Your search for lively illustrations to spice up your youth talks is over. Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks is here! Veteran youth worker and nationally known speaker Wayne Rice has carefully selected and crafted 100 of the best stories, parables, and anecdotes available anywhere. Rice has collected these illustrations form his own files and from files of some of youth ministry's best speakers -- Mike Yaconelli -- Tony Campolo -- Dewey Bertolini -- Chap Clark -- Les Christie -- Ray Johnston -- Len Kageler -- Rick Bundschuh --- and many more! These stories (all indexed by topic) cover a lot of youth ministry ground -- some will make you laugh, some will make you cry, and all of them will make you think. And they all work with teenagers. They're just the thing to give your youth talks that extra spark you're looking for. You'll love what Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks will do for your youth talks. And your kids will love you for it!

Nathan the prophet was the guest speaker. King David was the audience.Nathan had a message from the Lord to deliver to David, and, being theexcellent communicator that he was, he opened with a story:There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him (II Samuel 12:1-4).The story, of course, had King David on the edge of his seat. He took it seriously and responded with gut-wrenching emotion: "As surely as the Lord lives, the rich scoundrel who took that little lamb deserves to die!" Bingo. The rest of Nathan''s message required few words. All he had to do was apply the story to his audience: "You, sir, are that man."Nathan knew what every good speaker and teacher knows: a picture is worth a thousand words. A captivating illustration that is thoughtfully chosen and skillfully used communicates more, is remembered longer, and has greater impact than thousands of words that may be truthful and important, but which are abstract and tell no story.Jesus knew the value of a story, too. He spoke in parables. In fact, Matthew 13:34 records that Jesus never spoke without using a parable. He consistently sprinkled His talks with stories and illustrations to drive home the point He was making. He drew His illustrations from everyday life in the Middle East, describing farmers and families, sheep and goats, barns and wheat fields. People were amazed at His teaching.Unfortunately, amazing is not often the word that teens use to describe speakers and teachers in the church today. The word boring seems to be more in fashion. A few popular speakers, however, know how to communicate well with kids, and invariably they use stories and illustrations effectively in their talks.Hot Illustrations is a selection of stories that have been used effectively in youth talks by several of those popular speakers. I have used many of them myself. All of them can work with kids if the stories are chosen properly and communicated with conviction and purpose.This is not an exhaustive collection of illustrations for youth talks. The books that claim to be exhaustive are often so large that they are difficult to use. One book on my shelf boasts nearly eight thousand illustrations in it. But to be honest, it''s difficult to find one good illustration in that book when I need it. My goal for this book has been to offer you quality rather than quantity.Selecting and using illustrations is a subjective and personal task; what works for you may not work for me (and vice versa). Even so, this book offers you a sampling of illustrations that I recommend without reservation. Much of that has to do with the quality of people who contributed to this book. (Their names are listed on pages 7 and 8). Good illustrations are extremely valuable and hard to come by. Many speakers prefer keeping them to themselves. That''s why I''m grateful for these contributors who were willing to share some of their best illustrations with us.AIM TO HIT YOUR TARGETThe most important thing to remember as you use the illustrations in this book is that they are only illustrations. They are not the points to be made. In other words, don''t build your talk around these or any other illustrations. Begin with the point (the truth) that you want to communicate, and then find or create the illustration that supports that point.A young boy received a bow and arrow from his father and immediately went outside to shoot it. A few minutes later, his father