This is part four in a series of posts about Black preaching as part of this year's UK Black History Month. Please read parts one, two, three, and four first.
Ryan: Earlier you distinguished between Black Preaching as shaped by the unique African American experience and Black preaching by and to members of the African diaspora. It’s a key distinction, but are there any commonalities, substantially or stylistically. What are areas, perhaps of application, where there might be overlaps, with shared unique themes and emphases? What are areas where white preachers can be helped by and learn from Black preachers?Wale: Let me be clear as I set the tone in answering this next question that I am not in any way writing that Black preaching is better than White preaching or vice versa but that Black preaching - obviously by Black preachers - is intentionally tailored to cater for the spiritual and physical needs of black people. Am I in any way implying that a White pastor shouldn’t or can’t preach to a Black congregation? No! I never wrote that...
Ryan: If I may interject here, as a white pastor of a church that happens, in the providence of God, to have a black-majority congregation, so I am relieved to hear it. I would struggle not to take it personally, and in some way prejudicially partial, if someone rejected my pastoral authority, counsel, or care simply because I am white! However, I am concerned by pastors who seem blind to the way their culture and background unhelpfully influences their ministry, whether their interpretation and application of certain texts, or their approach to pastoral ministry. We must take care and examine ourselves so that we are not defined by our whiteness but our “Christ-ness” - who we are as new creation people for whom old things have passed away. Proactively listening to and patiently learning from brothers such as yourself must surely be part of this self-examination and personal development. I especially want to make sure that those who make up the majority of my congregation have their unique needs and existential realities addressed. Because I believe that preaching must necessarily include application, this is vital. But as you were…
Wale: So what do I mean? I take my initial answer from the Biblical letters of the Apostle Paul to the Gentile majority churches. These Apostolic letters carry in them the church’s individuality as addressed by Paul but with the same end goal - the praise and honour of the Lord. So from the emphasis on the deity and supremacy of Jesus Christ in the Letter to the church at Colossae to the need to copy the exemplary life of the humble Jesus Christ in his death on the cross as urged in the Letter to the church at Philippi, the Apostle Paul addresses the specific need of the individual churches. This is what Black preaching is all about: the sermons preached are intentionally tailored to meet the specific needs of black professing Christians.
So what are the needs of a Black professing Christian, whether as Africans on the continent of Africa or West Indian islands, Afro-Caribbeans in the diaspora, or African-Americans in the United States of America? A Black professing Christian knows who Jesus Christ is and all that he has done in his office and work of salvation, but many of us carry burdens through no fault of our own but as a result of exploitation by or ineptitude of the ruling political class. This has plagued some Black nations into abject poverty.
Ryan: And historically has lifted some White nations into prosperity.
Wale: Let me give an example of this African governmental corruption, its effects, and how a Black preacher may be uniquely equipped to address these things. The UK Government recently gave resident working permits to 300 doctors from Nigeria to come work in the NHS. These Nigerian-born doctors who have been trained in Nigeria are leaving in droves because of the corruption of the ruling class who can’t adequately pay them, provide a conducive working environment, or give them job security. So who suffers? The populace, amongst whom will be professing Christians. A Black preacher who knows the intricacies of this medical personnel economic brain drain because he also suffers from the same lack of good and well equipped hospitals is able to preach the fullness of Jesus Christ even in the face of debilitating adversity. I am not in anyway writing that White preaching can’t address these same issues but Biblical preaching must be experiential because you can’t give out when you don’t have, hence why genuine Biblical preachers are regenerate men who have been saved by Jesus Christ. A regenerate Christian who has been called into a local church pastorate should endeavour to preach experientially the whole counsel of God and saving grace of Jesus Christ which have been gifted to him for the edification of the local church and propagation of the Gospel.
Ryan: Again, why it is important for white pastors to listen to and walk with Black preachers and nevermind Black preachers, Black men and women who are representative of the majority experience of their ethnic communities, to better understand specific ways in which we can minister to and love our Black neighbours.
Wale: Let me give another example. A Black preacher who has experienced immigration challenges from Africa into the UK or USA is able to address the same issues with members of the church. Immigration by Black people, especially professing Christians, is most times seen as shameful - hence why many of our church members fail to talk about it and the church leadership is in an awkward situation of not knowing what to do. A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a church eldership here in the UK to help them understand why some Black people within their church family are struggling with a particular social issue. Immediately after I received the correspondence, I smiled and prayerfully wrote back to the elders pointing out what needs to be done and how to address the sensitive issues without shaming the people. Black preaching addresses such issues easily by pointing to Jesus Christ and applying the need to either legally regularise the immigration status or return to the country of birth by fully trusting the Lord for the end result. These two situations may only be adequately addressed by Black preaching.
