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Preaching without notes is not a brain dump. What are four principles that we should keep in mind when we preach without notes.

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Preachers must know themselves, if they are going to be effective preachers of the Gospel. Why is this? The reason is that many preachers can fall into the trap of preaching only to themselves rather than preaching to the people. What am I talking about? I am talking about preachers who spend too much time talking about their problems preaching only to things they need to overcome or attacking their enemies. So if a particular preacher has a problem with lying, they may be more inclined to believe that this is a universal problem in the church. Other preachers may have a problem with marital infidelity. When this is their problem some preachers may fall into the trap of preaching as if marital infidelity is running rampant in their church. If a preacher is being attacked by members, suddenly they believed that people have a problem with attacking God's anointed. If a preacher desires a particular project or program, anyone who disagrees is fair game to be attacked from the pulpit as one who is against the progress of the Kingdom of God. All of these are examples of preachers using the pulpit to promote their own agenda rather than God's agenda of healing, ministry, and yes sometimes even prophetic engagement. However preachers must do their best to understand what are the real problems and where is God leading in the church. Then let this guide what you are to preach. God has called us as preachers to not just preach to our own needs, but to preach what the whole congregation needs to hear.

Olin Moyd, in The Sacred Art: Preaching and Theology in the African American Tradition wrote:

God's attributes are summed up in the oral folk sermons not in puzzling, esoterical, or mystical terms, such as "omnipotent", "omniscient." and "omnipresent," but as "so high , you can't get over him, so wide you can't get around him, and so low that you can't get under him."

This is a rich section for discussion. Some times we talk about "dumbing-down" the message to make it understandable to the people. However, that is not our job as preachers. We are not to preach a elementary message. We are to take the lofty thoughts and tools that we have studied at seminary and translate it into the terms that can be understood by our people.

The people can and do understand God's omnipresence, they just use different language to describe this. In addition, we are not just describing something. The traditional Black Preaching didn't just describe a point and sit down. Some preachers attempt to describe an attribute of God and sit down. However, the Black preacher attempts to find a way to rephrase the idea in such a way to be understood, and then apply that idea to the real life situations of people in their daily lives.

So go ahead and preach about the trinity. Go ahead and preach about the omnipotent God. But use terms that make sense to the people you are talking to, and then show how the doctrine or point makes a difference in the lives of your parishioners, especially those whose "backs are against the wall."

One of the problems that often rears it's head in African American worship is when celebration is abused. Martha Simmons referred to this dynamic among some whoopers as the "dark side of Whooping." This is when the power of whooping is used to mask a preacher who has not done his or her work to provide a solid presentation.

Sadly, Whoopers are not the only ones who are guilty of this problem. There are many African American preachers who routinely use celebration to trick the people into believing that they are great preachers while the people go away empty. They are happy and shouting and talk about how great the preacher preached, but they often can't even tell you what the sermon was about, let alone apply it to their daily lives.

This discussion has caused me to think of the primary cardinal sin of false celebration. If you commit this one, you will make it very difficult for the people to experience true celebration of the Gospel as presented in your sermon.

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Some have said that I spend too much time writing about "style." These individuals say that what is important is not the "style" but the "content." They argue that one of the greatest problems with much African American preaching is spending too much time worrying about the style.

Style Affects Listener Understanding

I will answer this in two ways. First, style affects how the hearer understands the message. We all have heard about preachers who have great content, but they just can't deliver the message. Listen to your favorite lecturer at college. Did she speak in a monotone way? Did she deliver the message with animation that comes from knowing and loving the material?

It is interesting that some preachers who claim to ignore style have great style themselves. They may not "whoop" but they are masters of cadence. They may not use various pulpit devices, but they make explicit use of call and response. Simply put, a "no style" style will turn the people off and make your material almost non understandable. Style affects how the hearers understand your message.

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I make a habit of listening to Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III of Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas Texas. Dr. Haynes incorporates stories into his preaching very effectively. These stories are gleaned from various sources.

