 69% of churches with budgets over $500,000. The median debt is 64% of the annual budget with larger churches carrying the highest ...read more

Tags: Church General

Church Shopping Online Church Consultant Tom ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 14, 2008

Church Shopping Online Church consultant Tom Bandy says that as tools for reaching potential worshipers, church Web sites are growing in number and getting more sophisticated. One sign: 5 years ago, churches made up only 5% of clientele for StreamGuys, an Arcadia, CA based provider of streaming ...read more

Tags: Church Growth

Web Churches 83% Of Churches With Web Sites Say ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 10, 2006

Web Churches 83% of churches with Web sites say their use of the Internet has helped congregational life and 83% report e-mail communication from the church staff has helped ...read more

Tags: Evangelism How To

Web Churches 83% Of Churches With Web Sites Say ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 13, 2006

Web Churches 83% of churches with Web sites say their use of the Internet has helped congregational life and 83% report e-mail communication from the church staff has helped ...read more

Tags: Church General

Black Churches: A Study Of 2,150 Black Churches ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 27, 2006

Black Churches: A study of 2,150 black churches by C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya in their book "The Black Church in the African American Experience," report that “nearly 70% of black churches are involved with social service agencies and non-church ...read more

Tags: Church General

Video Church- About 1,000 Churches, Mostly ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Feb 20, 2007

Video Church- About 1,000 churches, mostly evangelical, use remote feeds, live or via DVD. In ‘05, 91% of mega-churches used the technology, up from 65% in ‘00, states a Hartford Seminary survey. Many Christians have taken to “godcasts” through video churches. Video technology allows leaders of ...read more

Tags: Church General

Clothes Make A Church  PRO

Contributed by A. Todd Coget on Apr 27, 2001

[Clothes Make a Church] A Methodist church tried to get a man to attend, but he never did. "Why don’t you come?" the minister asked, and the man finally admitted it was because he didn’t have proper clothes. So a member of the congregation took him to a clothing store and got him a nice suit, ...read more

Tags: Church General, Misconceptions

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

Hymns Of The Laodicean Church  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 4, 2001

Hymns Of The Laodicean Church (God’s Frozen People) The Laodicean Church announces publication of "Church Songs," whose title, according to the editor, was chosen because "We didn’t want to turn anybody off with threatening words that no one understands anymore like ’worship’ or ’hymn.’ People in ...read more

Tags: Second Coming, Book Of Revelation, Church Practices

Why Go To Church?  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 4, 2001

Why go to Church? A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. “I’ve gone for 30 years now,” he wrote, “and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can’t remember a ...read more

Tags: Bible Influence, Church Purpose Of, Church General

The Problem Is That The Church That Fails To ...  PRO

Contributed by Cary Paulk on Mar 14, 2002

The problem is that the church that fails to change fails to impact the culture of change. It becomes a dinosaur, a memorial to a world that no longer exists. So, on the one hand, while it protects those within its walls from overwhelming stress, on the other hand, it becomes biblically and ...read more

Tags: Great Commission, Church Purpose Of, What Is Evangelism?

Denomination: Baptist