Exegeting The Text For Preaching

Sherman Cox is the founder of Soulpreaching.com, the only website of its kind devoted to helping preachers perfect their preaching gift in the African American preaching tradition. Soulpreaching.com offers resources and free web-based seminars on various aspects of preaching, from How to Open or Close A Sermon to Preaching Without Notes. In this short video presentation, Sherman discusses the four waves of exegeting a text for preaching:

Wave 1 - Capture your initial interaction with the text before other documents and people have influenced you. Begin with prayer. Ask the Lord to help you determine what is needed for your audience. Capture anything that comes to your mind, stories, hymns, songs, everything.

Wave 2 - Find out as much as you can out of the text. Do a more indepth reading of the text, characters, plotline. What is God doing? What are the people doing? Who has the power in the text? Who is the author? Who was the author speaking to? Don't look in commentaries or dictionaries. You don't want to find out what others have said yet.

Wave 3 - Research to see what others have said. Wesley, Calvin, Martin Luther. Interact with your tradition. What have other preachers said on this particular text? Now you are refining your ideas as you go through the text. Enrich your study with what others have said about the text.

Wave 4 - Do a senses exegesis. How does the text make you feel? What are the emotions that come out? What are the characters feeling? How does the author feel about what the characters are feeling. Now look at the sights and sounds in the text. What do you see in the text? What are the smells of the prodigal son in the pig pen, for example?

Start with creativity in phase one, and by phase three you are more intellectual, but my phase four you are bringing more creativity back into the process.


About Elder Sherman Haywood Cox, II:
Elder Sherman Haywood Cox II is the founder and director of SoulPreaching.Com which is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. He is a native of Huntsville, Alabama. He was ordained to the office of Elder at the Oakwood College Seventh-day Adventist Church in December, 1992 and has preached in churches of many denominations and ethnic traditions since that time.

He possesses a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with a minor in Math and a Master of Science in Computer Science both from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. In 2008 he completed the requirements for a Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt Divinity School with an Emphasis in Homiletics. He also received the Kelly Miller Smith Institute Certificate in Black Church Studies in May 2009. Finally, he was awarded the Florence Conwell Prize for outstanding work in the area of Preaching at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in May 2009. Thus Elder Cox is uniquely qualified to the work of SoulPreaching.Com in that he has postgraduate education in both preaching and computer technology. In addition, Elder Cox believes and teaches the importance of education for those who are called to do the work of God in this contemporary world.

For more information on preaching in the African American tradition, click on Soulpreaching.com.

Remember, it is not Mohammad, Buddha, Confucius, nor New Age that saves. Jesus saves!

Is T. D. Jakes Still A Prosperity Preacher?

I have to ask the question. Is Bishop T. D. still a prosperity preacher? He apparently doesn't think so. He spoke openingly about his position on prosperity preaching, the economy, the recession's impact on the church, President Obama's first year in office, among other subjects, in a November 2009 interview with Larry King. A portion of the transcript of that interview and video excerpt follow.

I will say that lately I have noticed a change in Jake's preaching focus -- much more on Jesus and a lot less on prosperity. His Rags to Riches and From the Cross to Pentecost series, for example, have included some refreshing, balanced preaching. I ain't mad about it. I am glad about it. I have said all along that if some of these prosperity preachers would just preach Jesus and Him crucified, that Jesus being the God He is, would handle the rest. But, does Jake's recent theological shift undo years of prosperity preaching, endorsements of and cavorting with some of the worst of the crew?

Interview Excerpt:

KING: We mentioned the fact about Christianity causing the crash. That's a headline from an article in the new edition of "The Atlantic" magazine.

Here's a short part of it. The author writes that: "America's mainstream religious denominations used to teach the faithful that they'd be rewarded in the afterlife. But over the past generation, a different strain of Christian faith has proliferated, one that promises to make believers rich in the here and now. And it's known as the prosperity gospel. Claiming tens of millions of adherents, it fosters risk taking and intense material optimism. It pumped air into the housing bubble and one year into the worst downtown since the Depression, it's still going strong."

We've linked this article to my blog at CNN.com/larryking.

What do you make of that concept?

JAKES: You know, it's a funny thing. I'm old enough to remember when religion focused on the hereafter and that was the total focus. And they were criticized for that. They said that we were so heavenly minded, we were no Earthly good.

There are those that go to extreme views about prosperity. But I thought that the article did not interview the people that it mentioned to get their perspective on it. I was briefly mentioned in the article. And I don't -- I don't consider myself a prosperity preacher. And...

KING: You're not a prosperity gospel? JAKES: No. No. That's not my gospel. My good news is that he rose from the dead.

But I do believe that, to those of us who work with people to encourage them and to give them hope, it's not a negative thing to encourage them to be all that they can be. To say that The Potter's House, for example, focuses on how to make people rich means you don't go there, because if you went to our church, we taught debt management. I wrote an op-ed about unfair practices in banking long before the crash came along. We teach people how to get out of debt. We did encourage people for home ownership. We also encouraged them to go back to school.

