Black Preaching in the Black

Black Preaching

In the Black tradition, a sermon is not just an address, but an experience felt by the entire congregation. As one looks at the dynamics of a well-thought out and well-delivered sermon, one might approach it from the aspect of the Scripture, the sermon, the preacher and the listener (Day 2). As far as Scripture is concerned, Black preaching uses it as its core. Nothing can be done without it - no preaching, no listening, no salvation and no church. God is always there, but Scripture is His word to the preacher and through it, the Holy Spirit is delivered to the people who listen to the sermon, as long as it is based on the Scripture. As far as the sermon is concerned, this is the subject of this research and reflection. Much will follow on this subject.

As far as the Preacher is concerned, though he or she be uneducated or educated, Black or White, Presbyterian or Anglican, if he or she uses the Scripture and his or her goal is to be the medium through which God can feed the people, then, no matter what techniques he or she uses, he or she will accomplish His purpose. In contemporary practice, as the preacher and the sermon get more heated, and as the sermon being delivered reaches a climax, the preacher is using a great deal of body language, walking back and forth, perhaps jumping, perhaps leaning over, perhaps singing, perhaps praying, perhaps shouting.

Stories, dance and song have a large part in the African-American worship service. This springs from ancient traditions. The people in the congregation participate with dancing, shouting and like responses. As far as the listener is concerned, listening is not enough. hearing and then acting is the goal. If a person can listen to a great preacher and not be moved, he or she must be deaf, for a preacher who truly is the medium through which God speaks, moves His people to act. The listener to Black preaching participates in the sermon, not only through praying, speaking, singing or shouting, but through absorbing the Word and going forth and acting on it.

The Black preacher uses several components in order to effect his or her goals of feeding God's people. Another aspect of the communication which brings these images and ideas close to home in Black preaching comes from audience participation in what is called the "call-and-response" phenomenon. Using a traditional African learning process, the preacher calls out and the audience repeats the phrase. Teachers today have learned that students retain information longer and the experience is stronger, when what is learned is actually practiced. So call-and-response, a method of learning derived from ancient African teaching methods, is an intoxicating and intense way to be involved, to receive information and remember it. The use of action, as a part of and along with, verbal explanations enforces learning (Mitchell 1970, 40).

The homiletic which has developed here in the United States among Black preachers uses both Black and White cultures, but the way the cultures are applied depends upon the pulpit, whether White or Black (Day 198). Nevertheless, the shared body of theories and principles work together to create the following components:

Faith is the result of experience, not intellectual reasoning. In order to understand this concept, we have only to look to how Jesus acted and taught. When Jesus healed the demoniac on the shores of Galilee and the man begged Jesus to let him go with him and become one of his disciples, Jesus refused him. Instead, Jesus told the man to go and preach to others about what had happened to him. This story from Mark 5:1-20 shows the student of homiletics a good example of a preacher who has experiences which have brought him to faith. The demoniac knew where and how he had received his faith, as he had experienced Jesus' casting out of the devils that had dwelled in him. So must the preacher recall how and why the call had come to him, how his or her faith had begun and why he or she is so filled with the Spirit. Only through experiencing the gift of the Spirit.

Why did Jesus not allow the demoniac to stay with him and become a disciple? he would have made a good disciple, who would not have wavered in his faith as Peter did, nor betrayed him as Judas did. The contemporary preacher may relate to the demoniac in mourning that they also are not allowed to accompany the actual person of Jesus and share his actual meals and hear him speaking, but they are also like the demoniac in that they may rejoice as they recall their experience with his salvation. They are like the demoniac in that they must be driven by the same joy at their salvation and desire to relate it to those who need to hear.

The demoniac was shackled with chains in order to keep from hurting himself in his madness. Beset with demons by the dozens, he was imprisoned in both mind and body. When he was freed of those restrictions and vexations, free of desires to hurt himself and others, childish reactions to the demands of life and being protected by iron and steel, the demoniac is now restored to sanity and rational thought. His life has been righted and his body has been freed. It is his responsibility to now deliver the means of his salvation to those back at home and in his own neighborhood. He was commissioned by Jesus, just as Jesus commissioned his disciples to go out to others who need to know how they, too, may be freed.

There are many sayings concerning faith throughout the Scripture and from great preachers about the work of faith in delivering their sermons. Saint Augustine said "Faith is believing what you do not see; the reward of faith is to see what you believe." When faith carries the preacher before the crowd and a great sermon is delivered, it is not because the preacher has done it, it is because the preacher had faith that God would speak through him or her.

When great faith is carried into the pulpit or into battle, only God's will can result, whatever it may be. In the pulpit, the deliverer has more chance of surviving than a soldier, but that does not mean that what God wills is the same as the will of the preacher. The fruits of a great sermon may not be desired or even known to the preacher, but God's fruit will be yielded, nonetheless.

