Word: preaching
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...read these xenophobic calls to violence and hear about the incidents of hate around the country, I can see our enemies smiling. I imagine that this is what they want—to see America divided—to hear our opinion-makers preach war and hatred. Let us not fall into their sinister trap. Let us not self-destruct. We already have a formidable task ahead of us; we must not let hate and ignorance hinder our progress...
...best preacher, religion writer David Van Biema consulted experts in many denominations and spent hours watching tapes, searching for the most electrifying proclaimer of the Gospel. "Many were terrific, but the [T.D.] Jakes tape affected me profoundly," he recalls. "When I got down to the Superdome to hear him preach in person, I found him amazing. It was the mastery and the beauty of the thing...
Part of what stokes Jakes enthusiasts is the extravagant celebratory bounty of black Pentecostal preaching. "When it comes to rhetoric," says Paige Patterson, a leader in the predominantly white Southern Baptist Convention, "the best Anglo preachers on their best days don't preach as well as a good black preacher on his worst day." Regarding Holy Spirit-soaked Pentecostalism, one might add, More so. With its improvisatory electricity, ornate call-and-response cues and dramatic eruptions of prophesying or speaking in tongues, it is an unrivaled preacher's toolbox. The style is increasingly popular in non-Pentecostal black denominations...
...strong preaching--biblically based, artfully crafted--is a tradition that is being reclaimed and transformed at the same time. Like any romance, the courtship between a church and a preacher can take a long time and some divine intervention to get right. Pastoral search committees often spend years looking for their perfect mate, a Shepherd in Chief who can somehow tend to both the budget and the soul. But as important as administrative skill and pastoral experience may be, many churches admit that right now, there's one gift that matters most. Says Duain Claiborne, who chaired the call committee...
William Bennett used to be the U.S. Secretary of Education, but today he travels the nation to preach the home-school gospel. "I'm here to talk about the revolution of common sense," he told a Denver home-schooling conference in June. Working himself up to promote K12, his slick, new, for-profit online school for home schoolers, Bennett even suggested that "maybe we should subcontract all of public education to home schoolers." It was strange to watch a man once responsible for federal aid to public schools urge people to desert them. Imagine if Colin Powell gave a speech...