The Future of Preaching. Geoffrey Stevenson

importantly, the inclusion of what we might understand as preaching within this list of graces. As scholars point out, and as practitioners need increasingly to realize, the word of wisdom in that infamous list of gifts in 1 Corinthians 13 is not that specific ability to know the mind of Christ for a specific situation, any more than a word of knowledge is a specific message for the lady on the third row in a red jumper. Not withstanding God’s ability to act in such ways, it is clearly not what is being referred to. Rather, the word of wisdom in the context of 1 Corinthians 2, in particular where Paul expounds on the wisdom of the cross, is first and foremost ‘to be found among those who give spiritual utterances that proclaim Christ crucified in this highly “wisdom” conscious community’ (Fee, 1987, p. 592). In other words, at the heart of a church in pursuit of spiritual gifts is a celebration of the scandalous particularity of gospel speech. The word of knowledge that Paul places alongside the word of wisdom is not, we suggest, some esoteric gnosis but rather a fresh articulation of the grace that has freely been given to us in the gospel.

      How this is done, and in what context, is a matter for debate. Again, we must be careful not to reify a particular style of preaching. But in so far as early Christianity is to some extent a spill over from the synagogue, then it is no surprise that the new wine of the Spirit manifests, to some extent, in lection, text and word. Far from being an antipathy to the charismatic, preaching ought more readily to be understood as its adjunct.

      Conclusion

      Just recently, on a trip home from West Wales, I happened to drive through the small town of Newcastle Emlyn. Recalling that the famous Welsh preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones was buried there, I decided to look up his grave, and sure enough, after searching for about twenty minutes, I found a very modest, inconspicuous tombstone with a simple Scripture text: ‘For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.’ Anyone who knows anything about this celebrated preacher will know that this text was his watchword; whatever else the Doctor’s ministry at Westminster Chapel represented it was the recovery of this Pauline gospel and, alongside it, the recovery of the pulpit.

      What is less well known, however, is that towards the end of his life, as he came to reflect on preaching, he began to speculate as to whether preaching was in fact what the Bible understood as prophecy. For sure, we must guard against mere pulpiteering. Lloyd-Jones was aware, more than anyone, of the temptation to mere oratory (1971, pp. 13–14). But in the end, what we do in the pulpit is not unlike what the prophets did in the Old Testament: calling the people of God back to the grand themes of covenant and obedience. As P. T. Forsyth put it: ‘The Christian preacher is not the successor of the Greek orator, but of the Hebrew prophet’ (1907, p. 1). Furthermore, Lloyd-Jones foresaw that for preaching to be effective it must carry the same unction as the prophetic word. To be sure, we need to guard against mere emotionalism in the pulpit; as a Welshman, Lloyd-Jones was more aware than most of the dangers of the hywl. But that aside, for preaching to be truly gospel speech it must carry unction – the divine afflatus, to use his words (1971, pp. 304–25). And if charismatic renewal is to continue to make a contribution to the wider body of Christ it is important, it seems to me, to recapture not just the ebullience of praise but the essentially charismatic nature of the preaching ministry of the Church. Unlike other traditions in the Christian Church, charismatic renewal has the potential to espouse not only a rich doctrine of the Spirit but also a high view of the Word. But in order to do that, the notion that the Word and the Spirit are deemed to be antithetical to one another needs finally to be dispelled.

      Note

      1. See Deere (1996) for a good example of this odd dualism in popular charismatic understanding of preaching.

      References

      Brueggemann, W., 1989, Finally Comes the Poet, Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

      Deere, J., 1996, Surprised by the Voice of God, Eastbourne: Kingsway.

      Fee, G. D., 1987, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

      Forsyth, P. T., 1907, Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind, London: Independent.

      Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn, 1971, Preaching and Preachers, London: Hodder and Stoughton.

      Long, T. G., 1997, Hebrews, Interpretation, Louisville: John Knox.

      Norrington, D., 1996, To Preach or Not to Preach? Carlisle: Paternoster.

      Willimon, W., 2005, Proclamation and Theology, Nashville: Abingdon Press.

      5

      Preaching in the Black Church

      ruthlyn bradshaw

      God’s ecclesia does not come in colours and tribes. However, for analytical purposes, it is necessary that one recognizes the role of culture and ethnicity and their impact on certain activities – in this case preaching.

      In addressing Muslims in Egypt recently (June 2009), US President Barack Obama drew on his Muslim connections and African-American heritage to more effectively connect with his audience. His use of phrases in the language of the people added authenticity and richness to his speech. Ethnicity and culture help to define us and what we do and how we do it.

      Africans, for instance, have an innate love of rhythm, and this is evident in their worship style, which is a dramatic contrast to the style in an Anglo-Saxon congregation. Thus preaching style and content cannot be separated from the culture of a people. While there is no inherent difference in the essence of Christianity there is a difference in how it is expressed.

      The black church defined

      Definition is one of the main difficulties when talking about the black church, as there is no simple undisputed definition for this term. Definitions vary depending on the context. Formulating a term acceptable to all that captures the full meaning and essence of the black church is nigh impossible. Over the years several labels have been used to define or describe churches with a black majority following and just as many objections have been lodged to disqualify using them. At present, the term ‘Black Majority Churches’ originating in the UK seems to have superseded all other terminologies and is widely used as an acceptable description.1