|
|
Summer
2006, Vol.
3, No. 1
African-American Preaching in the
Context of American Christianity
 Maurice
Watson, D.D., Senior Pastor, Beulahland
Bible Church, Macon, Georgia
A lecture presented to Assemblies of God Theological
Seminary, January 18, 2006
Printer Friendly
Version (PDF, Download
Help)
Sometime ago, I was sitting in a preaching class with fellow
students from different racial backgrounds, engaged in a
spirited and interesting dialogue on the nuances of preaching
in African-American and white churches. The professor made
a statement he thought was innocent and wholesome, but it
did not sit well with me, and I let him know it. He said, “You
black preachers need to ‘whitenize’ your preaching.”
Whitenize our preaching? I was so offended that,
in the anger of the moment, I never thought to ask what he
meant by “whitenize.” “No, we don’t
need to ‘whitenize’ our preaching,” I retorted. “Maybe
you should ‘blackenize” your preaching!’” I
could not help thinking this guy was telling me my white
colleagues’ preaching is superior to that of my black
colleagues, and if black preachers are to be taken seriously,
we should change the way we preach. You can imagine how tense
and strained the class period was after that exchange.
I may be guilty of psychologizing, which I try not to do,
but maybe he was trying to say that for African-American
preaching to be palatable to a broader audience, we need
to take off some of the emotional and passionate edge. Perhaps
he was saying should turn down the volume. Or, perhaps he
was trying to say that black preachers should not express
the rhythm, musicality and ecstasy of the celebrative moment
of their preaching. Could it be he was saying that black
preachers are not as Aristotelian and linear in their homiletic
delivery as he would like? Maybe he meant that African-American
preaching needs to contain three or more alliterated points
with the subpoints to the subpoints alliterated as well.
I am not sure what he meant by the “whitenization” of
African-American preaching, but it does provide the launching
pad for me to embark upon the topic I have been asked to
address: “The Contribution of African-AmericanPreaching
to American Christianity.” To refer to the subject
of preaching in ethic terms is somewhat out of the boundaries
of my educational training. The preaching classes I took
(not withstanding that brief cultural exchange with the professor
mentioned above) provided insights on what “preaching” is
without regard to race or ethnicity. For example, in a doctrinal
preaching class taught by Dr. Robert Smith, I was informed
of several definitions of preaching:
- Donald M. Bailey (Scottish preacher) said, “Doctrinal
preaching exists to make preaching as hard as it needs
to be.”
- E.K. Bailey said, “Preaching is focusing
on a portion of Scripture in order to clearly establish
the precise meaning of the text, and then to poignantly
and passionately motivate the hearers to adopt the action
and attitude of the text.”
- William J. Carl said, “It is Christian
preaching that is grounded in the biblical witness to Jesus
Christ: It starts with a text, a doctrine or cultural question,
but regardless of the starting point, it addresses several
doctrines.”
- P.T. Forsyth said, “Doctrinal preaching
is the hallelujah chorus of an ordered community.”
- Haddon Robinson said, “Preaching is
the communication of an idea that is derived from Scripture
and transmitted through a grammatical, historical, and
literary study of a passage in its context which the Holy
Spirit first applies to the life and personality of the
preacher and then to the hearer.”
- Fredeidrich Schliermacher said, “It
is the account of religious affection set forth in speech.”
- Robert Smith said, “Preaching is the
exegetical escorting of the hearers into the presence of
God for the purpose of transformation.”
- John R.W. Stott said, “Preaching is
the opening up of the inspired Word with such faithfulness
and sensitivity that God’s voice is heard and God’s
people obey Him.
- Phillips Brooks provides for me the best definition
of preaching: “Preaching is truth through personality.”
As I see it, these definitions provide ample descriptions
of preaching, regardless of one’s ethnic origin. I
am tempted question why we feel the need to refer to preaching
in ethnic terms. I have not heard many discussions on the
preaching of other ethnicities (that’s not to say those
discussions are notaking place) outside of preaching from
the perspective of white people and black people. I don’t
hear much about Korean-American preaching, Asian-American
preaching, Hispanic-American preaching, or Native-American
preaching. But I know that there is quite a bit being said
about African-American preaching.
Distinctives of African-American
Preaching?
When one refers to preaching by using an ethic adjective
or label, is he/she suggesting that all preachers of a particular
ethic persuasion preach in a certain way? Or, is one suggesting
there are distinctives that are indicative of the preaching
of a “people-group?” Can we stereotype preaching
based on ethnicity? If one believes we can, is he/she saying
that all Euro-American preachers preach the same or, at the
very least, preach a certain kind of gospel? Is one saying
there are distinctives that set Asian-American preaching
apart from other people-groups?
Dr. Cleophus LaRue, professor of homiletics at Princeton
Theological Seminary, believes there are distinctives of
African-American preaching. In his book, The Heart of
Black Preaching, he wrote:
Many people—preachers, homileticians, and lay folk—praise
black preaching. They admire its vitality, relevance, and
communicational effectiveness. But what is it about African
American preaching that makes it so distinctive and worthy
of regard? Some have pointed to the high place of scripture
in the African American tradition, others to the black preacher’s
creative use of language and storytelling, and still others
to the free play of emotion and celebration in the preaching
event or to communication techniques such as call-and-response.
