BRENTWOOD, Tenn. — Tyler Goss, youth pastor at New Life Community Church, confirmed this week that his personal sermon illustration database has reached 12,000 entries, with records indicating no illustration has been used in a message more than once.
Goss, 34, began the database in 2011 using a spreadsheet program and has since migrated the collection through three software platforms. Each entry is tagged by topic, emotional register, estimated laugh probability, and a field Goss calls "relevance shelf life," which he defines as the number of years the illustration can be deployed before it becomes outdated.
"The thing about illustrations is you get one shot," said Goss, who has preached approximately 48 messages per year since 2016. "You use it, it's used. The congregation doesn't forget."
The database includes 847 sports analogies, 1,204 entries involving technology or social media, 312 entries Goss describes as "self-deprecating personal stories," and one entry — entry number 4,401, added March 2019 — that is tagged "emergency use only" and has not been opened since its creation. Goss declined to describe its contents.
He noted that the 12,000th entry, added last Tuesday, concerned a conversation he had with his father-in-law about replacing a water heater. He said it would work well for a message on preparation.
Goss has been on staff at New Life for nine years. He is scheduled to preach to the student ministry on Sunday. The illustration for that message was selected Thursday from the database's "never-used, high-shelf-life" category.
He said he is already thinking about Monday.