Finding Stories

Frank Thomas, in his important book They Like to Never Quit Praisin' God: The Role of Celebration in Preaching writes:

Many exegetes stop at the point of discovering the what message the author intended to convey when the text was written, find points of application for our time, and begin writing the sermon. But there is another critically important step in homiletical exegesis, and that is to ask the question of meaning: How does the message of the text give assurance of grace to the existential human condition of suffering? In other words, what good news does this text bring to the experiential suffering, tragedy, and evil in the world?

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Marvin McMickle, in his work Where Have All The Prophets Gone writes about one of the biggest heresies that has grabbed hold of the church. This one is the idea that Christians are some how immune from suffering, sickness, or pain. McMickle notes that these preachers seem to see an "exemption" from suffering. All you have to do is "plant your seed" and you will be blessed with financial blessing. You will be blessed with a physical cure to whatever ails you.

These prosperity preachers turn the "abundant life" as written about in the New Testament into the "good life" as defined by the kind of American Materialism that has created this current economic crisis that we find ourselves in. Simply put, even Christians who have saught to live the life consistent with God's coming Kingdom die of cancer. Even good Christians look at the wicked prosper while they live in the depths of poverty. This false gospel trains Christians to be greedy. It trains Christians to expect a healing from every dime they put in the plate. It trains Christians to expect "economic breakthrough" because God must bless us with healing because they planted a seed or anointed their wallet with oil.

Ultimately this is idolatry because it takes the Sovereign God off the throne and puts in God's place a Slot Machine that always "pays off" when you pull the lever. Preachers, we have been called to proclaim the Gospel and God's coming kingdom. Let us not give up that high calling to preach the false Gospel of American materialism.

Last night while listening to sermons on youtube and other places, I found a preacher who was "whooping." As we know, the whoop is one type of sermonic close used by some preachers in the African American preaching tradition. The preacher was summarizing and celebrating the truth of the message. The call and the response, which is an important component of the African American Preaching tradition was in full effect. Then the sermon almost came to a standstill and never fully recovered. The preacher broke the call and response by encroaching on the "response" time by changing the length of the phrases. Once the preacher has come to the close and has established a set number of syllables in his or her phrases, the preacher should not break this with a particularly long, or particularly short phrase.

Keep the Length of the Phrases

The Call and Response requires that there is give and take in the close of the sermon. If the people are to celebrate the message, they need to experience it. And to experience it, we must foster it with the call and response.

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Charles Kohler, in his book how to preach without notes, has written on the importance of using the Scripture as an resource for sermon illustrations. On page 45, he he writes, "one authority recommends only one book of illustrations, namely, the Bible." Using the Bible as a primary source for illustrations is going to be very helpful to both the preacher and the congregation. Today we are living in an era of biblical illiteracy. In the past preachers could assume that the people knew something of the stories of the Bible.

What The Stories Do For Us?

The stories of the Bible allow people to understand their circumstances within the context of the biblical record. They learned of an almighty God who is able to allow a disobedient man to be swallowed by a fish. They learn of a powerful God who can open up a Red Sea and allow all people to walk on dry land. They learned of all of the great exploits from the past. They then learn that these powers are accessible to them. However, if we do not understand or know of these great stories then we are not able to appropriate them at the proper time.

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The Jazz Theologian has just written an article for reflection. The article is entitled "Marginal Christianity." In that article, Robert Gelinas uses Dr. Martin Luther King Jr as a symbol for how Christianity should be in the world. While many look back fondly on his ministry, we cannot forget that Dr. King was marginal. His view against the war in Vietnam when many, black and white, told him to not speak on it, demonstrates how he was not in line with the common values of the day. His marching for Civil Rights, while thought of highly today, was at the time seen as "radical" and even "untimely." The argument over Dr. King's tactics fostered the creation of the Progressive National Baptist Convention.

Certainly many have turned him into an icon of the status quo today. Some use him as a voice of moderation against the so-called radical voices that are living. I even hear conservative republican voices attempting to use him as teaching their values, which is ridiculous for he was for welfare and against militarism. Many try to act as though they are in line with his voice when they are risking nothing to call his name.

