Text Articles, Sabbath Justice, Page 6

November 24, 2009August 25, 2017

Preaching with Power – C. D. Brooks

Elder Brooks defined himself as a “traveling Preacher.” He has been the Field Secretary of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists as well as the speaker/director for Breath of Life television program.

Understanding of Preaching

Elder Brooks states that his theology of preaching is that he should “exalt Christ and his word.”

Method of Preaching

Elder Brooks does not really define a method of preparation, but he does state provide direction to pastors. Brooks suggests that “Sabbath sermons [should] be pastoral, Sunday night’s sermons [should] be evangelistic, and those for Wednesday nights [should] deal with things like modeling Jesus and Christian standards.” In addition, Brooks emphasizes that one should present the whole “cycle of truth.” Including such subjects as “Sabbath, Judgment, Second Coming, Christian Standards, etc.”

Understanding of Adventist Preaching

Elder Brooks makes explicit use to Adventist resources throughout his interveiw. He notes that his influences on preaching were Advntist including his mother, E. E. Cleveland, and C. E. Mosely. Interestingly enough after all these years he still quotes his homiletics professor, Elder Mosely, in answering questions. Elder Mosely has had a great influence on him.

Brooks also emphasizes that the content of Advnetist preaching must include things like Sabbath, Judgments, etc. in the full “cycle of truth” as noted above. Perhaps most interesting is that Brooks states that if he had three books to take with him on a desert Island they would be The Great Controversy, Desire of Ages, and the Bible. Brooks states that he could preach from those three books until Jesus comes. Elder Brooks’ presentation makes greater use of Adventist materials and refers to Ellen White often and easily.

Understanding of Black Preaching

The interview does not deal with Black Preaching at all. It would be interesting to see what Elder Brooks has to say about the nature of Black PReaching and its connection to the Gospel as understood by Seventh-day Adventists. It would be interesting to take Bradford’s idea of Black Preaching being issues oriented and compare that to the explicit Advnetist preaching that Elder Brooks presents. For example, how is preaching about and to the Black communities ultimate quest for liberation look when addressed by the unique resources used in Adventist preaching (Ellen White, Adventist understanding of the Bible)? Another interesting question is: Does Adventism have anything to say to the world beside Jesus will come and clean up all this mess at the Second Coming? Need it say anything else?

We also might bring back Barry Black’s suggestion that Adventist preaching might teach the doctrines in the context of narrative. Then we might see some unification of the different kinds of preaching that Elder Brooks brings. Can we preach the Sabbath in such a way that it becomes pastoral, prophetic, and liberative at the same time? I think that Black’s suggestion can push us to not just seek to prove the doctrines but also to celebrate them. Perhaps Wednessday night we can teach the truth of the doctrine and on Sabbath morning we can celebrate it?

I think following Black’s suggestion to use narrative and also Black’s stating the importance of celebration can open up avenues to celebrate Adventism and not just teach the correctness of the doctrine. However, I think that Bradford’s understanding also must be kept in mind that the Gospel does address important issues in the community and we should address thsoe as well. And finally, we must keep Bradford’s idea that Black Preaching cannot become only for black folk. The social justice that Black preaching is a call for justice to all.

November 24, 2009August 25, 2017

Preaching with Power – Dr. John Nixon

Our next preacher in the book Preaching with Power is John Nixon. He is an associate ministerial secretary of the North American Division Ministerial Department. He is currently transitioning from being the senior pastor of the Oakwood College Church in Huntsville, AL to being the senior pastor of the Collegedale Church at Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, TN.

Understanding of Preaching

Pastor Nixon believes that preaching is taking that which is behind the text and explaining it to the people. Thus the purpose is to find the meaning of the text and interpret it for today. This is an explicitly theological approach to the preaching event.

Method of Sermon Preparation

Pastor Nixon provides a pretty explicit sermon preparation model. To begin Elder Nixon suggests that the preachers spend 30-40 hours in 5 days on the sermon alone. One wonders how one can keep up such a large number of hours if one is a pastor. Pastor Jones actually asked him twice and Pastor Nixon confirmed. One thing that is pretty certain is that if you spend so much time on a sermon and you follow a plan you will probably come out with a very good sermon.

The first step in preparation is to read the passage several times in different translations. This step is completed before any formal exegesis. This will serve as an orientation for the preacher to the passage. I have seen this suggested by other homilititians like Brad Braxton in Preaching Paul.

Next the preacher will perform formal exegesis to get at the orginal meaning of the text. Pastor Nixon emphasizes that there are two horizons of the text the meaning in the past and the meaning today. This serves to emphasize what was spoken earlier about “the meaning” of the text rather than the text itself being what the preacher is emphasizing.

Next, the preacher must determine the “Christocentric Theology of the Text.” This is the component “behind the text” that teaches the gospel. Where is the Gospel in the text? where is the good news in the text? These are the components of the text that we attempt to pull out at this point in the process.

Finally, the form of the sermon (narrative, deductive, inductive, etc) falls naturally out of the sermon preparation precess itself. In other words the process guides the form of the sermon rather than arbitrarily choosing a sermon form or always choosing the semonic approach.

In addition to the above process, Pastor Nixon seeks to have the preacher gain a “homiletical bias” where the preacher looks at the world through the lens of homiletical possibilities which will allow the preacher to gain all the illustrations one needs without resorting to illustration books.