The conviction of his or her faith which the preacher brings to the sermon determines the mission of the church as well as his or her preaching, as the Holy Spirit moves among the people.

The Holy Spirit delivers the gift of faith. Faith is not something one can work toward or earn - it is the gift of God. Before one is able to preach to others about one's faith one must be able to understand not only the origin of one's faith, but the shape into which the faith spoken of in the sermon falls. In other words, the preacher must pray and listen for the gift of the spirit to deliver to God's people that day. The Black preacher has a dynamic, working faith which shines through in his or her words and actions. Jimmy Carter, the former President of the United States once said that to him, faith was not a noun, but a verb. Unless faith is received from the Spirit and delivered to the people through the sermon, it does no good. This is evident in the delivery of any sermon. If the preacher does not have faith, the sermon is empty and the people go away with empty hearts.

Most churches and denominations have a statement which describes the work of the Holy Spirit, saying that it remains with the people and works actively in the world. It goes on to describe how the Holy Spirit was delivered to the people at Pentecost and lives still among the people of the church. The final part of the statement is usually that through the Holy Spirit Christ continues to live among us, that through the Spirit the kingdom of God is manifested and that through it the gospel is proclaimed.

As God's living representative in the world, the Holy Spirit is brought to God's people through preaching, as well as through other manifestations. This puts a huge responsibility upon the preacher who comes to the pulpit full of him- (or her-) self. Before approaching the pulpit, the preacher must empty him- (or her-) self and be filled with the Holy Spirit, or the gift of faith will not be delivered to the people. How else can the people know what God wants to say to them, unless the preacher becomes a vessel of the Holy Spirit and be the voice through which it speaks?

The sermon may deliver spiritual gifts as described by Paul to the people, the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, interpretation, administration and the desire to help others (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). The Scriptures also speak of dreams and prophesies which come through God's servant, delivering words of God's will to the people Though the preacher may not want to preach these words, like Jonah, he or she is commissioned to do so or he or she is no preacher. The Holy Spirit also is the comforter (John 14:16) and through the words of a preacher, God's people find relief and comfort for their anguished souls. The Spirit is also described as bringing Truth to God's people (John 16:13-14) and speaks the truth on God's authority.

When the listener he or shears the Word of God from the preacher's mouth, he or she is receiving a personal communication from God, but that is only if the preacher has become God's vessel and delivers the Word received through the Holy Spirit. Henry Heywood Mitchell asks us to understand the culture from which the styles of preaching come, particularly the idiom, the imagery, the style and world view presented. In Black preaching, the culture is seen in the language and the techniques of the sermon. Black preachers come from a rich tradition of Black history, where slavery, trouble, toils and traps surrounded them at key points in history. As slaves the Black people were brought to the United States and therefore they draw from that experience in paralleling the people of Moses' experience. They come from a heritage which is close to the Holy Land, the same one from which the Bible came; Paul encountered a Black and converted him, sending him back to his native land to spread the gospel. That is how close the Black heritage is to Jesus'. The result is a strong history of oratory and leadership.

Today, Black preachers are asked to "teach homiletics in seminaries all over the nation. It is increasingly clear that this Black tradition has much to offer all cultures" (Mitchell, 1990, 12).

Prayer, song, and preaching are the agents through which God feeds and nourishes the believer's faith. The worship service is under the control of the Holy Spirit and the believers receive the gift through the act of worshipping. Prayer is an important aspect of the worship service, as all partake in the communication with God. Not only are petitions delivered to God's ear, but thanks for all the blessing which the believers have received.

Song is extremely important in the service, as all members raise their voices, repeating sacred words and raising their voices, whether gifted or not, to an act of worship in a very real way. Song and poetry are even utilized in the sermon at times.

Preaching is the means through God speaks to His people and the sermon is often considered the center of the service, as it provokes thoughts of God and invokes God to enter the hearts of the listeners. In the early days of the United States, Blacks gathered together in clandestine meetings, much as the early Christians did, to worship in their own way. Even though their white masters tried to change their religion and their way of worshiping, they held meetings in brush arbors, with their own leaders, who spoke to them in their own powerful way. There was no gender domination, no restrictions as to dancing, no "witches" and their own rituals. The language did not recognize gender, the religion was their life and a rich culture guided the Black religious tradition to the forefront of oratorical genius (Mitchell, 1990, 13).

Skill in preaching, in delivering the message in a vivid, artistic way is the way the story is told and the message is delivered to God's people. Using logic and coherent, concise sermon texts brings the message into focus. When a sermon is vague and aimless, the message is lost to the people. While prayer and song are important aspects of the worship service, the delivery of God's Word by means of a sermon is often central to the worship experience. While the English tradition makes a church-goer thinking of the homily want to groan, in the Black tradition, it is the most exciting part of the service. Using action, a compelling story, sometimes music or a choir in the background, and audience participation, a preacher can create a desirable and inviting aspect of worship.