KING: Are you offended by the article?

JAKES: Not at all.

KING: No?

JAKES: Not at all.

Check out video of Larry King's Interview with T. D. Jakes

Related Post:

Bishop Noel Jones: Prosperity Gospel Partially to Blame for Economic Crisis

It is not Mohammad, Buddha, Confucius, nor New Age that saves. Jesus saves!

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Celebrating Five Years of Lifting Up Jesus Christ!

Antioch Baptist Church Celebrates 138th Church Anniversary

By: Min. Angela Lee Price

On Sunday, April 25th, Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky celebrated its 138 church anniversary with Rev. Kevin Cosby, Sr Pastor, St. Stephen Church, Louisville as guest speaker. Rev. Cosby preached from 1 Samuel 16:4-19 from the subject, "The Nobody That Nobody Noticed." Because David was the youngest of his father's sons, it didn't occur to Jesse that David could be king. David was the nobody that nobody noticed. Cosby stated the story is in the bible to encourage somebody who has been overlooked. People look at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.

BlackNews.com - New Book "What We Love about the Black Church: Can We Get a Witness?"

By: Min. Angela Lee Price
Wow! This is getting "gooder" and "gooder," as Rev. Dr. Freddie Haynes, Sr. Pastor, Friendship West Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas would say. Dr. Eddie Glaude's recent Huffington Post eulogy entitled "The Black Church Is Dead," available on this website, has generated a firestorm of discussion. But before we commit the body, hold on, me thinks me hear a heartbeat! Here now are two white pastors, William H. Crouch, Jr. and Joel C. Gregory, who have come out in defense of the Black Church as an institution alive and well in their soon-to-be-released book in early May entitled, What We Love About The Black Church.

Couch, president of Georgetown College states "Recently a newspaper editor visited our campus to examine our diversity program. When he did his exit interview with me, he said he knew that what made our program so rich is the fact that our African American students are coming from within the black church, where they are being encouraged, prayed for, funded and guided by their pastors. We have more than an 80% retention rate with these black church members. I am stunned by Dr. Glaude's pronouncement and invite him to visit our campus and see the outgrowth from the black church!"
BlackNews.com - New Book "What We Love about the Black Church: Can We Get a Witness?"

Remember, it is not Mohammad, Buddha, Confucius, nor New Age that saves. Jesus saves!

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Celebrating Five Years of Lifting Up Jesus Christ!

Faith and our future: Churches partner to keep black youth off the streets, out of jail - Cover

By: Min. Angela Lee Price

I am asking special prayer for our youth and young adults. I was on the program yesterday at my church for the funeral of 17 year old, Rashad Massey who was killed senselessly on April 13th. Rashad accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior at age eight and attended Sunday school. We praise God that he knew the Lord! But so many of his peers haven't accepted Christ yet, and are getting caught up in the bogus lifestyles they see of television and are being used by Satan. My heart broke as I watched so many of them grieve the death of their classmate and friend. We as adults have to do more to protect and raise our children! We have to show them who Jesus is!

I know Rashad's mother personally. She has volunteered in the new member assimilation ministry at St. Stephen. I know her to be a God-fearing woman. Rahad's father was very grieved at his son's passing as we spoke several times before and after the funeral. So many of our youth's parents don't know the Lord! That's why this call for prayer and action is all the more urgent!! As the title of the following article implies, our children are our future. So, this story, which I have been following, on what several AME churches are doing to keep youth out of jail strikes a cord with me.

Scripture tells us our responsibility as parents, "Train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old, he will no depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).

Ephesians 6:4 says, "Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Instead of examining ourselves in light of this verse, however, we love to quote the three preceding verses, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may go well with you and thou mayest live long on the earth" (Eph 6:1-3). Our children see us doing wrong. A "do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do" philosophy is not going to get it in the 21st century. Our youth are exposed to too much!

I don't pretend to know all the particulars in the Massey slaying. I am saying that two lives are lost, one to death and the other to prison. And as the young, guest preacher, Rev. Darryl Todd, Pastor, Spring Branch Missionary Baptist Church, Wagram, North Carolina, said in his eulogy based on the death of David and Bathsheba's son in 2 Samuel 12:15-ff, we have to get up, clean up, and go up to the church and worship!

I thank God that when we "go up to church" in Washington, D.C. there is a collective plan in place to protect our future and keep our youth out of jail!

Faith and our future: Churches partner to keep black youth off the streets, out of jail - Cover

Remember, it is not Mohammad, Buddha, Confucius, nor New Age that saves. Jesus saves!

