The Art of Compelling Preaching

If the name Dominique A Robinson is familiar to you, it may be because you saw her face on a flyer or on one of your social media news feeds (Sis be preaching everywhere).  Maybe you saw one of her sermons pop up while you were scrolling through YouTube (“I got 99 problems, but my Faith ain’t one”).  Maybe you saw the announcement that she is the program manager of the $1.25 M grant for the Compelling Preaching Initiative recently awarded to our beloved Zion.  In whatever way you have become familiar with her, let me just tell you that sista has a lot of layers for the Kingdom.  Not only is she a compelling preacher in her own right, but she has done the work to gain the tools to keep compelling us for years to come. 

This native New Jersey millennial is currently the John E. Hines Asst. Professor of preaching at Seminary of the Southwest, Austin, TX.  She answered her call to the ministry at the age of thirteen.  She holds multiple degrees from some of the most prestigious institutions in all of Christian academia.  She is well equipped for the tasks at hand and ahead.

Upon learning of her appointment as the program manager for the Grant, I immediately reached out to her for an interview.  I was excited about what this grant means for A.M.E. Zion Churches.  I was even more excited about what this means for preachers. This means access.  Access to people and resources and integrative systems that will help clergy and lay alike. 

Star of Zion (SOZ): First of all, Congratulations!  I’m so excited for you.  You have certainly done the work over the years to prepare for this next step in your journey.  So, tell me what it means for you, as a highly prepared preacher, to be the Program Manager for this grant and what it means to you as a Zionite.

Rev. Dr. Dominique A. Robinson (DAR): I am the first African American full-time faculty at the Seminary of the Southwest, Teaching Preaching. I am the chair of the Department of Preaching, and I’m in the Chair that is named after the founder of the institution.  So, I already have this conflicted joy in the fact that I am living out a career and a vocation that is an answered prayer.  But oftentimes, my conflict comes in that I am offering some of what I believe is my best self as an academician to a population of people who aren’t serving my community.  And so, one of my absolute private prayers was the Lord giving me the opportunity to offer my scholarship and myself to my people.  So, this grant, this opportunity does just that.  It allows me to pour any and everything that I have, especially when it comes to preaching, into my own people, my own denomination, my preachers, my colleagues, my friends.  And so that is exactly what I meant when I posted that God answered a very private prayer in a very public way. It is a blessing to be so passionate about preaching and teaching and then to come back to the place that has formed me, that has invested in me.  Now, to be able to invest in it.   Also, to have some influence and control over the distribution of funds to make sure it is done with equity.

SOZ:  The Compelling Preaching Initiative grant. What type of preaching do you find compelling?

DAR: I love preaching that makes me think.  I’m also the type you got to do some carrying on for me.  I need a little organ tuning… I need a little musicality in your voice…I need a little charisma in your embodiment.  For content, I love preaching that offers a hermeneutic that pushes against the grain a little bit.  Because I am a womanist, I want to know what is the marginalized perspective of the text.  What do you think the water had to say about the woman at the well? I wanna know what Nemo would say if he was at the parting of the Red Sea.  That type of preaching that makes me think that’s compelling preaching for me.

To learn more about this compelling preacher, check out her website at https://www.dominiquearobinson.com.