However, none of these traits is the exclusive property
of black preachers. All of them can be found to some degree
outside the African American preaching tradition, and none
of them fully accounts for the extraordinary character of
black preaching . . . but the reason for the distinctive
power of black preaching lies in the way that African Americans
have come, in the refining fires of history, to understand
the character of God and the ways God works through scripture
and sermon in their lives.
In essence, the distinctive power of black preaching is
a matter, not merely of special techniques but of extraordinary
experiences that have, among other results, forged a unique
way of understanding the Bible and applying those insights
in very practical ways.1
LaRue holds that black preaching differs from traditional
understandings of the faith in its interpretation of the
witness of Scripture in light of black’s historical
and contemporary experiences.2 He
suggested there are three central components that must be
factored into the preparation process when attempting to
preach an effective sermon in the traditional black religious
experience. The first component is a belief in the God about
whom blacks preach. The second component is the importance
of the black sociocultural experience to the preaching event.
And, the third component of the black sermon is its practicality
and relevance to a broad spectrum of black existence.3 LaRue
summarized his position concerning a black distinctive for
preaching by writing, “Powerful black preaching has
at its center a biblical hermeneutic that views God as a
powerful sovereign acting mightily on behalf of dispossessed
and marginalized people.”4 In
essence, LaRue said the distinctive traits that set black
preaching apart are its emphasis on the fact that God is
on the side of the “underdog,” and that black
preachers interpret the Scripture through the lenses of their
historical and contemporary sociocultural experiences as
the oppressed.
Perhaps he is on to something. It is impossible to consider
the distinguishing factors of black preaching without considering
its relationship to the history of black people and the place
of the black church in America. Other theologians also assert
distinctives of black preaching:
Olin Moyd claimed that distinctively African-American
preaching is characterized by narrative and repetition,
while the structure attends to testimony, liberation, and
celebration. James Harris claims that Christology is primary
among African-American preachers and that Jesus as Liberator
is the characteristic of genuine “Afrocentric” preaching. This happens
when preaching is “Prototypically Black,” proud
of African heritage, socially critical, liberative, and
celebrative. Leontine Kelly claims that Black Preaching
is narrative and affirming. Lyndrey Niles draws almost
entirely on Henry Mitchell (Black Preaching , Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott,
1970) for the categories of sermon structure which include
introduction (personal identification with preacher), imaginative
retelling of the Bible story, and a celebrative climax. He
follows Mitchell in terms of style characteristics, claiming
that Black Preaching has linguistic flexibility, cadence,
call, response.5
However, L. Susan Bond, assistant professor of homiletics
and liturgics at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville,
Tennessee, is of the opinion there is no single distinctive
quality that sets black preaching apart from other traditions.
She wrote, “While parish ministers and theological
students are apt to speak of ‘a black style’ or ‘black
preaching’ as if it were monolithic, such a situation
is hardly the case.”6 Bond
observed several styles of preaching among black preachers—the “gentlemen
preachers” of an older rhetorical style; Afrocentrists
who argue for a particular cultural and racial difference;
celebrationists who favor a cathartic structure; a growing
number of pastoral care theorists; and an emerging group
of womanist and black feminist homileticians.7
I tend to agree with Dr. Bond—there is no single distinctive
of African-American preaching. Just about every kind of preaching
that is practiced in America is found in the African-American
church. Certainly to take the tradition of African American
preaching with due seriousness is to take account of the
real diversity within it and to avoid leveling it to a static
phenomenon.8
Contributions of the “Preaching” of
African-Americans
I probably will not win any popularity contests (in the
eyes of some of my colleagues) with what I am about to assert,
but I feel compelled to be true to my convictions and to
what I believe the Holy Spirit is leading me to say. As an
African-American person whom God called as a preacher of
the gospel of Jesus Christ, I do not believe God wants me
to preach a “black sermon” (whatever that is).
Nor do I believe any people-group is responsible for preaching
an “ethnically labeled” sermon. While historical,
social, cultural and ethnic factors influence our proclamation,
they should not define our proclamation in an ultimate sense.
We are called to “Christian preaching!” It is
preaching that rightly interprets the Word of God and rightly
applies it to the lives of people in light of their social,
cultural, ethnic and spiritual condition.
In light of my conviction, I want to share what I believe
are some of the significant contributions of the preaching
of African-Americans to American Christianity. One important
contribution is the high level of respect and regard for
the place of the preacher in the community. This is important
because the postmodern view of the preacher is not very high.
However, stretching back to the early slave preachers and
to the beginnings of the institutional black church, preaching
has held a prominent place in the life of African-Americans.
