Thunder and lightning without rain

The case of popular African preachers

Abstract

Today in the African context in general and Malawi in particular there has been a proliferation of preachers, prophets, bishops and local pastors whose preaching leaves a lot to be desired. The majority of the popular sermons demonstrate a lack in proper biblical understanding. Yet the preachers feel called to preach and teach the word of God. This article therefore aims at evaluating and analysing sermons of the preachers in the church. But due to an apparent lack of formal Bible literacy lessons the sermons lack biblical understanding and therefore this status affects the spiritual growth of the majority of the congregants. It is like we have a lot of thunder and lightning, but if you do not have the rain nothing grows on the ground. Preaching must break through the bad cultural practices, like Jesus who unsettled the Jewish culture and turned it upside-down in His teaching. We should be willing to be preaching fools. Therefore, in this article we are suggesting a homiletical theory and praxis which regards the biblical text and the people's context "Word and world"as serious.