Preaching our Message

On page 20 of Charles Bradford's book Preaching to the Times he states:

Seventh-day Adventist preaching should be distinguished by something different. It must bring to the present situation those insights and understandings that are found only in the prophetic portions of the Bible. All true Seventh-day Adventist preaching has Revelation 14:6-12 as its frame of reference...all sermons and doctrines wind up somewhere in the neighborhood of this threefold message.

Again we come to the unique aspect. I have often said, if I go to a Baptist church I expect to hear a Christian sermon, but yes I expect to hear something that lets me know that this is a Baptist church. The same with a pentecostal or methodist or whatever. Also the same with an Adventist church. Here Bradford gets to the core of the Adventist preaching identity. What are we doing? What should we be doing?

Now in preaching our "unique commission" we should not fall into the trap of simply lecturing on the facts of these portions of scripture without making it relevant to the people. If you preach the Sabbath, then the Sabbath must be seen as more than just a day you go to church on or a day you get to take off from work. If we are going to preach the Sanctuary, then it has got to be more than chronology and celestial geography. And if you are going to preach the Second Coming, it has to be more than just a threat of hell to entice you to come to the alter.

Preach Adventism, yes we must. But always find a way to preach Jesus in it. And also find a way to preach Adventism's connection to real life in it. Because in the end, it is better to hear a great sermon that will help to strengthen and empower than hear a lecture on facts that seem by our presentation to be irrelevant to real life.

What is Adventist Preaching? - Unique?

I have come across two interesting quotes in my preparation for future blog posts. First is from Calvin Rock in the article Black SDA Preaching. He states:

Adventist preaching['s]...essence is clearly one of reform--Sabbath reform, health reform, dress reform, education reform, family reform, stewardship reform, etc. Preaching that does not ring with the certainties of Daniel and Revelation; that is not flavored with the symbols of the sanctuary; that does not uphold the law of God; that does not honor the prophetic gift of Ellen White; that does not extol justification by faith is not Adventist preaching. It may be truth, but it is not Present Truth; it may constitute an engaging performance, but it does not constitute the remnant proclamation.

This definitely sounds like a good classic definition of Adventist preaching. But is this a good definition of contemporary Adventist preaching? Is Adventist preaching still flavored with these apsects? What say you?

Adventist Preaching must be Adventist. Like all of God's people, we do have a heaven-assigned job. But how do we do this? How do we preach this message and yet still remain relevant to the lives of our people? That is the question we must ask, for that is what God has called us to do.

Calvin Rock's 3 Questions on Black SDA Preaching

As I begin this series looking at Calvin Rock's seminal article "Black SDA Preaching: Balanced or betwixt and between?" I notice that the article begins with 3 important questions for consideration. These questions reach the heart of Black Preaching within an Adventist context.

1. Is it possible to do genuine Black preaching when we are separated from the Black churches? In other words, must one be in a historically Black denomination to engage in true Black preaching? Related is the question of whether an "Anglo hermeneutic" has taken over our preaching which would be a detriment to Black preaching itself?
   
2. How has the separation of Black Adventists from the historic Black denominations affected our preaching? Has it given us an "Anglo-emphasis?"
   
3. Are we Black preachers with an Adventist doctrine or Adventist preachers with a Black emphasis? Or are we a hybrid "too theologically Anglicized for authentic Black preaching and too authentically ethnic to fit the Adventist prototype?"
   

Why Care about the Black Tradition?

A deeper question also emerges as I look at these questions. That question is should we even care or worry about an African American approach to preaching? Is it valuable in its own right or is it a relic of the past with no relevance for today?

Those are complicated questions. But in the end, Black preaching is valuable because of its emphasis on 3 important things that can enrich all preaching. The first of these is its "practicality." Great Black preaching is not simply about teaching doctrine, but finding practical ways to make that doctrine relevant to daily living. The second important characteristic of Great black preaching is it is "communal." Great Black preaching seeks to build a community of people who can make it through the difficulties of life. The emphasis is on community. The final is it is from the vantage point of the "least of these." Black preaching looks at the Bible and the preaching moment as a means of celebrating the perspective of the least of these. This is a valuable hermeneutic in that a good portion of the Bible's witness comes from the perspective of the least of these. Please see this link for an article I wrote on the Black Preaching Tradition.

