Kirk Byron Jones introduces the concept of “playing words” in his helpful book The Jazz of Preaching.
Category: Preaching
What is a Minister?
That is the question that is being answered on the Unashamed Workman Blog. I would encourage all preachers to go on over and look at this 6 part series that looks at 6 Biblical images of the preacher. The first 3 have already been posted. The Hard Working Farmer, The Law Abiding Athlete, and the Good Soldier.
How To Create a Manuscript for Preaching
Barry Davis provides hints on how to preach with a manuscript. Davis provides examples and rules for creating a manuscript that will make your people think that you are preaching without notes.
This is a very good article on a subject that very little people write on. Namely, how do you format a manuscript for preaching.
Top 5 Techniques for Sermon Idea Generation
This post is a part of the ProBlogger.Com Group writing project. If you have a Blog I would encourage you to join in. In This post I have the Top 5 techniques for SErmon Idea Generation. I assume that you already have a text.
- Look at the Text through a theme. Here you take a theme like Youth or Mother’s Day or Seniors, or some other theme. You then look at the text explicitly to see if what the text says specifically about the situation under consideration.
Theo-Centric Preaching Thesis Download
Head on over to the Theocentric Blog to download the author’s DMin Thesis. This is the material behind his Theocentric preaching seminars.
Systematic Sermon Listening
The very interesting Blog Unashamed Workman has a post up on systematic sermon listening. The author notes that he listens to a lot of sermons, but has not systematically listened to sermons. Now he has compiled a list of sermons that will take him all the way through the Book of Genesis.
Aphorisms and Hesitation
Henry Mitchell notes that these two features of Black Preaching Style are not as dominant as other ones. Mitchell notes that aphorisms are common in all traditions of preaching, but aphorisms or “clever, pithy statements.”
Slow Delivery and Repetition
As we continue our series on Black Preaching Style, Henry Mitchell notes that a slower rate of vocal speed is usually used when presenting Black sermons. He notes that there are those who do have rapid fire delivery. Dr. Frederick D.
Subjectivity and Rhetorical Flair in Preaching
Henry Mitchell states: “Real soul preaching demands rhetorical flair” in the book Black Preaching: The Recovery of a Powerful Art. He also states: “The flow and phraseology of the King James Version will never die in America while Black Christianity stays Black.”
Black preaching demands not just saying what you want to say, but the way in which you say it. The preacher should use “rhetorical flair” to aid the presentation of the gospel through the sermonic event.
Story Telling and Role Playing
As Henry Mitchell notes in his book Black Preaching: The recovery of a lost art, African American preachers often engage in a sermon that is “story telling.” sometimes they even change into the character that they are preaching and preach a first person story.
Black Preaching Style – Call and Response
Call and Response is one of the central components of Black preaching. The congregational participation is so important that many preachers subconsciously pause to leave room for the congregation to respond.
Black Preaching Style – Rhythm and Cadence
Black preachers sometimes use the sound of words to make a rhythm. Sometimes this might be a pause for breath. Sometimes the very taking of the breath will make a noise that is a part of the rhythm. Sometimes even the organist joins in with the rhythm.
Mannerisms in Preaching
Now I am going to begin a series of posts on Black Preaching style. This will go on for a while often interrupted by other posts. In this first one I look at Mannerisms that Henry Mitchell describes in his book Black Preaching: The Recovery of a Powerful Art.
Should You Use Visual Aids?
The Unashamed Workman blog has a list of arguments for and against the use of visual aids like PowerPoint in sermons. It is a compilation of the comments that the blog received on a previous post. Some of the interesting ones are:
FOR
1. Visual images were frequently used by Jesus to illustrate the word he preached.
AGAINST
1. It shows a lack of confidence in the word preached.
3. It can produce a ‘lecture feel.’