Imagineer Preaching - Reviving Narrative Preaching in the Post-Modern Black Church Public

Abstract

The Black Church is experiencing a seismic shift. The number of Black adults who identify as “Christian” (2007 to 2021) and view the Bible as innerant (2009 to 2021) both dropped by 22%. These declines coincide with the rise in Black adults who identify as “Nones,” namely atheist, agnostic or no faith at all (2021: 24%). These and other faith-related trends are symptoms of a rise in post-modernism impacting the Black Church. Post-modern thought, which questions authority and claims of truth and absolute truth, pushes against traditional faith thought and custom. Instead of relying on claims based on truth, the post-modern listener finds meaning from lived experiences. The Black Church and thus Black preaching need to pivot in order to address this cultural shift. The Black Church has embraced Expository Preaching almost to the exclusion of Narrative Preaching. Imagineer Preaching seeks to revive Narrative Preaching. Imagineer Preaching embraces the experiential style of Narrative Preaching that activates the listeners’ five senses and places them within the Biblical Text and the Biblical Text amongst the listeners. Imagineer Preaching has four pillars: Imagination, Mystery, Authority and Prosperity (I.M.A.P.),   which provide the framework to create multi-dimensional sermonic experiences for post-modern listeners. Implementing Imagineer Preaching will assist the preacher in delivering impactful and memorable sermonic experiences that redefine prosperity, embrace spiritual mystery and reorient the post-modern listeners’ relationship with authority.

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School	Candler School of Theology
Department	Ministry
Degree	DMin
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Theology African American Studies Religion, General
Mot-clé	marla frederick post-modernity black church imagination unchurched walt disney disney post-modern storytelling expository narrative nones truth mystery prosperity experience imagineering absolute truth preaching authority sermon creativity postmodernity lived experience
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Roger Nam, PhD, Emory University
Committee Members	Rev. Khalia Williams, PhD, Emory University

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