26th United Methodist Black Clergy Women’s
Conference
Dr. Teresa Fry Brown, Presenter
August 5, 2014 Orlando, Florida
 Size
Matters (House churches,
Community Ministries, Mega/Giga
churches)
 Cyberspirituality /Televangelism
 Spirituality of Longing/ Prosperity
Gospel
 Social/Political Leanings (Influence)
 Media Depictions







Explosion of social media
Texting, Tweeting, FB, You Tube
Holograms, 2D-3D Projections of Preacher
Webinar Services
Power Point, Movie Clips, Dramatic
Presentations, etc.
Conference Call/ Skype Sermons
Collections of Sermons, CDs, DVDs, Websites,
Television
 Information-glut
of information
(approx 20,000,000 items per day
generated)
 Media-sensory bombardment
 Truth-influence, opinion
 Expectancy-life of preacher
 Prestige-pressure from examples of
others
 Refusal
to hear or
know the listener
 Selected
information
 Dissenters feel
uncomfortable
 Check your brain at
the door, channel or
website worship
 Multimedia
centered
 Half-truths
 Specialized
language
 Feedback not
allowed
 Moralistic
 Objectification/
Thingafication of the
Other
 Pop Psychology
 Neo-Charisma/
Charismania
Bloodless sermons
5

The challenge of the preacher is
to open up conversation in his or
her own preaching, so that
members of the congregation can
imagine their lives transformed
and renewed by the possibilities
of the biblical texts.
Gail O’ Day
Bible and Sermon: Conversation between Text and Preacher, SHM
6
To Make or
Change
Identity
To Heal
To Entertain
To Make or
Change Identity
To Foster
Community
To Deal with
The Divine
and The
Demonic
To Teach or
Persuade
To Create
Beauty
 What
is “good preaching “ in your principle
worship context?
 How many times you have preached in a context
different than your own denomination,
race/ethnicity, geography?
 Adjustments, positive/ negative experience
 Is your preaching transportable?
A
concert audience does not come to
watch a conductor but to hear the
music; a church congregation should
not come to watch or hear the
preacher, but to listen to the Word of
God.
9







Point of Departure—
your engagement of
the preaching
moment
Theology
Retrieval of history
Ideology
Social locationecclesiology,
community
Political
Cultural





Epistemology-ways of
knowing, assertions of
truth, definition of
reality
Hegemony—authority,
influence from others’
leadership
Agency—self direction,
determination, critique
Praxis
How do you define your
reality?
10
 Oral-aural
traditions
 Vernacular
 Ethnocentrism
 Cross-cultural
language
 Dialect
 Regionalisms
 “in- language”
 Age
 Gender
 Geography
 Culture
 Race
 Class
 Education
 Comfort/preparati
on
 Multiple language
levels
 radical
subjectivity
 traditional communalism
 redemptive self love
 critical engagement
 appropriation and reciprocity
 Spirit love