Presiding over slave baptisms, funerals and weddings was
the slave preacher, leader of the slave’s religious
life and an influential figure in the slave community. Usually
illiterate, the slave preacher often had a native wit and
unusual eloquence. Licensed or unlicensed, with or without
permission, black preachers held prayer meetings, preached
and ministered in difficult situations. A highly visible
figure in the community, the preacher occupied a position
of esteem and authority. On one hand, the slave preacher
was criticized by former slaves as the “mouthpiece
of the masters.” One the other, some slave preachers
preached and spoke of freedom in secret. The weight of slave
testimony suggests the restrictions under which the slave
preacher labored and his authority was accepted because it
came from God, not from the master. They respected him because
he was the messenger of the gospel, one who preached the
word of God with power and authority, indeed with a power
which sometimes humbled white folk and frequently uplifted
slaves.9
Even today, black people continue to have a high regard
for the place of the preacher in the community. The preacher
is looked to for leadership. Contemporary black Christians
look to the preacher to provide a word of hope and healing
in the sermon, and they expect him/her to speak on behalf
of God in light of their sociocultural, political and spiritual
situation.
Another contribution of African-American preachers to the
tapestry of Christianity in America has been the power of “telling
the story.” While I do not believe that all African-American
preachers preach in the narrative form, many (as in other
people-groups) are masters at captivating an audience with
story.
There is a great push these days among homiletitions for
narrative preaching. The idea is that since we live in a
narrative world, effective preaching has to become more narrative.
Haddon Robinson wrote:
Inductive sermons have a special appeal to inhabitants
of a culture dominated by television and motion pictures.
We have become a storied culture. Whether it is a mystery
drama, a comedy or even a sports contest, there is a large
element of induction. The drama isn’t solved until the end
of the last act, and the joke leads up to the punch line,
and the sports event moves toward the final score. Inductive
sermons fit that way of thinking. This is particularly true
of a specific type of inductive sermon—a story told.
You connect with a modern audience when you tell a biblical
story with insight and imagination. . . . Anyone who loves
the Bible must value the story, for whatever else the Bible
is, it is a book of stories. Old Testament theology comes
packaged in narratives of men and women who go running off
to set up their handmade gods, and of others who take God
seriously enough to bet their lives on Him. When Jesus appeared,
He came telling stories, and most of them have entered the
world’s folklore.10
Eugene L. Lowry, in his book, The Homiletical Plot ,
contends that sermons often fall short of being effective
because too many modern preachers are slaves of a deductive,
logical and linear style of sermonizing. Lowry points out
that great preaching should feel more like a story than a
lecture.11
Calvin Miller agrees with Robinson and Lowry in the call
for the narrative approach to sermonizing. He suggests that
preaching that is solely propositional, deductive and analytical
often falls short of holding and galvanizing the modern listener’s
attention. Miller calls on preachers to consider changing
from the predictable three-point “running commentary” style
of exposition to an image-driven expositional approach.12
To these and other homileticians who are now calling for
more narrative preaching, many African-American preachers
can say, “Welcome back!” Historically many black
preachers have been adept at “telling the story” in
gospel preaching. Whether it is the story of the Exodus,
Daniel in the lion’s den, the Hebrew boys in the fiery
furnace, the parable of the prodigal son, Paul and Silas
in a Roman jail or a story about justification or sanctification,
they carry a deep and rich meaning to African Americans in
light of our historical status as oppressed people in America.
They provide hope and solace amid the injustice and despair.
They are signal reminders that just as God delivered his
people then, he is able and willing to deliver his people
now.
Finally, I believe that black preachers, from the days of
slavery until now, have been a part of the great preaching
tradition in America. Some people are saying that most truly
great preaching today is taking place in the black church.
L. Susan Bond wrote, “The African American Christian
tradition has produced a lion’s share of America’s
great preachers. In fact many Americans consider the African
American pulpit the pinnacle of religious oratory . . . If
you want to learn from the best preachers, you might well
focus on African American preachers.”13 Dr.
Joel Gregory, a professor of preaching at George W. Truett
Theological Seminary of Baylor University, contends that
most great preaching today is taking place in African-American
churches.14
Endnotes
1. Cleophus
J. LaRue, The
Heart of Black Preaching , (Louisville/London: Westminster
John Know Press, 2000), 1.
2. Ibid.
p. 2
3. Ibid.
p. 5, 6
4. Ibid.
p. 6
5. L.
Susan Bond, Contemporary
African American Preaching: Diversity in Theory and Style,
(St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2003) p. 2.
6. Ibid,
(Preface) xi.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Albert J. Raboteau, Slave
Religion: The Invisible Institution in the Antebellum South ,
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), p. 231f.
10. Taken from Biblical
Preaching, 2d ed. by Haddon W. Robinson, (Grand Rapids:
Baker Book House, 2001), cited in “The Professional
Journal for Preachers,” July-August, 2001, Vol. 17,
20f
11. Eugene. L. Lowry, The
Homiletical Plot , (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox
Press, 2000).
12. Calvin Miller, The
Sermon Maker , (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003).
13. L.
Susan Bond, (preface), xi.
14. From personal conversations
with Dr. Gregory and with his permission.
Updated:
Friday, July 14, 2006 2:48 PM
|
