SERIAL
T
wo main factors have informed
my preaching ministry over the
years. One is the importance
of storytelling – the ability to
paint pictures with words, and to
bring people into the world you are
conjuring, through the images and the
voices you are creating. The other is
that of improvisation and the use of
role play – the ability to engage with a
congregation and to ‘play games’ with
them as one is developing the sermon.
A MAGICAL WORLD
In terms of storytelling, I was born
into and have been socialised within a
Christian Caribbean home of Jamaican
migrants to Britain. Growing up in
a diasporan Caribbean household
was a fascinating experience. In this
self-enclosed world, living in the back
room of our terraced house that
also served as a dining room and a
kitchen, my parents told of a magical
world that was ‘back home’ in the
Caribbean. It was a world punctuated
by extravagant, idiosyncratic
characters. This was a world that
captured my imagination and that
of my three siblings. The storytelling
capacity of my parents and their peers
was one of juxtaposing the ordinary
and the extraordinary in the one
narrative structure. I learnt to tell
stories courtesy of my parents and the
extended family of which I was a part.
TRUTH AND REALITY
I have always used my improvisatory
skills, including exercises, games
and role play to engage with
congregations. I have remained
committed to a participatory
approach to the task of ‘doing
theology’. This approach is one that
seeks to engage with ordinary people
and sees their presence as integral
both to the method and to any
resultant ‘God-talk’.
I have used my performance skills
to bring to life the radical teachings
of the gospel and to try and ensure
that the message I share is one that
is lodged in the consciousness of the
congregation. People remember better
information that has come to them
through activities of which they have
been a part, as opposed to receiving
insights only by hearing them.
In using storytelling and
improvisation in the sermon, I am
hoping to create a link between the
world of the Bible and the truth of the
biblical text and the reality of human
experience and living as Christian
disciples in the world.
The improvisation of the preacher
exists in the interchange between
fixity of the text (Scripture) and
the fluidity of the context (the
congregation and the overall worship
service). The best preachers are able
to apply the text to the context, using
the former to give new life and fresh
insight to the latter and vice versa.
How does our reading of the context
shape our interpretation of the Bible?
A HELPFUL FRAMEWORK
The need to bring new meaning
and fresh insights from the Bible,
whilst remaining connected to the
traditions that have informed the
collective whole that is ‘Holy Scripture’
has always been the high challenge
presented to preachers. It is the
challenge to ‘bring something new’
for the immediate context without
doing violence to the text from
which one’s inspiration is drawn.
Essentially, I am arguing that in my
improvisatory approach to preaching,
using storytelling and role-playing
as a means of doing so, my hope is
to create a helpful framework for
assisting us to move beyond the
limited binary of evangelical versus
liberal arguments around biblical
authority.
Improvisation allows us to play with
the dichotomy of being faithful to the
spirit inherent within the ‘Word of
God’, without locking ourselves into
37
rigid positions, which assert that the
Bible has to be taken literally and is
inerrant.
The challenge of engaging with the
Bible, reading it as a Black theologian,
inspired by the fluid characteristics
of improvisation is one of being
consistently prophetic.1 Confessional
Christian Black theologians, such as
myself, undoubtedly believe that the
gospel of Christ is good news for all
humankind, in that it is based on the
liberative presence of God in human
experience. Liberationist readings of
the Bible, carried through the prism
of storytelling and improvisation, are
an ideological form of hermeneutical
practice that challenges the casual
ethnocentric and ecclesiological
certainties that belittle, oppress
and marginalise some people over
and against others. These forms of
hermeneutics undoubtedly give rise to
sermons that seek to affirm those on
the margins and to critique the often
embedded self-interest of imperialism
and the top-down domestication
of the gospel. My storytelling and
improvisatory approach to preaching
is designed to engage and entertain,
but also unsettle and destabilise.
In ‘playing’ with the congregation,
I am seeking to create something
new in their presence. It is a form of
improvisation in the spirit!2
1. For an excellent example of this see West, Gerald
(1991), Biblical Hermeneutics of Liberation: Modes
of Reading the Bible in the South African Context,
Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications/New York:
Orbis Books.
2. Examples of my work in terms of sermons can be
found in Reddie, Anthony G (2009), Is God Colour
Blind?: Insights from Black Theology for Christian
Ministry, London: SPCK, pages 77–106.
Professor Anthony G Reddie
Professor Anthony G Reddie is a learning and
development officer for the Methodist Church. He is
also an extraordinary professor with the
University of South Africa. He has
written more than 70 essays and
articles on Christian education and
Black theology. He is the author
and editor of 16 books, and the
editor of Black Theology:
An International Journal.