Vol. 2, No. 1, Fall 2003

Another aspect of performance on stage that seems to be similar to that done in the Christian pulpit is to be found in the preparation of the sermon and the possible rehearsal for the sermon.(8) Clyde T. Fant, former professor of preaching at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, addressed the issue and problem of sermon preparation for presentation with a method he called the "oral manuscript."(9) The theory behind his method was that the sermon should be written to be spoken rather than read. Of course, the playwright knows this theory all too well because the text of a play contains words that are to sound as if they were being spoken by someone for the first time. Fant showed in his book that the preacher's text is a [page 150] spoken word and should be rehearsed and prepared as such. Not all preachers spend time practicing the performance in the pulpit, yet others do. No matter what method the preacher uses, the preparation work is done in order to prepare for the expected performance Sunday after Sunday. As an actor performs on cue at every performance, so must the preacher preach on cue week after week. And as the actor must present a fresh performance for each paid audience, so must the preacher present a fresh word from God Sunday after Sunday–on cue.

The Preacher as Paradigm

To understand the power of the preacher in the Black Church, one must understand the dynamics at work in the African American community. Eric Lincoln, in his treatise on the Black Churches of America, has offered some clarification for this study. He stated that the Black Church is an expression of the Black community itself. When studying the power of the church in the Black community, one can see the close interweaving of the two. "The church is the spiritual face of the Black community, and whether one is a 'church member' or not is beside the point."(10) This interweaving is imperative to understand when realizing or speaking of the importance of the preacher in the Black community. Lincoln continues:

The African American preacher has a deep responsibility to be true to his calling and to his task of preaching faithfully to the people. He does this because of the power of the church in the community and because of the power of the message of the God of the church. The preacher becomes for the community (as well as the church) a sign for all to see and hear.

The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure wrote of the two parts of a sign: the signifier and the signified. For the Black Church, the signifier is the preacher and the signified is a logocentric ultimate word from God. Although philosophical linguists and literary critics such as Derrida, Foucault and Husserl believe that an ultimate signified cannot be truly known, in the Black Church, there is no question about what the signifiers of their community mean. The preacher in the Black community is himself the central signifier representing the presence and power of God who is the ultimate Signified among the people.

The preacher acts out his signification in his daily life as well as in his role on Sundays as the proclaimer of the word of God. M. M Bakhtin, the Russian literary critic and philosopher, has pointed out the importance of intended action in any given circumstance. He writes, "We act confidently only when we do so not as ourselves, but as those possessed by the immanent necessity of the meaning of some domain of culture."(12) The African American preacher finds his significance in the community of faith and in the community in which he lives. Within these structures, he knows who he is and why he is. With that confidence, he acts as he ought and as he is guided by the word of God.

[page 152] For the Black community, there are several special elements involved. One is the unique nature of the language spoken within the community. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has posited a theory of communication for the Black community called "signifyin(g)."(13) He traces his theory to the ancient traditions of Sub-Saharan African tribes brought to America by way of the slave ships. Signifyin(g) became a method of speaking that the slaves could use that the "masters" would not comprehend. In essence, signifyin(g) is a way of saying one thing yet meaning another. It is the use of modified metaphors and similes with which persons from outside the community would be unfamiliar.

Signifyin(g) became not a second language but a way of speaking for the Africans who had quickly lost their tribal identity and original languages. The preacher is often a master of signifyin(g) from the pulpit for in the community he is both signifier and signifyin(g)er. Often his messages will carry dual meanings and double innuendos. This duality is rooted in the alienation that Blacks in American have felt. Their Blackness (with all of the signified meanings of badness, evil, unknown, darkness) became a symbol of their dual place: in the society and yet not of the society. The African American preachers have utilized this dual-ness to their advantage to communicate a message that would resonate with their experiences rather than those of the "white man's religion," a reference used by many Blacks during the early days of the civil rights movement.

For the African American preacher, the act of presenting the message he has received from God is a sharing of a personal experience. His movement from experience with the written word of God to the expression of that experience is for him the totality of truth and [page 153] reality. Bakhtin has made an observation about the truthfulness of an action that supports this. He writes:

For the preacher, the phenomenon of the speaking of his encounter with God is the same as the actual act itself for the congregation. The power of the words which the preacher chooses to use, the method of preaching style he chooses to present (or perform) those words, and the metaphors he uses all work together to become both spoken and embodied message (signifier). And the meanings (signified) are not missed by the members of both the congregation and the community surrounding the congregation.

