Chief Executive Officer of the Vision Group Mr. Robert Kabushenga has questioned why Preachers “shout” when giving the sermon.
Mr Kabushenga took to his twitter account on 9th May, 2019 and noted that preachers shout even when “they have a microphone on a powerful sound system.”
His remarks quickly drew the attention of Christians and non Christians alike on social media who made an effort to respond to the former Executive Director of the Uganda Media Centre.
While some felt there is no reasons why preachers should shout during sermons, others said ‘how the message is proclaimed influences the meaning of the message.’
“The public doesn’t pay attention to anything until its loud,” one social media user responded to Kabushenga, “Even advertisers have to shout to us to attend ‘bivvulu‘. Newspaper headlines have to be in very large fonts to be taken seriously. And bill boards have to shout their graphic designs into our eyes.”
Another social media user quoted Marshall McLuhan’s famous saying, “The medium is the message,” noting that the form a message takes is symbiotically related to the perception of the message itself.
“My shouting says something about the message. So, we should ask this important question — Is what I’m talking about worth shouting about? Definitely yes!” the social media user said.
What tone should preachers aim at?
In his article published by Desiring God, Pastor and author John Piper notes that “tonal variation” is determined in part by the nature and needs of the audience.
“We may well shout at the drowning man that there is a life preserver behind him. But we would not shout at a man on the edge of a precipice, lest we startle him into losing his balance. Jesus’ tone was different toward the proud Pharisee and the broken sinner,”
“Texts have meaning, and texts have tone. Consider the tonal difference between, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden . . .” and “Woe to you, blind guides . . .You blind fools!” The preacher should embody, not mute, these tones,”
“If there is a danger of not hearing the tone of gospel hope, emerging from the thunder and lightening of Scripture, there is also a danger of being so fixed on what we think hope sounds like, that we mute the emotional symphony of a thousand texts. Don’t do it. Let the tone grip you. Let it carry you. Embody the tone of the text and the gospel dénouement,”