5. Sticking close to the sermon text. When the authority of the speaker is in mind, the preacher must be focused and coherent. Although it appears to convey seemingly straightforward and easy to understand ideas, the basic Black sermon rides on a more complex set of abstract ideas conveyed through everyday, concrete imagery. Therefore, the abstract idea becomes memorable and utilitarian. Jesus used parables to teach the ideas he wanted the disciples to remember. More discussion of parallelism in the techniques of Black preaching style will follow in a discussion of techniques of preaching.

Focusing on the Scripture is central to the purpose of a sermon, which is feeding the children of God from His Word. Focusing involves being brief and choosing a text which relates to the listener.

It also involves creating a framework through which the biblical text can be experienced by the listener. Highly descriptive explanations of the story are most listened to and remembered. This means that the preacher feels, hears and sees the story to tell to the listener. The framework of a sermon may be just as important as the text which is delivered, for if the framework is not built clearly and strongly, the text will not be understood.

7. The final factor is feeling. Emotion is a vital part of the sermon. The Black sermon deliberately uses emotion which appeals to the entire brain of the listener, or as Henry H. Mitchell put it, "the entirety of human consciousness - intuitive, emotive and cognitive," while the Western tradition has emphasized the cognitive aspect of the sermon with philosophical, ideological and theological content. When a preacher is sensitive to the true emotions of his or her congregation and relates the passion of the story, then the listener can feel what the Bible is saying to them (Day, 200).

In the early days of the nineteenth century when the Second Great Awakening took place in the United States, renegade preachers held camp meetings all over the South and Southeast U.S. Unschooled in traditional styles and theology, the itinerant evangelists found audiences flocked to them for their "fire and brimstone" topics and their anything-but-staid form of oratory. The people came to see the show, were "saved" and formed both Black and White and mixed congregations of Baptist and Presbyterian churches throughout the Southeast. As Blacks left the South and spread north, east and west, they brought their music, their churches, traditions and preaching styles with them.

As the movement spread, newspapers reported "acrobatics," such as "jerks, falling, dancing and barking" among the newly converted or by those "backsliders" just called back to glory (Bruce 53). Miraculous healing, great singing and the antics of the "traveling show" personnel added to the excitement of the camp meeting. Needless to say, the greatest orators were those who drew the biggest crowds and certain preachers became famous for their spectacular deliveries. In the early days of Billy Graham's career, he, too, was a fiery preacher who used the techniques mentioned to draw huge crowds. Other famous preachers, such as Martin Luther King and, more recently, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, are well-known for hypnotic, entrancing speaking techniques and styles which can raise the emotions of a crowd up to an intense, almost frightening, fervor.

The Black preacher uses a variety of techniques to rouse his or her audience to passion. One of these is the use of music during the sermon. "Originally, black church music was composed of vocals accompanied by handclaps, and much later pianos and band instruments such as trombones were added" (Alexander 1). In some churches a pianist or organist sits at the piano or organ during the sermon and accompanies it by playing music at a low volume, raising the tempo and volume as the subject demands. In others, the choir sways and hums and shouts in harmony as the preacher calls out for response.

Recently made famous by "O Brother Where Art Thou," the chain-gang work song was a staple of and drew from early American slave music. In Frederick Douglass' biography, he explains that the early slave music was anything but happy, but that the people sang to relieve their pain and to pass along information. This secular use of call-and-response, and of rhythmical rants is both derived from and has added to religious and sacred music and preaching styles. Similarities in rhythm, cadence, tone and melodies are not happenstance, but carry-overs from one to the other, as far as historians can tell (Alexander 1).

Parallelism is another technique of Black preaching which is an inherent part of the sermon. When a preacher draws a parallel between the Scriptural text and contemporary experience, he or she then begins to "parallel" it into an understanding of the message of the Scripture on that experience. When the Scriptural text is explained through this device, even a child can understand it.

Parallelism between the secular experience of life here on earth and the stories found in the Biblical text are widely used. In Gerald Davis' definition of the sermon (found below in the box), he or she describes how the text chosen, and quoted from the Bible, for that sermon carries out the theme of the sermon, how the preacher interprets the text, describes a parallel contemporary event or human condition, and then moves from the abstract idea to the concrete example, back and forth, gradually forming several "arguments" of proof of the theme.

Parallelism in Black Sermons a. Preacher indicates that text was provided under divine inspiration.

b. Identification of the theme of the sermon, followed by appropriate quotation from the Bible.

c. Interprets, first literally, then broadly, the quoted Bible passage.

d. Independent, theme-related formulas, developing or retarding a sacred/secular tension and moving between abstract and concrete example. Each formula is an aspect of the "argument" of the sermon.

e. Closure as such is rarely found in the black sermon, but more commonly there will be a brief moment of testimony, or an affirmation of faith by the preacher.