A look at Baptist preaching: past, present, and future.

Long ago in a now distant place--Miami Senior High School in Miami, Florida--I had a debate coach who was intent on winning. Before each match, she gathered students in a room and gave us advice on how to win our debates. Once she said, "Even if you don't know what you're talking about, talk as if you do."

Obviously, our debate coach was more concerned about victory than integrity. Yet, I have remembered her advice and for good reason. You may conclude after reading this article that I do not know what I am talking about. And for good reason! If you are a Baptist or even mildly acquainted with Baptists, you know we are a diverse lot. We are different ethnically and racially. We have increasing numbers of women who feel called to preach. These women bring new perspectives to the pulpit.

We are different theologically and liturgically, and that is putting it mildly. Those differences inform both the substance and style of proclamation. Most Baptist preachers will agree that the Bible is our fundamental, authoritative document. Yet, how do we interpret the Bible? It is here that the "fun" begins. How do we shape sermons? What do we wear when we preach? When I speak at churches, I ask, "What is the outfit of the day?" My outfits have ranged from full academic regalia to khaki pants and a golf shirt. In some churches, I am "high and lifted up" in a podium where I look down at congregants who want a sermon that stimulates the mind. In other places, I am on the floor level where the expectation is that I will use "props," and the sermon will be interactive.

So I begin this article by trying to lower my expectations and your anticipation. I will not cover everything, and I may not cover your thing about preaching. What I encourage you to do is write your own article. If preaching is anything, it is organic and always changing. One friend of mine says, "The one thing that is constant these days is change." He is fight. I am going to put one foot into this flowing stream of proclamation and encourage you to put your foot in and describe what the water feels like to you.

The Past of Baptist Preaching

Adoniram Judson. The story of Baptists in America is intertwined with the lives of Ann and Adoniram Judson. Married in 1812, the Judsons sailed that same year to India as missionaries of the Congregational church. Both Judsons knew that mission work in India had been heavily influenced by William Carey and the English Baptists. Wanting to be able to defend their denomination's position on infant baptism, the Judsons studied their New Testament to be able to converse with the Baptists.

Ironically, from their studies, both Ann and Adoniram Judson became convinced that baptism was for adults who gave evidence of an experience with Christ. (1) The Judsons were baptized in Calcutta, India, and then journeyed to Burma as "Baptist" missionaries.

While no extant sermons by Ann Judson could be located, something of her zeal can be found in her letters. Writing to a friend about Burma, Ann remarked, "Was this delightful country made to be the residence of idolaters? ... Oh my friend, scenes like these ... firm the soul with an unconquerable desire to rescue this people from destruction, and lead them to the Rock that is higher than they." (2)

This same zeal and enthusiasm are evident in a sermon preached by Adoniram Judson in 1812. Obviously, Judson was not much on "catchy" sermon titles. In fact, his title was "Christian Baptism: A Sermon Preached in the Lal Bazar Chapel, Calcutta, on Lord's-Day, September 27, 1812, Previous to the Administration of the Ordinance of Baptism. With many Quotations from Pedobaptist Authors." This sermon is fascinating for what it reveals about Baptist preaching in certain cultures and at certain times in history. Highly propositional, Judson advanced argument after argument to prove his case for believer's baptism by immersion. He provided studies of both Hebrew and Greek words and cited the key words used in literature contemporary with the Bible in order to validate his position on baptism. He then named leading proponents of infant baptism and attempted to rebut their arguments. Judson marshaled this impressive array of evidence for his listeners "to stimulate your minds to candid and energetic research, [and] prize truth above all other things." (3)

Most contemporary Baptists would find a sermon like this ponderous and pedantic. The sermon has not a hint of humor. Hopefully, Judson's listeners ate a big breakfast or brought lunch because they surely did not get to the cafeteria before the Methodists. Yet, his sermon reveals qualities that seem characteristic of much Baptist preaching. For example, doctrine was important. Believer's baptism by immersion was not up for referendum. Judson equated truth with right belief. As he said in the conclusion of his message, "She [truth] will lead you to heaven." (4)

Second, Judson's sermon was filled with his own passion. Baptist preaching has been filled with the passion of the person who is preaching. Growing up as a teenager in a Baptist church, I recall that preaching was often evaluated by the perception of the minister's own conviction. If the minister took off his coat during the sermon, that indicated he was really "warming up."

Third, Judson's sermon reflected the propositional/argumentative style of much Baptist preaching. The sermon advanced a thesis, and then sought to "prove" that idea by appeals to scriptural interpretation, respected scholars, and logical refutations of the opponent's arguments. The intent of this type of preaching was to change someone's mind and then for that person to change his/her behavior.