Ryan: Or - and I know I keep adding this - by those who listen to Black preachers, have walked the same journey themselves, or with someone else who has. The humility to listen to other preachers and to seek their advice, as the eldership you mention did, is often lacking but greatly needed if we are to be better pastors and faithfully shepherd all of the flock - not just those most “like us”.
Wale: Still on immigration. A White preacher in his own national context may never know how much it costs a family of five to regularise their stay in the UK up until they receive their Indefinite Leave to Remain leading to UK citizenship, compared to the less than £100 needed to renew a standard 32 page British passport. A renewal of an individual Leave to Remain permit in the UK inclusive of the NHS surcharges and solicitors costs is circa £3000. So when a Black professing Christian who is a church member does not attend Lord’s Day meetings for two Sundays in a month, we must ask questions. He or she is probably working to pay off loans used in the payment of the family immigration status, therefore we must be pastorally sensitive to and with them. Black preaching may address these issues better because the Black pastor knows ‘where the shoe pinches’ in these cases.
As a Black preacher, I don’t have issues with consecutive expository preaching, preaching verse by verse through a Biblical book, as it helps both the preacher and listeners to address key issues within the text. But we must also not shy away from topical expository preaching, that is expounding a text to address a specific topic. Those of a more “Reformed Evangelical” persuasion secretly frown at the latter for some reasons I don’t very well understand, but some issues are better addressed in preaching through well-exegeted topical preaching and this is what in my experience most (not all) good Black preachers do. We regularly address topical issues. In 2018, I preached a sermon series entitled “Struggles we face as professing Christians”, and I addressed topics such as ‘Pride’, ‘Lust’, ‘Doubt’, ‘Abortion’, and ‘Same-sex marriage’. I ran a fine Biblical thread through each topic from multiple texts in the Bible with caution not to rip each text out of their meaning and the context of the wider passage. I love Expository preaching but I’d love to see many pastors do more exegetically faithful topical preaching as part of their annual preaching as multiple faithful approaches help the local church. Black preaching tilts more towards topical preaching and if and when done properly, it serves the same end goal - the praise and honour of Jesus Christ.
Ryan: I think that there are a number of ways this topical approach can be utilised, without compromise. For example, anything that could be subtitled “A biblical theology of ______” or “The doctrine of _______” or “What does the Bible say about _______” is topical. Hopefully this can be done without the sermon being a tiresome, poorly structured, and badly thought through recitation of Scriptures listed alongside the relevant word in Strong's Concordance. Also, a sermon can be both expositional and topical, thus I have this year preached whole series that are made up of expositions of a specific text per sermon addressing a specific topic. This gives the church a balanced diet and allows for directly addressing key issues the church, some of its members, or its wider community are facing.
Is there anything else you wish to say, either about the substance or style of Black preaching, across its different streams and traditions?
Wale: Let me address a particular cultural behaviour within the Black community. The vocal cords of most Black preachers are loud, so when we preach, our white brothers and sisters think that we are too loud and on the cusp of ‘pulpit aggression’. This was in fact a phrase used by an elderly white lady who approached me after preaching at a mostly white local church. I had to gingerly and jocularly school her that this was the reason why I didn’t use the microphone or she would have returned home deaf! We both let off a loud laugh. Black preachers are not aggressive when preaching and should not be seen as such. I’m Nigerian by birth and when I talk, I can sometimes be theatrical and this is most times evident in my preaching styles. An elderly white man approached me at a more multi-ethnic church and said, “Wow, Wale, no one has ever ran on our pulpit to describe how the father in the prodigal son story ran to meet his son”. I smiled. This is vintage “me” and an example of how Black preaching is done, because we dance the doctrines in our aim to pass across the gospel message to our hearers.
Let me conclude this section by writing that Black preaching in its full African elements is the ‘Congalisation’ of the gospel. What does this mean? From Chicago, Illinois to Lusaka, Zambia and from Lagos, Nigeria to Walthamstow, London, Black preaching beats the Conga drums of the gospel so that all may hear the sensational goodness of our great and mighty God. Amen!
The series continues tomorrow with some further inquiry by me about the prejudices of the English context that follow on from some of what Wale has shared here, from his personal experience. Also, please do pray for Wale, as he is recovering from surgery yesterday to address some rather serious back issues.
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