Black Adventist or Adventist who happens to be Black?

So yes I think that the Black preaching tradition is important, even to Adventists. But this goes back to the question of whether we are Black Adventist preachers or Adventist preachers who happen to be Black. I don't like the dichotomy between these two descriptions. But I will begin to answer this question this way. I refused to separate the two. I must preach as an African American who has engaged in the benefits and liabilities of being a part of the community. But I am Adventist. Both have demands on me as a preacher. I must look for what God is doing for the underdog when I look at the text. My African American perspective forces me to do that. But I also must look for the "Great controversy" theme and the connection to the consummation of all things at the Second Advent, because I am Adventist.

Unify the Two?

I must seek to "celebrate the good news" and attempt to have the people "experience the word" because so many in my African American tradition have done that, but I also must preach reform and the responsibilities of the Gospel because I am Adventist. In short, I must do both, and hopefully reflection on this article will help me retain this "dual-consciousness."

Please stay around for our reflections on this important document.

Preaching Black and Adventist?

While it is almost 7 years old now, it is still the fundamental article on Black Adventist Preaching. Calvin Rock's Article Black SDA Preaching can be found at this link.

Can we do both or must we choose one or the other? In the coming weeks we will have a discussion of this interesting and, in my opinion, important topic.

Ecology and the Sabbath

In a very thought provoking post the Adventist Environmental Advocacy blog discusses an Adventist theology of ecology based in the Sabbath. We often hear about making the doctrines "practical" and often by that we mean making it relevant to daily life. Here is a post that is "practical" in that it takes the Sabbath and applies it to our communal responsibility and hopefully changes behavior.

This post definitely places the Sabbath into the conversation about ecology and I would recommend all to read it. Here are a few quotes from the post:

If we were to stop there and consider how Christians, and more specifically Seventh-day Adventist Christians might approach ecology, the first answer would have to do with the charge to care for what God creates.

(...Ecological stewardship, on the other hand, is something that we don't often hear from the pulpit. Perhaps a good starting point would be the simple recognition that it is up to us - it has always been up to us - to tend to that which is God's.)

Creation Care is not only part of our commemoration of God's creative work each Sabbath, it is not only fulfillment of God's charge to care for what He has made, it is also a way in which we continue to look for and to pay attention to the many, many ways in which God reveals Himself to us.

State of the Dead and Holistic Ministry

One of the fundamental components of the Black church is that it has been called a "All Comprehending Institution." By that, it is one that deals with the whole being. The Pastor in the Black Church had to do more than his or her white counterparts. The pastor might dabble into educational endeavors of people, health, and politics. The pastor was to help the whole person and not just the spiritual endeavors.

In other words, you cannot separate someone's physical, emotional, and other needs from ones spiritual ones. Sometimes we say that we must engage in works of social betterment because it opens the door to evangelism. However, I think we must engage in these acts because our very doctrine, the belief that you cannot separate the physical from the spiritual, requires us to engage the whole person in ministry.

We cannot place these physical concerns above spiritual ones, but neither can we do the opposite if we are to minister to the whole person. So the teaching of the state of the dead not only provides a theological basis to attack any kind of dualism. But also because we cannot separate mind from spirit from body then we must recognize that ministry to a human being must include ministry to the mind, body, and spirit. This means that we cannot fall into the trap of eliminating physical concerns and only dealing with physical ones. This doctrine can serve to promote social action because it makes social ills just as important as issues of individual piety.

Benefits of Biblical Wholeness - Preaching against Dicotomy

Seventh-day Adventists believe, rightly in my understanding, that a human beings is an indivisible union of body, mind, and spirit. When you remove one then you no longer have a "living soul." Often when I have heard this doctrine preached or taught it is within the context of protection from demonic influence. In other words, "Do not listen to dead folks becuase they are imposters. So the doctrine is totally and solely about protecting us from being fooled by those who say they are who they are not.

However, the doctrine of Biblical wholeness has many more implications than that. Thanks to a Feminist Theology course that I was taking I was introduced to many of the evils that the dichotomy between body and mind/spirit have created. The western world has argued that the body and soul can be separated and that the soul is much more important. Then the western world has implied that there are some who tend towards the mind while others tend toward the body. At any rate, the Biblical doctrine of wholeness strikes those ideas at their root. There is no dichotomy, that which affects your body also affects your mind.