John Broadus. Among Baptist preachers, the most formative figure in the area of homiletics was John Broadus. In 1870, Broadus, a professor of homiletics at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, published his epic work, A Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons. This book went through numerous revisions, but it remained the standard textbook on preaching well into the first half of the twentieth century.

As Thomas R. McKibbens noted, Broadus's seminal work had several lasting impacts on the nature of preaching. First, Broadus advocated that proclamation was an informed interpretation of scripture. (5) While Broadus had spent time in Germany and knew about developing biblical criticism, he was concerned that scripture, appropriately interpreted, remained the focus of the sermon. He also taught that a sermon should have organization with a sense of unity that guides the shaping of the message. (6) As Broadus said, "Unity in a discourse is necessary to instruction, to conviction, and to persuasion." (7)

According to McKibbens, Broadus also helped to shape a certain style that pervades much Baptist preaching. While he did not write out a manuscript, he sketched carefully the main portion of his message. He did write both the introduction and conclusion. When Broadus went into the pulpit, he took no notes. He wanted to maintain eye contact with his listeners, and he wanted to remain open to the prompting of the Spirit as he preached. (8)

Martin Luther King, Jr. Probably no other Baptist preacher in the twentieth century had more influence on the shaping of people's lives and public policy than Martin Luther King, Jr. A graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia; Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania; and Boston University, King returned to Atlanta to co-pastor the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church with his father, Martin Luther King, Sr. (9)

While the younger King was an activist for various causes, he is probably better known for his preaching. Who can forget the energizing power of his "I Have a Dream" sermon? King preached that message at the civil rights march on Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963. Coretta Scott King, his wife, later commented, "At that moment it seemed as if the Kingdom of God appeared." (10)

One of the most moving of King's sermons was preached a few days prior to his death in Memphis, Tennessee. He had come to Memphis to assist the sanitation workers in their battle for just wages and benefits. Ironically, the title of his message was, "I See the Promised Land." King said: "I've been to the mountaintop.... Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will." (11)

While it is imprecise to speak about "black preaching" in a monolithic way, King's sermon exemplifies qualities that are found in much of black Baptist preaching as well as black preaching in general. One quality is the strong emphasis on God's provision. Black preaching often stresses that while things are difficult, God has not forsaken God's children.

Second, black Baptist preachers recognize that sermons need to be prophetic and to address the systemic issues that oppress people. The black preacher sees the listeners not just as individuals who need therapeutic words but also as a group of people who need hope and who need the oppression named for what it is. Another characteristic of black preaching is its "oral" quality. King utilizes mnemonic devices such as repetition. The sermon has a rhythm to it that makes it memorable as well as something that excites both heart and mind.

While this analysis of black preaching by a consummate Baptist minister like King is not complete, one other factor should be mentioned. King spoke not just to his hearers but also for his hearers. He articulated the pain and frustration of the sanitation workers. At the same time, King reminded them of the hope that they share in a God who is large enough for every "fiery furnace."

The Present of Baptist Preaching

When the discussion of prominent homleticians takes place in today's world, interestingly no Baptists are usually mentioned. The formative voices are people like Fred Craddock, Barbara Brown Taylor, Tom Long, and Eugene Lowry. While Barbara Brown Taylor used to be a Baptist, she is now an Episcopalian. That seems as close as we can come to having a great Baptist homletician.

While Baptists are not writing many books that contribute to the art and craft of the preaching event, some Baptists are artful practitioners. Baptist preachers tend to be pragmatic in their preaching, often tying their preaching to a "vision" for their church. Some Baptist preachers, especially in larger churches, see their preaching as a way to exercise pastoral leadership. These ministers want to articulate a direction for their churches and then inspire people to enact that vision.

Rick Warren. Rick Warren is one of the best-known Baptist preachers in our day. While some criticize his methods and his theology, Warren is well known for his book, The Purpose Driven Church. Warren graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1980. He and his wife moved to southern California and began Saddleback Church, first meeting in the living room of their home. By 1995, fifteen years after its beginning, Saddleback Church had grown to over 10,000 people in worship attendance and occupied a seventy-four-acre campus. (12)

Warren has been a pacesetter in ministry, preaching to people who are "unchurched." The primary question Warren asks as he prepares to preach to "seekers" is: "Would this message make sense to a totally unchurched person?" (13) What makes Warren's ideas about preaching important is that they are being adopted by significant numbers of preachers. Warren begins with the assumption that people know little about the Bible and that theological verbiage is an alien language to most folks. Therefore, according to Warren, the minister should begin a sermon with a "need" in the congregation. The preacher then should move to a biblical text as she/he speaks with words that are understandable to the listeners. The point is to make application to people's lives. (14)