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The Black Preaching Tradition is a great gift to the larger Christian world. Many acknoweldge the vibrancy and the power of great Black Preaching. I also marvel at the improvisational genious of the great preachers in that tradition. While we accept this great gift of the African American church, we also must acknowledge that there are some who are today abusing this gift by taking it and preaching a Gospel that does not take into account the full counsel of God.

Not Just Personal Piety or Economic Breakthrough

Olin P. Moyd writes in The Sacred Art: "The power of God is not Theory. The power of God is action." What Moyd is getting at is that when we preach about the power of God, it is important not to turn it into a theory. I remember when I was taking Calculus in college. The teacher would introduce a formula by talking about when and why you would use this particular formula. All of that was good and important, however it was still disconnected from us. The teacher would then give us a few examples. In the back of the chapter we had a number of exercises that were designed to help us understand the formula. The formula was the theory, but the exercises were the examples.

Likewise when we are preaching, we must translate the theory into practice. We must show the truth of the theory in real life. If we don't do this, then whether the people shout or sleep, they will not be able to translate the teaching into their daily lives. The Bible, experience, and history all provide us with a large number of examples to translate the theories into practice.

Don't forget your examples and illustrations, without them, the people may not fully understand your theory and theology.

There are many things that you can do to improve your preaching. However there are two specific things that will help others understand what you are attempting to say in the sermon. The first of these is to shorten your sermon.

Shorten Your Sermon

While it is true that there are some pretty powerful preachers out there preaching for close to an hour, you are probably not that guy. Personally I shoot for a sermon length between 25 and 35 minutes. A shorter sermon forces you to be more economical with your words and images. In addition, it forces you to stay on the point of the sermon and limit, if not altogether eliminate, irrelevant asides. Both of these things are important for any good sermon. In addition, it will push you to preach "one sermon" and not two or three under the auspices of one sermon.

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At the end of one of my sermons, someone told me that the sermon eliminated the distance between the Bible world and today's world. When this happens, you have done your job in a very real way. To do this, the preacher must help the people to understand and experience the Bible world. And to push it a little further, the people must understand and experience the implications of the Bible world in today's world.

The Lecture Trap

If the people are to know and experience the Bible world in today's world, then they must first of all know the Bible world. It is our job as preachers to give people enough knowledge of the Bible world so that they can understand it. This is more difficult job today than in the past. In the past, we could assume that people knew the great stories of the Bible. They knew who Moses was. They knew who Adam Was. They knew about the great fish that ate Jonah. They knew about the Valley of Dry Bones. They knew about John the Baptist. In short, they knew a lot of these stories that provided a backdrop for our preaching.

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Celebration is an important component of preaching. This is the part of the sermon where the preacher raises up the truth of the sermon to be experienced by the people. There are many ways to do this tactically, but my study of sermons show that a very common technique is for the preacher to "celebrate the sermon."

Preacher Should Show Enthusiasm

Now the preacher can celebrate the sermon just by showing her or his enthusiasm about the truth of the Gospel disclosed in the sermon. There is nothing like a preacher who is not into their message. Sometimes there are preachers who are giving great content, but are not really into their message. Simply put, if the gospel was strongly given, then you aughta feel it. If you don't feel it the people won't feel it.

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Celebration in Preaching

There were many prayers by many preachers on inauguration day...here is the best one.

I have written on the topic of Celebration in preaching in other posts. This is the time of the sermon where the reality of the Gospel hits the congregation in such a real way that the congregation experiences the Gospel. Frank Thomas notes that the people will only remember that which they celebrate.

Whooping and Cluster-Term Analysis

I have begun a study of the sermons of C. L. Franklin. What is interesting about some of these sermons is what happens in the celebration or the whooping component of the sermon. One of the most striking things is the reduction of sermonic complexity in the celebration. One of the rhetorical tools I used to analyze the sermon is "Cluster Criticism." In cluster Criticism we find the important terms and synonyms of these important terms and chart them throughout the sermon.

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Gardner Taylor preaches a sermon entitled "A Cry in Disappointment" in The Words of Gardner Taylor volume number 1.

