What the Reformed Can Learn From Black Preaching

Every Lord's Day evening I take time to reacquaint myself with my heritage of hearing and appreciating traditional Black preaching. The late Dr. Olin Moyd wrote a book that called Black preaching the Sacred Art, and traditional Black Preaching has been just that--a sacred art. Black preachers have been able to hold worshippers on edge with their sense of capturing the drama of Holy Writ. Their preaching has been full of power, passion, and pathos that causes one to tremble. It is a visceral experience to hear good Black preaching, and by good I mean preaching that is faithful to the Scriptures and to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I believe African American preaching has something good to offer traditional Reformed preaching. There is no doubt that Reformed pastors can preach, but much of the preaching lacks pathos that is able to resonate with worshippers. As I alluded to in the above paragraph, Black preaching is dramatic. It builds, and with it the worshippers rise with the preacher. He leads them through the text--pushing them and prodding them to understand it and connect to it. The "amen's" from the congregation feed into the sense of drama before there is the climax with exultation. This exultation in classical black preaching is rooted in the fact the Jesus has died, has been buried, but now lives! Black preaching at its best is centered on the cross of Jesus Christ--his sacrifrice on behalf of his people.

In Reformed circles, we need to hear preaching with passion. It would be fine for Presbyterians to get loud sometimes in proclaiming the work of Christ; it would just dandy if a Christian Reformed pastor asks "can I get a witness?" when making a wonderful point about our justification through faith in Christ alone. Let's not use culture as an excuse. The biblical record is clear that the church is to respond to prayers with "amen." If the truth is proclaimed, let the church say, "amen."