The strengths of Warren's approach to proclamation are obvious. Increasingly, preachers are facing the issue of biblical illiteracy. Many people do not have a working theological vocabulary or understand practices of the church such as the Lord's Supper or the ministry of hospitality. Also, most people do go to a church service wanting a message that is relevant to their lives. The most apparent danger to this approach, however, concerns those who only attend the main worship service of the church. Will those listeners begin to think that the Bible is distant and that the ordained clergy are the only ones equipped to interpret the scriptures? Perhaps unconsciously, preachers who use this approach reverse a large thrust of the Protestant Reformation that gave the Bible to the people and trusted the "priesthood of each believer."

A second danger of Warren's approach to preaching is that it dilutes the vocabulary of the church. Granted, much of this information can be given to people in an educational context. Yet, what about those who only attend the morning worship hour? How will they learn the meaning and depth of words like "grace," "salvation," and "love"? When will these people be called to see that the Christian faith is not only about receiving good news but also about being the "missional church" in the world? Without such balance, preaching can become simply "therapeutic" where people come to find something for their lives but not to give themselves for the sake of Christ to the world.

Nancy Hastings Sehested. Nancy Hastings Sehested was a pioneer among women in the South. For several years, she was pastor of the Prescott Memorial Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. While I found nothing that Sehested had written about the subject of preaching, several of her sermons are available on audiotape. Sehested preached these sermons at a Lenten series in 1995 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia.

The risk in analyzing the sermons of women or any other group of people is to universalize the particular. Books have been written on "women's preaching," but just as it is unfair to say that all white males preach in a certain way, it is equally unfair to conclude that all women or all Latino preachers are mirror images of each other.

In her preaching, Sehested seems to be able to identify with the oppressed and the marginalized. In a moving sermon on the "wilderness," Sehested acknowledges the pain that both the children of Israel and Jesus experienced in their wilderness journeys. Yet, she affirms the "courage and creativity" that can emerge from these uncertain times when we become the "trailblazers." As I listened to Sehested's sermon, I wondered how many men could have preached that sermon with the same "passion" that she exhibited. Most of us men were encouraged to enter the pulpit. On the other hand, many women have had to endure the rejection that often goes with being a "trailblazer."

In another sermon, Sehested latched onto the Lenten theme of "Journey." Her sermon was about "children" and whether those of us who are adults take the children on the journey. She spoke of issues like child abuse, the lack of proper funding for education in the inner cities, and how we were leaving our children behind. (15)

Her sensitivity was searing and "seer-ing." Sehested's words are for all us, even those of us who treasure our own children as gifts from God. Sometimes we have been oblivious to the fact that many children grow up as victims of abuse or perhaps, worse, victims of our own indifference.

While Sehested's messages are powerful, it was obvious that she was relying heavily on a manuscript. At times, her sentences were too long and convoluted. Sehested seemed to compose her sermons as if they were to be read rather than to be heard. This is sometimes a problem with women students I have taught. While sensitive and imaginative, they often write their sermons as an "eye" event rather than an "ear" experience. Part of that has to do with a lack of experience in preaching. The opportunities that women have to preach are still much too limited.

The Future of Baptist Preaching

The difficulty in analyzing the past and present in Baptist preaching is selectivity. Baptist preaching is so diverse that someone's favorite preacher or style of preaching is bound to be omitted. The problem with trying to predict the future is that it is speculative. With these caveats, let me discuss five trends that I see.

Diversity. Baptist preaching has always been marked by a variety of theology and styles. This variety will only increase. Certain factors will contribute to the diversity. More women are now pastors. More ethnic groups are becoming part of Baptist life in America, and many of these folks want to maintain their liturgical and homiletical differences.

No one Baptist homiletician dominates the scene today, and, therefore, seminaries and divinity schools are holding up a multitude of models, especially in the form and design of sermons. The multiplicity of models will only increase since former models of preaching like John Broadus are white, Southern males. Women, people of color, and various ethnic groups now want to find models for preaching that reflect who they are and that will help to affirm their gifts for proclamation.

