Scales in Preaching
In addition to these basic theological concepts (Henry Mitchell’s Soul Theology provides 10 for the African-American church), I would also need to memorize scriptures. Why not look at fundamental texts that are important to your community. In the Original African-American Bible, there are 101 texts that are important to African-Americans. These texts could be a good starting point to have memorized and ready. These are the fundamentals of preaching in the African-American community.
These are your fundamentals. These are your scales. Practice them. Memorize them. Fit them in messages. See where they fit and where they don’t. What about texts that are important to your ecclesial tradition? Memorize them. To our Baptist sisters and brothers, have you practiced how baptism by immersion can illuminate other things? How does it fit in when you are preaching different sermons in different contexts. What about the historic Baptist call for liberty. How does that fit in? Those are your scales.
The cross. We all preach the cross, but for some of us, when we preach it, it is always shoehorned in like it is an addition to the message. Have you practiced that fundamental? What does the cross say to those who have lost love ones? What about to those who have lost a job. How about those who have just received a promotion.
Take a text and see what the text says about the cross. What does the text say about your other fundamentals. Maybe it doesn’t say anything, maybe it does. But remember, we are practicing.
How about improvisation. Take those fundamentals and improvise on them. Evans Crawford talks about riffing on James Weldon Johnson’s book, God’s Trombones. Why not begin with one of them and then take it in a different direction. Then how about taking a text and letting it take you in a different direction. Preach the text and then preach a sermon.
The equivalent of playing songs would be to read sermons and “preach them.” One can practice sermons from others, and your own sermons. Follow the text closely in this practice and then improvise over the text.
Sadly, many just copy others’ sermons and then preach them verbatim in the worship service. But I am not talking about that, I am talking about preaching them in the practice room. Preach them. There are tons of sermons available online. Or get a book. Look at classic sermons and even head on over to sermoncentral.com and check out some contemporary ones.
Now, some will say that they don’t have time to practice. I hear you, but what if I would have said that in my trumpet practice and then attempted to play. Well, you know what would have happened. I think that we should spend more time practicing than just when we are preaching in the pulpit. Adapting a practice schedule of a trumpet player may not be exactly what we need, but certainly we can learn from those who spend time diligently working on their craft. 
