Alliterations, Acronyms, & Acrostics:
To Use or Not to Use

By Brian Mavis

I must admit that for a long time I’ve snubbed my nose at sermons that use outlines with alliterations, acronyms, or acrostics (from this point referred to as AAA). Using AAA in sermons has been just too cutesy and simplistic for me. The gospel is meant to confront, comfort, and inspire – not rhyme, assonate, or amuse. I’ve been tempted to start a new group by the name of “AAAAAA” – Americans Against Alliterations, Acronyms, And Acrostics. But I’ve changed my tune some.

First, let me explain my reasons against using AAA for sermon outlines. (I know I might be upsetting many of you now, because you have been taught to use alliterative outlines and have preached them for years. Please bear with me.)  The primary danger in using AAA in your sermon outlines is that you are forcing the meaning of the text to conform to the alphabet or your thesaurus. This method makes it easy to twist or misinterpret the text so that it fits into your AAA outline.

Here is an example of what I’m talking about. It’s from a real sermon. It’s on the parable of The Friend at Midnight found in Luke 11:5-8:

Inspiration - vs.5 (At midnight)

Identification - vs.5 (Lend ME)
Immigration - vs. 6 (The mission field comes to us)
Introspection - vs. 6 (I have nothing to offer)
Imploration - vs. 8 (Because of persistence)
 

Uhg! I hate this outline. Why? Because the passage is about persistence and boldness in prayer. It’s not about inspiration, identification, immigration, or introspection. You could say it’s about imploration, but who the heck ever says that word?! I didn’t even know it was a word.

That leads me to a second reason against using AAA in sermon outlines. Even if a word is used correctly, it can still be unclear. It’s more important to be clear than clever. I hope that this church had, along with its hymnals and Bibles, a few dictionaries in the pew.

            The third reason not to use AAA in sermon outlines is that it draws attention to the outline of the sermon instead of the big idea in the sermon. It reminds me of skeleton. The bones are obvious, but where’s the meat?

The fourth reason deals specifically with alliterations (and not acronyms or acrostics). The reason alliterations were ever used in the first place was as a mnemonic device. But alliterations are a very poor memory aid. Referring to the above example, what did the listeners remember? My guess is it was something like “this passage has something to do with five I’s.” They should have come away remembering to pray boldly.

Now let me switch gears and explain why I think using acronyms and acrostics can be helpful. (I still think alliterations should stop being used – at least not overused). The reason I’ve changed my tune regarding acronyms and acrostics is because they truly are memorable, and some of them have actually helped me and many other people. A couple of famous examples are ACTS made popular by Bill Hybels and SHAPE created by Rick Warren. ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) has helped many people with a balanced prayer life. SHAPE (Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, Experience) has helped many people identify and utilize how God has gifted them for ministry.

Let me repeat that acronyms and acrostics are an effective memory aid. They are homiletic handles. Don’t underestimate the importance of this. Your sermons shouldn’t just be reasonable; they should also be memorable. People can’t do what they can’t remember to do.   Using the sermon outline example above, the church would have been much better served with the acronym PUSH – Pray Until Something Happens. That’s far more memorable and accurate than inspiration, identification, immigration, introspection, and imploration.

The Christian history of using acrostics and acronyms dates back many centuries. The earliest and best-known example is Iesous Christos Theou Houios Soter, meaning Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. This forms the acrostic Ichthys, meaning fish, the symbol Christians have used for years to identify themselves as Christians.  Now, I’ve never had a fish symbol on my car, but I have used some other acrostics and acronyms to help me remember to do some things. Just for fun I’ll share a couple of these with you. In return I’d like for you to share some of your favorites with me.

I actually have the first one taped to my computer monitor. I get easily distracted, so this one has helped me to stay focused and prioritized. I got it from the famous college football coach, Lou Holtz. The acronym is WIN. It stands for “What’s Important Now.” My youngest daughter is like me. She has trouble staying on task. So I’ve started using it with her too. It helps her from missing the school bus most mornings. Now that’s real-world value.

A value of mine is to live a life of habits that helps form the character of Christ in me. So I created an acrostic to help me stay on course in the 7 main areas of my life. I actually have a notebook with this acrostic that I refer to daily. The acrostic forms the word “habits” (with an extra “s”) – HABITSS. This word helps me remember the 7 areas of my life that I focus on to be more like Christ. The words that form it are:

Home (That I lead my family close to the heart of God)

Abilities (That I use my gifts effectively for Kingdom growth)

Body (That I eat and exercise for a healthy life)

Intellect (That I continue to learn by reading)

Treasure (That I be a good steward of the material things God has given me)

Social (That I meet, write, and encourage all sorts of people)

Spiritual (That I meet with God and grow closer to Him)

Even within this acrostic, I have memory aids to help me do things. For example for “Home” I came up with four words that rhyme that I strive to do everyday with my wife and daughters. They are:

            Stay (Be there for them. Listen to understand. Help)

            Say (Say I love you. Share my heart with words)

            Play (Play together. Have fun)

            Pray (Pray with and for them.)

I can do it (most days), because it’s easy to remember Stay, Say, Play, Pray – Everyday.

I love reading heady philosophy and theology books. But I must humble myself and admit that these simple acrostics and acronyms have often proved more helpful to me in my daily life than many of those books. Ok, now it’s your turn. What are some of your favorite acrostics and acronyms? Email them to me at brian@sermoncentral.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

© Brian Mavis 2005

For permission to reprint this article, please ask Brian Mavis at brian@sermoncentral.com.