Simplicity. Several years ago, William Muehl wrote, Why Preach? Why Listen? Muehl demonstrated that a distinction exists between "vulgar simplification" and "profound simplicity." Several factors in Baptist life indicate the need for simplicity that hopefully will be profound. First, the painful fact is that people in America are increasingly biblically illiterate. Preachers cannot assume that congregants have a theological vocabulary or even a knowledge of the basic biblical stories or teachings. Preachers can no longer begin sermons by announcing the biblical text and then say, "I know we've all read this many times before."

We will have to watch words that we use. Words like "sin," "saved," and "repentance" are not the terms people use Monday through Saturday. The church needs to preserve some of its vocabulary, but in the preparation of the sermon, we need to ask questions such as, "Will the thirteen-year-old girl in the balcony understand when I tell the congregation that we are sinners who need to be saved?"

We will also need to be more focused on what we want to say in the sermon. Many sermons die in the sanctuary because preachers try to say too many things and give too much extraneous information. The sermon event is not the time to show the listeners that, as seminarians, we stayed awake through the New Testament class and that we have read both volumes of Raymond Brown's commentary on the Gospel of John. Too much information sabotages a sermon. Have separate teaching sessions where you can be as "deep and wide" as your want.

Imagery. Most people now think more visually. Most of what we experience we "see" as well as "hear." What does this mean for the art of preaching? To some ministers, it means the use of "props": PowerPoint, video dips, and other technology during the sermon itself. One minister walks up a ladder as he discusses the different beatitudes and tries to show that taking each rung (beatitude) is essential to getting to the top of the ladder (living the Christian life). While this may work for some preachers, I am not ready to bring a ladder into the pulpit area. Besides, what if you accidentally fall? What spiritual truth does that illustrate?

Words themselves can create images in people's minds. Is this not what the Jewish rabbis like Jesus did as they told parables? Preachers whose dominant way to think is in terms of rational propositions are going to have to "rewire" their minds. For example, the word "grace" may need to be defined but it also needs to be described. What does "grace" look like? How have we experienced the grace of God? When has somebody extended "amazing grace" to us? Words say things, but they also have the power to help us visualize the verities of our faith.

Connection. What I am talking about is the connection of the preacher with her listeners. Tom Brokaw was my favorite newscaster. Once in a while he stumbled over a word, but that just seemed to make him more human. I know that newscasters have teleprompters, but the experience I had in watching the news was that Tom Brokaw was looking at me and telling about what happened that day in Baghdad. He talked in a conversational way. Brokaw did not scream, at least not on the air. He seemed relaxed. He had a pleasant face with expressive eyes. While Tom Brokaw may have been in New York, he seemed to be with my family and me in our home.

Authenticity. While watching part of the summer Olympics that took place in Athens, Greece, I was reminded that Greek philosophers admonished their students to "know thyself." Aristotle, Socrates, and other Greek teachers wanted their listeners to know some information, but they wanted this knowledge to be used to help people understand who they were. One of the problems that Baptist preaching has faced is the notion that there exists a formulaic Baptist preaching style. In the pulpit, the minister becomes the "preacher" who sounds like every other preacher. Inflection of voice, gestures, facial expressions--even the infamous three points and a poem--become the design for virtually every sermon. Some of this "imitation" often stems from a minister's personal feelings of inadequacy. We do not know ourselves as unique children of God and, therefore, our insecurity motivates us to become a caricature of our favorite preacher.

(1.) Arabella Stuart, The Lives of the Three Mrs. Judsons (Springfield, MO: Particular Baptist Press, 1999), xiv.

(2.) Ibid., 46-47.

(3.) Ibid., 372.

(4.) Ibid.

(5.) Thomas R. McKibbens, Jr., "John A. Broadus: Shaper of Preaching," Shapers of Southern Baptist Heritage (Nashville, TN: Southern Baptist Historical Commission, 1987), 4-5.

(6.) John A. Broadus, A Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons, ed. by Edwin Charles Dargan (New York: Hoddes and Stoughton, 1898), 325.

(7.) Ibid., 323.

(8.) McKibbens, "John A. Broadus," 6.

(9.) Mervyn A. Warren, King Came Preaching: The Pulpit Power of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. (Downer's Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 15-44.

(10.) Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches that Changed the WorM, ed. James Melvin Washington (San Francisco: Harper, 1992), 102.

(11.) Ibid., 203.

(12.) Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995), 11.

(13.) Ibid., 293.

(14.) Ibid., 296.

(15.) Nancy Hastings Sehested, Sermons preached March 14-17, 1995. Reigner Recording Library, Union Seminary, Richmond, Virginia.

Charles B. Bugg is dean of the M. Christopher White School of Divinity at Gardner-Webb University, Boiling Springs, North Carolina. He also serves as professor of church ministry and leadership.