recent posts for shermancox

We continue looking at Teresa Fry Brown's description of Charles Adams' lecture on preaching found on page 164 and 165 of her book Weary Throats and New Songs.

In this point, Adams, through Brown, suggests that we take care of our vocal mechanism. He notes that there is an over reliance on the microphone and not on "projection" among many preachers. Preachers must practice even without the microphone. The microphone cannot cover up mechanical problems that the preacher might have in speaking. Go to your church while it is empty and preach without a microphone. Listen to how the sound bounces off the walls. Of course it will sound different when there are people sitting in there, but you will at least see that you can project further than you think you can.

In addition, Adams notes one of the greatest problems that many Black preachers have which is "'yelling' instead of learning to use the voice wisely." As we have noted in other posts, increasing volume is not the only way to increase intensity for the sermon. I have heard preachers yell all the way through their messages. These preachers are limiting their future effectiveness. Projection and effective vocal presentation will increase the effectiveness of the preacher for years to come.

Teresa Fry Brown has written up notes to a lecture delivered by Charles Adams. These notes can be found on page 164 and 165 of her book Weary Throats and New Songs. How to deliver sermons was the subject of the lecture. The second point that Brown brought out was to "never apologize for the sermon."

Many congregants have heard sermons littered with apologies for the content of the message. Brown notes a couple of common apologies. Sometimes preachers will say, "I know you don't want to hear this but...." before saying something that the preacher anticipates will cause opposition in the congregation. Another statement often spoken by preachers guilty of this infraction is "I'm sorry but..."

The preacher has been given a word from God to speak to the particular people at the particular place. If the preacher drops apologies into the word it will bing into question the origin of the message. You have done the exegesis, you have prayfully constructed the sermon. The Spirit has been invovled in the whole process. At that point it is time to stand up and unapologetically preach the message. Certainly you will make mistakes, but don't undercut the whole message by apologizing for what God has God has given you to preach.

Dr. Charles Adams presented a class entitled "Preaching, Black and White." During one of the lectures he gave some "do's and don'ts." Teresa Fry Brown wrote up notes from that lecture on page 164 and 165 of her book Weary Throats and New Songs. These were to help the preacher deliver their sermons more effectively. In the next few posts we are going to discuss these very important pointers.

The first point is to "Avoid being dull, tedious, or laborious." Then Adams (through Brown) stated that "Vocal energy paired with sound theology and knowledge of language give life to a sermon." There are three components to this pointer

Vocal Energy

First there is vocal energy. Here I think that Adams is getting at what I try to speak of as "sermon intensity." Here the preacher simply lets the natural enthusiasm of the preacher come through. If the preacher is not enthused about the message, then the preacher is not preaching the right message. Now one should hasten to add that enthusiasm will demonstrate itself in different ways as the different preachers allow their individuality to show, but there will be enthusiasm. that all deserve some illumination.

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Some of our colleagues were shocked at the sermon by Jeremiah Wright. I think one should read and hear a full sermon, and the full body of work, of a preacher before jumping to conclusions about one's love for the country. Here is a sermon that can help you gain context on this preacher.

Lowell Erdahl, in the book Best Advice for Preaching, quotes someone who said, "There are two kinds of preachers--those who have to say something and those who have something to say!" A preacher gains something to say by connection to the divine through the spiritual disciplines including prayer and study. Having something to say comes from an in-depth look at the scripture. Having something to say comes from time and in-depth work.

However, too many preachers simply "must say something." These preachers take shortcuts. They copy a sermon off of the internet because it is not important what they say, but that they have something to say. They grab the latest edition of The African American Pulpit and preach a sermon verbatim, but have not done the work that is necessary to have something to say. Too often preachers who must say something will whoop or yell or use some other aspect of African American preaching style to hide the fact that they don't have anything to say.

The great blessing is that any preacher who God has called can have "something to say" rather than just one who "must say something." It is time to get back on that devotional program of Bible study and prayer. It is time to start looking at the scripture exegetically. And perhaps the hardest thing, if you don't have something to say, make use of those others who do have something to say. Do not give the people just anything because you don't have something to say.