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SPECIAL REPORT: Dorothy Height, Civil Rights Leader, Passes Away - BCNN1

I have so much respect for the trailblazing work of this leading lady, activist and soror, that I am at a loss for words to articulate what her passing means to me and so many woman (and men) who loved her! She was a giant of a woman. My deepest sympathies to her family. She will be truly missed!
SPECIAL REPORT: Dorothy Height, Civil Rights Leader, Passes Away - BCNN1

Black Baptist pastors criticize McDonnell's policies | Richmond Times-Dispatch

This is a MUST READ article, particularly if you care about restoration of voting rights to former felons. Thank you, black Baptist pastors and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity for speaking up against this in Virginia and on the other issues outlined in your letter.
Black Baptist pastors criticize McDonnell's policies Richmond Times-Dispatch

Voting Rights Restored to Connie Cooksey and Kenneth Braxton

Rev. Angela Lee Price

Two more people who in choosing to go with God have been healed of their affliction! Kenneth Braxton and Con­stance Wells-Cooksey (left with her daughter, Andrea and I), our latest appli­cants for restoration of voting rights received their certifi­cates from Governor Bes­hear's office this month! Kenneth is a member of St. Stephen Church and one of my Sunday school members. Connie is a member of Bates Memorial Baptist Church here in Louisville, a decision counselor and greeter. Praise be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who restores voice to the voiceless!! He is an awe­some God!! We Praise God for these victories!


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"It is a relief to have my rights restored, but it is a frustration to not be able to get the felonies off my record," states Kenneth Braxton.  Kentucky is one of two remaining states where former felons lose rights permanently unless they successfully petition the governor's office to have voting rights restored. Currently, approximately 95% of felony convictions cannot be expunged in the state of Kentucky. Kenneth and Constance Wells-Cooksey, both received certificates from Govenor Beshear's office just in time for Resurrection Weekend through the Jesus Saves Ministries Former Felons Advocacy Initiative

In 2005, Jesus Saves Ministries assisted five former felons to regain their civil rights, including the right to vote. Our initiative in association with St. Stephen Church was the first faith-based advocacy program of it's kind that communicated directly with the governor's office, and local and state Departments of Corrections in Frankfort in tracking applicants through the entire restoration process. As a result of our initial success, the Louisville Branch NAACP modeled their 2008 first-time felons voting rights campaign after our program and assisted more than 100 former felons in regaining their voting rights.

Application for Restoration of Civil Rights 2-27-08.doc. The miracle of the 2008 presidential election was that more than half of those who had their rights restored through our initiative had never voted before. They were able to vote for the first time for the first African American president in our nation's history in Barack Obama. Only God could have done something so amazingly extraordinary as that!

In 2009, we assisted three more people in regaining their voting rights, Sandra Bartell, Tyrone Trumbo, and Rudolph Long. Read their stories on this blog and on the Jesus Saves Social Network.

Moreover, I believe God is not through. He will use the muted voices of those who have never voted, and those who were told they would never vote again to do what has never been done before! All we need to do is trust and believe in Him.

Contact me, Min. Angela Lee Price at jesussaves1@insightbb.com or by calling 502-583-6798 (St. Stephen Church). We believe the job is not done unless and until the certificate is in your hand. Anything else is smoke and mirrors!

T.G.I.F! And It's Good Friday!

By: Min. Angela Lee Price

A "bad" thing happened to Jesus on Good Friday, so what makes Good Friday so "good'? Jesus was falsely accused, scorned, rejected, whipped, humiliated, and nailed to the Cross on Good Friday. He suffered an agonizing death that day at the hands of the Jewish and Roman authorities.

What happened on Good Friday definitely was not good, but the results were very good for you and me. Scripture tells us that because Jesus endured the suffering of the Cross, Christians can shout, T.G.I.F.!, thank God I'm forgiven and it's Good Friday!

Good Friday is good because Jesus paid the penalty for our sins. Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Isaiah 53:5 says, "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." What can wash away are sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

Good Friday is good for another reason. Jesus defeated Satan and his evil forces at the Cross. Colossians 2:15 states, "And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them at the cross." Hebrews 2:14-15 says, "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil-and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."

Finally, Good Friday is good because it proves to us that when you put your faith in Jesus, it ain’t over, as Maurette Brown Clark sings, until God says it’s over! A lot of conversation occurred up on the Cross as Jesus died between two thieves. Jesus prayed to God. One thief taunted Jesus. The second thief rebuked the first thief. The second thief asked Jesus to remember him in His kingdom. Finally, Jesus promised the second thief that he would spend eternity with Him. In lst Peter 3:8 we read, "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body, but made alive in the Spirit." Acts 4:12 says, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

Good Friday is good because our sin debt was paid, Satan was defeated, and it proves that through faith in Jesus Christ there's hope for eternal life even in our darkest hour. For these reasons, you can say, T.G.I.F.!, thank God I'm forgiven and it's Good Friday!

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Celebrating Five Years of Lifting Up Jesus Christ!