Understanding of Adventist Preaching

Pastor Nixon emphasies the importance of Adventist preaching being “Christ-centered rather than apologetic.” I interpret him to mean that we should not simply seek to defend the truth of the doctrines we present (apologetic), but that we should constructively seek to preach the Gospel through our Doctrines. In another place he suggests that the Adventist preacher “explain the Gospel in the form of distinctive Adventist Understandings.” I find such an approach to be very interesting.

Understanding of Black Preaching

Dr. Nixon emphasizes that the Black church tradition has an element of form, but it is more theology than form. This way one can actually preach a “Black” sermon in many different styles including a “low-key” approach.

Dr. Nixon defines the theological approach of Black preaching as an emphasis on God’s care and concern for the downtrodden and opppressed. He includes in this approach to Black preaching the judging of Kings and Rulers who do not live up to the truth. Dr. Nixon quickly adds that the Black preacher must be “Biblical and not just political.” It would be interesting to have him further define and describe what he means in other places.

I especially like Nixon’s approach to Adventist preaching which resonates with what I have tried to say. I have attempted to define Adventist preaching as using Adventism as glasses through which we see and understand the Gospel. Dr. Nixon and I both seem to be saying the same thing here. Such an approach opens up the doctrines of Adventism to be used at all times and in all sermons without all sermons becoming didactic or apologetic. I think that there is a time for apologetic and didactic moments, but there are other moments when the preacher must preach in other modes and I think that our Adventism must influence even those preaching moments.

I also like the defining of Black preaching as primarily theological. We have seen such an approach in some of the other preachers in this series as well as other homiliticians such as Cleophas LaRue who defines Black preaching as largely about an approach to the Bible where God is actively invovled in history. The belief that God is standing with the opporessed seems to be a common theme that some homiliticians see as at the foundation of Black Preaching.

November 24, 2009August 25, 2017

Preaching with Power – Henry Wright

As we continue our discussion of the book Preaching With Power by R. Clifford Jones we get to Pastor Henry Wright. Henry Wright is the Senior Pastor of Community Praise SDA Church in Alexandria Virginia. He rose to prominence when he was a professor in the Department of Religion and Theology at Oakwood College. Over his career he has also been a Conference president and Union Secretary. He is well known and considered by many to be a great preacher of the Gospel.

Understanding of Preaching

Elder Wright sees preaching as “God’s Word manifested in human personality.” He states that this is why he resists the idea of copying anyone else. I think this is an important point. There is a reason why God has called you as an individual preacher to preach the gospel. Our individuality manifests itself in our selection of texts, the questions we ask the text, and even what we do and do not emphasize. Wright continues this idea by stating that the sermon is “God’s word sifted through human experience.”

Wright’s understanding of preaching includes an agony of preaching that that manifests itself in 3 ways. First, the preacher recognizes that he or she is a part of the problem that the preacher is addressing in the sermon. Second, the preacher recognizes that often there are some who know more about the Bible than he or she does. Finally, we realize that the Gospel is always beyond our ability to describe or define it.

Method of Sermon Preparation

Pastor Wright has a very extensive 8 step method of sermon preparation. Before he describes it he states that he makes certain assumptions of the preacher. The first assumption is that the preacher is constantly reading the Bible, theological works, professional material, as well as magazines of current events. The second assumption is that the preacher is living a life of prayer.

Step 1 is to select the passage and read it in as many different translations as possible. During this reading Wright jots down any thoughts that come to his mind. He says that it can take him 2 hours to do this step.

Step 2 is to look up key words making use of his Greek and Hebrew reading ability. He asks questions like who is writing, what is the situation of the writing, to whom was it written? During this step he consults several commentaries and Bible Dictionaries.

Step 3 is to find a theme statement for the sermon. During this phase he asks the question what am I trying to accomplish? He notes that a passage of scripture can point to many differnt possibilities so during this step he decides on the one that he will preach in this sermon.

Step 4 is to find illustrative material that is applicable to the people that he is preaching to. His favorite source of illustrations is the Reader’s Digest.

Step 5 is to write out the sermon. Wright says that he is a manuscript preacher and thus writes it out word by word. While he has a good memory and therefore is not tightly bound to the manuscript, 9 times out of 10 he takes it into the pulpit with him.

Step 6 is to think about how he will end the sermon. He emphasizes that you don’t raise new things in the conclusion. This reminds me of one thing my intro to homiletics professor said “Start Strong, End Strong, and make the middle as short as possible.”

Step 7 is to evaluate the sermon based on his evaluation method. This method includes asking himself questions like does the sermon flow correctly? Is there unity of thought? Does it have purpose?

Step 8 is to rehearse by reading the sermon out loud.

Understanding of Black Preaching

Wright is both a believer in and not a believer in Black preaching. He states that we should remember that black preacher’s learned to preach from white preachers. He notes that the white preachers that Black preachers learned from were not the lecturn lecture-like preachers that we think of today, but the preachers of the plains like Jonathan Edwards. This thought is also echoed by Henry Mitchell in Black preaching that even states that there is a white counterpart to whooping.

After having said that he defines black preaching as a style of preaching that was story-telling, incisive, highly descriptive. He notes that such a style was important for the slaves who could not read the Bible for themselves.

Understanding of Adventist Preaching

In this place he does not directly address Adventist preaching but he does note that our preaching has become more hands on in the last few years versus the years when he was younger. Today you are more likely to hear sermons that tell you how to get along with people or succeed than sermons about doctrinal content. While he believes there is a place for such sermons, he notes that we cannot forget the doctrines or teachings in our sermons.