375 - Interpreting God's Word in Black Preaching

Interpreting God's Word in Black Preaching
By Warren H. Stewart
Valley Forge, Judson Press, 1984. 71 pp. $9.00.

This book by one of the leading young pastors and preachers in the black Baptist church in America is a stimulating contribution to the expanding body of literature focusing upon the black preaching tradition. Through the use of five hermeneutical and homiletical principles, Stewart suggests a methodology for preaching with effectiveness in the black church setting. This book is most welcome, because instead of giving the readers a definition or demonstration of black preaching, the author offers a theological sound model of how it can be done.

Stewart brings his five principles into focus by examining the preaching style of three giants of the black church pulpit: Sandy Ray, William A. Jones, and Manuel Scott. At this point, the book falls into two problem areas. First, we are not sure if the principles Stewart holds up are created by himself, or if he is simply reporting on the principles used by the three model preachers. This question about which comes first, the principles or the practitioners, leads to a second and larger problem. Stewart makes the common mistake of those who who try to define black preaching. Both the

376 - Interpreting God's Word in Black Preaching

principles and the practitioners fail to reflect the wide diversity that is reflected in black preaching, ranging from black preachers working in predominantly white denominations, to the wide variety, of styles found throughout the black Baptist churches, to blacks in the Pentecostal churches who are large in number and growing in influence in the black communities across this country. What Stewart has done is focus upon three men who seem to him to reflect in their preaching "the best" within a certain tradition of the twentieth century black Baptist church.

Nevertheless, the five principles are valuable guides to those who want to improve their preaching effectiveness or who want to know what factors make for effectiveness in one tradition of black preaching.

Marvin Andrew McMickle
St. Paul's Baptist Church
Montclair, N.J.