I know we're going to start chapter 4 discussion this week but let me ask this:
Again, I've been raised to believe that everyone is NOT called to preach, particularly from the pulpit. Ok, here's my question of confusion: In the black church, I feel like a lot of what preaching is boils down to a bunch of cliches' and basically encouragement (nothing wrong with encouragement, just saying for this discussion). So therefore, if that's the case also taking to note that a lot of black preaching is socialization (mimicking what other black preachers in our tradition do), how can it be argued that only "certain" people are called to preach from the pulpit?
Based on my observation, it almost looks the same, especially in the black tradition of worship. I mean I could probably put up 10-15 youtube clips of black church preaching and a good majority would be the same.
Also (and this is a general question that I was afraid to ask at first), how much should our culture play into our church practices? I ask this because, in my opinion, a lot of black church practices (heavy emphasis on music, whooping, encouragement preaching) is a product of our culture and history. Some people believe that culture should NOT play a role in our church practices AT ALL! I'm having a hard time totally agreeing with this and this may be one of the roots for the "personal preference" argument. To me, everything this book is arguing would go against black church culture, historically speaking. And so some would say that certain practices (heavy emphasis on music, whooping, etc.) is just a part of our culture and because of everything we've went through we shouldn't lose our cultural identity.
I know it sounds like I'm rambling but this is something I've thought about a lot as we've had these discussions.
