Practicing Preaching - Lessons from the Trumpet

I took private lessons in trumpet for a few years while growing up. I remember that I had to practice playing the trumpet between 30 min and 1 hour everyday. Then sometimes I would add another 30 min of composition time. How did I spend those 30 minutes?

Well I practiced the rudiments of music like scales and arpeggios (chords). I also spent some time in improvisation. In addition, I spent time playing exercises. These exercises would slowly get harder as I mastered them. Then there was time spent playing songs. For a time I also had some breath exercises to improve breath control and power. All of these things helped to make me a better trumpet player and a better musician.

The other day I realized that I spent much more time practicing the trumpet than in practicing preaching. It is true that I do spend some time in sermon preparation, but that time is more comparable to my composition time than my practice schedule. One might question whether such practice is necessary and that one should depend on the Spirit for such things. I would tend to disagree because I practiced even when I was to play in church to the glory of God. I practiced even when I didn't have a program to play in. I just practiced.

Improving Sermon Presentation by Practicing

I began to think about how my sermonic presentation might improve if I tried to "practice" my preaching just as I practiced my trumpet. I admit that I often practiced my preaching by practicing a particular sermon, but my trumpet practice included more than just the piece of music I was to play. It included fundamentals and other components of musicianship. Because of this I first needed to think about how such a practice session would look.

First we need some of the rudiments of preaching. Here we might practice the presentation of theological concepts and scriptural passages. For example, in the African American Church the concept of "God's goodness" is often stated as "God is Good all the Time and All the Time God Is Good!" "Practicing" the presentation of this would include practicing preaching the concept in different ways. Think about preaching the concept in a funeral situation. How would it look? What texts would I use? Now think about preaching the concept at a 9-11 commemoration. Is it possible? Can we do it? Should we do it? Certainly the presentation would be different.

Scales in Preaching

In addition to these basic theological concepts (Henry Mitchell's Soul Theology provides 10 for the African American church) I would also need to memorize scriptures. Why not look at fundamental texts that are important to your community. In the Original African American Bible there are 101 texts that are important to African Americans. These texts could be a good starting point to have memorized and ready. These are the fundamentals of preaching in the African American Community.

Improvisation and Preaching

How about Improvisation. Take those fundamentals and improvise on them. Evans Crawford talks about riffing on James Weldon Johnson's book God's Trombones. Why not begin with one of them and then take it in a different direction. Then how about taking a text and letting it take you in a different direction. Preach the text and then preach a sermon.

Playing Songs and Exercises in Preaching

The equivalent of playing songs would be to read sermons and "preach them." One can practice Sermons from others and your own sermons. Follow the text closely in this practice and then improvise over the text.

As for exercises, I need to work on putting together a list of things to try that help the preacher become more expressive in the pulpit. A good start would be the Jazz of Preaching by Kirk Byron Jones. That book provides exercises to help the preacher get connected to his or her imagination and improvisation.

I will let you know how this kind of practice improves or does not improve my sermonic presentation.