Bryan Chapell, Using Illustrations To Preach With Power

I want to grow in my use of illustrations in my preaching. That's why I recently read Bryan Chapell's, Using Illustrations To Preach With Power. Preachers, if you too are in a position where you know your preaching could be better if you knew how to better illustrate biblical truth, this book's for you. Here's some quotes I enjoyed:

"...the illustrative content of all Jesus' recorded teaching is 75%.""Personal Illustrations. These are the ones, I confess, that I like best. Stories from men's and women's experiences, from children's experiences, narrated by the persons they happened to, shared by the preacher. There is a warmth about them that makes them very appealing. They give an honest ring to the gospel that does not come from anything else. They make the gospel seem real, touchable, truly incarnate." (Chappel quoting John Killinger)."The notion that illustrations are simplistic concessions to popular expectations is not only at odds with modern learning and communication theories, it contradicts the experience of most preachers. What minister has not discovered the ease with which an expositional truth can be propositionally stated, only to agonize for hours over how to illustrate that truth in a moving, relevant fashion?...In order to relate truths experientially, the preacher must himself delve to that level of being where mind, soul, body, world, and psyche are real. Until he has done so--until he has plumbed the depths of his emotions, relationships, and experiences and integrated what he discovers in those oceans with what he knows intellectually--his own understanding is not complete.""The mind yearns for, and needs, the concrete to anchor the abstract.""When illustrations arouse emotions they do more than pass information on to the mind. They stimulate decision-making responses; they influence our will. We do not make decisions solely on the basis of what we know. We also decide because of how we feel about what we know. Illustrations recognize and employ this dynamic. Motivations for us to act in accordance with God's Word are frequently best forged in the illuminating fires of illustration...Illustrations are therefore doors that preachers open to allow listeners to experience a concept; and by experiencing it, to understand it, interact with it, and act upon it."