Another communicative modality at work in the preaching of the African American minister is the use of a style of preaching called the Jeremiad. This methodology is based on the preaching that is recorded in the Biblical book of Jeremiah. This method of sermon presentation [page 154] can be defined as a call by the preacher to the people to repent because of their corporate or individual sin. The Jeremiad stresses the negative results of one's actions and then calls for a return to a "standard" that is fixed by God. This type of preaching was developed on the European continent in the 15th century and brought to America by way of the Puritans who had adopted the Jeremiad as their major style. In America, the Jeremiad became a political form of speaking from the pulpit and eventually became identified with American nationalism.

After the slaves had been converted to Christianity and African American preachers began to rise to prominence, many of their ministers found a suitable model for their preaching in the Jeremiad. The fact that the prophet Jeremiah was also known as "the weeping prophet" simply added to the appeal of the methodology in the pulpit. As the rumblings of the civil rights movement started, the Jeremiad was taken on by preachers in the Black community through the use of heavily political rhetoric. The sin of the nation became racial segregation and the answer to the evil caused by that sin was for the White community to repent. This preaching did not excuse sin in the Black community. The responsibility of the congregation was to keep themselves pure so that they could speak the word of conviction to the white community. This type of preaching was further refined by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his "non-violent" revolution rhetoric. The African American preacher became a spokesman for the ills of the society as a whole, not just the sins of the Black church community.

Preachers such as King, William Holmes Borders, Hosea Williams, and Jesse Jackson became national leaders of the Civil Rights movement through the use of the Jeremiad. And thousands of lesser known African American preachers became involved in proclaiming the faith and presenting a message of social power and political empowerment. Their acts of [page 155] defiant preaching spilled over into their actions of defiance against what they saw was a segregationist government. The power of the word from God mingled with the word of man demonstrated its power in the very act of preaching. The theatre of the worship service moved into the streets and became the theatre of civil rights and social revolution. At the center of the civil rights movement was the preacher: paradigm of everything that was right in the African American community–their preachers. And these preachers would become the major leaders of a movement that spread nation wide.

The Preacher as Performer

I will now draw four conclusions that should pull together the arguments made above and the model of the performing preacher. First, the preacher is a performer, albeit not in the exact sense that an actor performs, yet a performer nonetheless. He is expected to perform on cue on Sunday morning and /or Sunday night week in and week out. And he is expected to have a fresh message from God to present through the performance. Just as the actor must face his audience day in and day out with a fresh performance, so must the preacher face the relentless return of the Sabbath with a fresh message from God.

Second, the preacher must prepare and, in some cases, rehearse the presentation prior to the worship service. He must have his message so in mind that he can present it extempore, or he will memorize a text that he has prepared. He is no different from an actor in the sense of following a prescribed text (or script) for the performance. Third, the preacher must remember the centrality of the Text of the Bible in his preparation of the sermon. The Christian church has as one of its main tenets the ultimate authority of the Scriptures. Although a sermon may have many ideas from the preacher's own mind, the basic theme and subject of the sermon must be [page 156] firmly grounded in the text of the Bible. There is a faithfulness here not unlike the faithfulness of the director and actors to the text written by the playwright.

Fourth, the congregation has a measure of expectation as to what they should expect. Their expectations surround the worship experience as a whole, the place where they worship, the content of the service, and (for Protestant churches in particular) the presentation (performance) of a sermon by the preacher. When an audience gathers at a theatre expecting to see a performance of Othello, the substitution of another play, or of another form of theatre, would cause a great deal of confusion and disappointment. The preacher must perform according to the expectations of the congregation and according to the traditions of the particular denomination.

With these four issues in mind, one can refer to Figure 1 to see a series of interactions between the four elements. The preaching performance is repeatable weekly, it demands an expectant audience, it centers on a definitive text, and requires rehearsal and preparation. The weekly demand of the congregation that the preacher have a fresh new word from God requires rehearsal, or perhaps I should use the term "preparation" to be more true to the language of proclamation. The text of the Bible and the text of the sermon gives context to the preached, or spoken, words. The sermon conforms to the expectations of the congregation by being a presentation of the word received during the preparation period. The rehearsal, or preparation, that the preacher does week after week offers stability for congregational expectations. And the preparation and constant rehearsal demand constant interaction with the Biblical text. The creative aspect of preaching, or communicating, the word is in constant tension with the performative acts of presenting that word to the congregation. And through the whole process, the preacher presents his "theatrical" performance: an art form in the purest and probably "heavenly" sense possible.

Endnotes

Herb Sennett holds the M.A., M.F.A., and Ph.D. in theatre with additional degrees in religious studies (M.Div. & D.Min.). He has taught at three Christian colleges and has worked as a professional lighting designer. His book Religion and Dramatics explores the relationship between the Christian church and the theatre world. Dr. Sennett is currently associate professor of theatre at Southeastern College in Lakeland, Florida.