Send Your Story

Some of the best sermon illustrations never appear in a book. They are told once in a small church, at a hospital bedside or around a kitchen table, and then they are gone. If you have a story like that, we would be glad to read it and, with your permission, share it with readers who need it.

What we are looking for

Sermon illustrations and parables that make a clear spiritual point
True stories of faith, prayer, forgiveness, provision or changed lives
Stories you have heard and used in your own preaching, with the source if you know it
Short stories that would work well for children, youth or small groups

Before you send

Please send only stories you wrote yourself, true events you witnessed, or illustrations whose source you can name. Do not copy text from books, websites or sermons without permission.
If a story is true, tell it as it happened. Please do not present an invented story as a real event.
Change names or details if you need to protect someone's privacy, and ask permission before sharing another person's story.
Any length is fine. Most of the stories we publish are between 200 and 1,000 words.
We do not publish stories that mock other people or other faiths, or that promote a political party or candidate.

How to send your story

Email your story to admin@thesermonstory.com with the subject line Story Submission: [your story title]. Please include:

The title of your story
The full story, pasted into the email or attached as a Word or Google Docs file
The source, if the story is not your own, or a note saying it is your original work or a true account
A Bible verse that goes with the story, if you have one in mind
Your name as you would like it credited, or a note asking to stay anonymous

What happens next

We read every submission, but we cannot publish them all. If we choose your story, we will email you before it goes live. We may edit it lightly for length, grammar and clarity, and we will always keep its meaning. We credit every published story to the name you give us, or to Anonymous if you prefer.

By sending a story, you confirm that you have the right to share it and that you give Sermon Stories permission to publish it on this website. You keep ownership of your story and are free to share it anywhere else. If you ever want your story removed, just email us and we will take it down.

To learn how we handle the details you send us, please read our Privacy Policy.

Comments

Stories About Accountability: A Sermon Illustration From Casualties of War

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Stories About Acceptance: Jimmy Carter's Welcome to Richard Nixon

"Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God" ( Romans 15:7 ). Acceptance is one of the quietest forms of love. It does not excuse what someone has done, but it refuses to leave them standing alone. This story about acceptance, retold in our own words, comes from a funeral in Washington in January 1978, when a disgraced former president walked into a room full of people who did not know what to say to him. It ends with a takeaway for sermons or personal reflection. Story in this post: Welcome Home, Mr. President: Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon ──────── ✝ ──────── Welcome Home, Mr. President: Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon This story is widely told in sermons and is usually credited to the Methodist preacher Maxie Dunnam, who cites a report in Newsweek . The setting is well documented; we have not been able to locate the original magazine report or confirm the exact words of the greeting, so they are given here as the story tells them...

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