I invite you all to head on over to the Reflections of a Jazz Theologian website. The web minister of that website is exploring the use of Jazz as a metaphor for understanding Christianity. The posts are often enlightening and powerful. He has a book coming out soon entitled: Finding the Groove.

I really love the website Biblical Preaching. Peter Mead always has a nugget that can be helpful to the preacher. Currently he has written a couple of posts on the subject of closing the sermon.

Principles of Closing the Sermon

Mead gives two important principles that every preacher should keep in mind. First the preacher should stop the sermon when the sermonic destination has been reached. The second is that "after an ideal landing has been missed, every second is not neutral, but negative."

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What are the sermons that are preached in the Black church? In this audio we discuss three of the types of sermons that are operative in the Black church.

Download the audio at this link.

Sometimes preachers declare that style is always secondary to content in preaching. The preacher should make sure that the people are receiving good content, and if the people are exposed to good content every week, the people will be weaned off of the use of emotion which will cloud the mind. At least that is what some would argue. In fact, if you do a good job, so the argument goes, you can deliver the sermon in a calm objective lecture style and it will be just as effective as if sweat were dripping for your brow as you yell the sermon at the top of your voice.

Now I would agree that vocal volume is not the only way to increase intensity, but I would strongly disagree with this attempt to privilege calm preaching over fiery preaching. In addition, I would not want to say you must be yelling to be a great preacher, but emotion must be a part of real preaching if it is to effect the whole person and not just the mind.

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Henry Mitchell's book Celebration and Experience in Preaching provides 2 very important sermonic structural components that can guide the preacher in structuring Black Sermons. The first component is celebration. Mitchell argues that celebration is the pervasive distinctive that Black preaching brings to the homiletic universe. Black preaching appeals to the emotive and the intuitive to promote a holistic celebration of the Gospel. I have written on Mitchell's celebration idea in this article. The second component of Mitchell's book is a discussion of what he calls the "genres of preaching." These are different structures that effective sermons in the Black tradition take. Vincent Wimbush, in his book The Bible and African Americans, provides a way to analyze how the Bible is operative in the Black sermon. You can read about Wimbush's description of Black Bible reading at this link. Cleophus LaRue, in his book The Heart of Black Preaching, provides a way to analyze how Black culture is addressed in sermons. I have written on LaRue's way of doing this at this link. Mitchell gives us a way to look at how these two perspectives are brought together in a sermon. Many of Mitchell's sermon types are simply variations on a narrative theme.

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What are five things you need in a sermon? Poor sermons break one of these important components of sermon construction and presentation.

Download the audio at this link.

The Empowerment Church: Speaking a New Language for Church Growth By Carlyle Fielding Stewart III / Abingdon Press How can the church bring people to salvation in Christ? Through the personal revitalization and transformation of God's people! Writing from an African American perspective to pastors and laypeople of all backgrounds, Stewart advocates cultural relevancy and evangelical fervor while offering effective strategies, spiritual guidelines, and practical insights. 136 pages, softcover from Abingdon.

Ok. You have less than a day. You have waited until it is very late. At this point you have a few options and none of them are good.

1. Try to piece something together very quickly. I know of preachers who read a text superficially and then put together a sermon that was "decent" in an hour. Sometimes even a truly great sermon can come together at the last minute, but often it does not. I would encourage you to look at our Last Minute Preacher's Guide for an approach to doing this. Keep in mind, however, that this is not the idea.
2. Copy a sermon. Replace the illustrations or add illustrations from your own life. If you want to do this, I would suggest the following procedure. First, read the sermon, mark the stories and note their purpose. Then look in your life for stories that could serve the purpose of each story that is already in the sermon. Replace each story with your story. Then, practice the sermon.
3. Copy a sermon verbatim and give credit to the original author. I would suggest that if you do this you follow two rules. First you let the people know that you are using someone else's sermon. One preacher had a very ingenious way of doing this. He told the people that it was a "Christian History Sunday." Then the preacher simply read one of the sermons from history. You can find someone like Charles Spurgeon's or John Wesley's sermons on line. Then simply preach it. Another preacher said something like: "I read this very helpful sermon and thought it would be helpful to you." One should recognize that one cannot do this often or the people will not go along with it, and rightly so.
4. Copy a sermon verbatim and do not give credit. This is the most common approach as well as the worst possible approach. This is problematic in that it is the least honest method. It is problematic because it attacks your creativity. And it is problematic because people have lost their job doing this. It is put here simply for completeness, but DO NOT TAKE THIS OPTION.