In this sermon, Pastor Taylor looks at the story of Jacob and Esau. However, Taylor preaches a different sermon on the subject than we sometimes hear. Dr. Taylor looks at the story from the angle of Esau. Here he looks at how Jacob stole the birthright from Esau. How Esau was a man of the outdoors while Jacob used his slickness to steal from Esau what was his. Then Taylor looks at the cry of desperation that Esau had when he asked Isaac, "Do you not have a blessing for me."

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When people ask me about preaching without notes, many assume that you must write out the whole sermon and then memorize the sermon. These preachers are looking for a method that will help them memorize such a large amount of material. However, preachers should recognize that many, if not most, preachers who preach without notes actually memorize something that looks like an outline rather than memorizing a large amount of material.

The key to keep in mind is that these preachers are largely memorizing "what" they will say rather than "how" they will say what they will say. By that I mean they have a number of concepts in mind that they have memorized. They then articulate those concepts in the sermon. The key is that the words of the sermon are not memorized ahead of time, only the concepts of the sermon.

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Here is a review of Rev Jasper Williams' whooping system. The Advertisement of the system is as follows: Do you want to learn how to whoop? If so this volume is for you! Preachers and pastors will be taught the mechanics of whooping, in addition to being able to view and listen to various styles of whooping. Can you learn to Whoop with this system? Read this post to see my review.

Gregory M. Howard pastor of Union Branch Baptist Church in Chesterfield, Virginia has written a book that gathers much of the rhetoric of the Black church and the Black pulpit into one volume. He then provides a commentary of this rhetoric that every preacher in the African American tradition can learn from.

Sayings from the Black Church

The book first provides a history of Black religious rhetoric. Then Walker gives the results of his study to come up with 55 sayings from the Black religious tradition. Examples of these are "God will not put more on you than you can bear" and "Hold to God's unchanging hand." Anyone even remotely familiar with African American rhetoric will immediately recognize most if not all of these sayings.

Finally, the book proceeds to a "lectionary" of Black sayings. Here, Walker provides a commentary for each of these sayings that could be used as the basis of a year's worth of worship services. All one need do is select a scripture that corresponds to the "saying" and then use the African American Heritage Hymnal to find music to support the service.

The book is a good addition to the African American Preacher's bookshelf.

In Celebration and Experience in Preaching Henry Mitchell provides various sermon types. These help the preacher either categorize or simply think about how to structure a sermon. One of these types is the Monologue or Testimony. An example of this type of sermon is when a preacher takes on the persona of a Biblical character and preaches a first-person story.

An interesting variant of this type of sermon is in Dr. Martin Luther King's book, Strength to Love. In that book, Dr. King provides a modern letter from the Apostle Paul to American Christians. The sermon provides a model for approaching sermons. While I do not think this should be done too often, every now and then it could open up possibilities for the people to really experience the gospel.

The challenge of this type of sermon is that you must really understand the text and its author in their context. This will require following a multi step process to exegete the text. You then must understand the current context. Download our free book You Can Preach: 7 Steps to an Effective Sermon which provides one approach to these first two steps.Finally, you must imaginatively place the Biblical character into our modern context in the sermon. Have you tried one of these sermons? Let us know your experiences by leaving a comment.

Dr. McMickle discusses "praise" as the next reason why prophetic preaching has not been on the agenda of most preachers. Whether it is preaching conferences, journals, magazines, and church services, we are constantly given this call to praise. McMickle writes:

[T]here is a constant call to "praise God" that is seldom, if ever, followed up with a challenge to serve God in tangible ways that are benefit to our brothers and sisters, to our neighbors and friends, or to the widows, orphans, and strangers who are so constantly referenced in the Bible. Page 79.

McMickle notes that this call is constant whether on the WORD or Trinity Broadcasting Network, people of all ethnicities are calling for "praise." We are constantly told that "when praises go up...blessings come down." Certainly praise is important. The Bible itself tells us to praise God, but something is wrong when praise becomes an end to itself. Something is wrong when the preacher never gets to any ethical demands of the Christian life. Something is wrong when we depart the worship service without any intention to live a better life and/or to serve the community?

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