Preachers are paid to give a word that God has given to them. In addition, God has called them to give a message. To simply copy a message is wrong for many reasons. However there are times when our back is against the wall and we need to give a message and we did not spend as much time as we should have spent in preparation. In those very few cases, let us ask God for forgiveness and make the best of the situation. In addition, I would encourage preachers who find this happening too many times to make use of your assistants. Letting an assistant preach more often can take some of the pressure off of the preaching pastor to be creative. And on top of it all, that is why they are there, to assist the preaching pastor.

I was listening to a preacher who tried to use a "whoop" to hide his lack of preparation. In this audio I give a few principles for whooping with integrity. If a preacher follows these principles he or she will be on the way to not just whoop, but whoop with integrity.

Download the audio at this link.

Don't be fooled by the truncated gospel of those who would prostitute the Black Preaching Tradition. In this commentary, Pastor Cox discusses the importance of preaching the full message if one is to preach in the Black tradition.

Download the audio at this link.

Fanny Crosby wrote this song over 100 years ago. In the meantime it has become an important component of the Christian church. It has provided a way to express the deepest emotions. "Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord, to the Cross where thou hast died."

These words have been played slowly with a pipe organ, but this rendition is in the style of the great 1950-1960s Black Gospel sound. But, no matter what style the song is sung, it still calls us to a closer walk with the Master. Come listen to the Gales as they take us to church.

Do you want to gain access to seminary and Bible school level education online? There are a number of inexpensive options. However, there are also some completely free options. For example, why not try the Biblical Training website or Theology.edu

BiblicalTraining.Org

This website has a large number of Lay-level, Bible-College Level, and Seminary-level courses. The courses consist of the lectures given by credentialed professors to students. This is actually a goldmine of information for the new preacher who has not had the opportunity to study apologetics, Christian history, homiletics, theology, and even Biblical studies. There are even Bible language courses. So head on over to Bible Training to get the information.

Theology.Edu

The next website is the Quartz Hill School of Theology. BiblicalTraning provides audio lectures, but this one provides text lectures as well as the assignments and syllabi for various courses. Once again you have access to apologetics, Christian history, homiletics, theology, Bible studies, and Bible language courses. There are a large number of very helpful courses here.

Conclusion

Many preachers have not had access to Seminary education. The great thing about the web is that you can now gain access to much of this information with a click of a button. I am sure that there are other resources, if you know of any, do not hesitate to email them to me so that I can post links to them.

One of the persistent questions that new preachers ask is where is a book to help me learn to preach? There are actually tons of such books. I have written on this question in the past on this website as well as another one. Even though that is true, I will take it up again in this article. I think that an African American Preacher needs a few resources to help them to preach.

General Introduction to Preaching Book

First, a general textbook on sermon construction is needed. For that I would suggest that one purchase the excellent book edited by one of my former homiletics professors, John McClure, entitled Best Advice for Preaching. The book can be read easily by preachers without a seminary education. Another nice thing is that you have many homilititians who have contributed to this book.

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You need an idea for your sermon. You are not sure where to start. You are in the midst of "Preacher's Block." Here Pastor Cox gives 5 techniques to use to generate sermon ideas.

Download the audio at this link.

One of the important components of effective preaching is to help the congregation experience the sermon in as many sense as possible, not just hear the sermon. This book by Warren Wiersbe entitled Preaching and Teaching with Imagination provides an apologetic for using the imagination in preaching.

After that, Wiersbe travels through the whole Bible looking at the major themes and images and pictures found in the different books. This book is a fantastic addition to any preacher's library. If you are called to "tell the story" or preach the narratives of the Bible, then you need Wiersbe's book. Black preachers will be especially helped because they are often judged by how well they help people experience the Bible story. Wiersbe provides a resource to help us do just that.

Get the book. In addition, I would encourage you to read our series on improving storytelling in preaching at the following links: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, and Part V. You may also be interested in our post on Dr. Frederick D. Haynes' approach to story telling in sermons.