Preaching is an art, the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III told a gathering at Duke Divinity School this week. And like any art form, it requires imagination, innovation, and a willingness to see familiar things in new ways.
Moss, senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, brought that message to Duke as the featured preacher and lecturer for the 2026 Gardner C. Taylor Lecture Series, hosted by the Office of Black Church Studies. The annual series honors the legacy of Gardner C. Taylor, the influential pastor, preacher and author, and celebrates the beauty and power of preaching in the Black prophetic Christian tradition.
The 2026 series included a worship service on Sept. 21 at Monument of Faith Church in Durham and a lecture on Sept. 22 at Goodson Chapel at the Divinity School.
For Moss, the series provided an opportunity to consider what it means for preachers to faithfully proclaim the Gospel in the present age—and to approach that work with the creativity of an artist, the curiosity of a storyteller, and the ear of a DJ.
“Preaching is art,” Moss said during his lecture. “Preaching is an art form and with all forms of art requires innovation or revision. The great thing about art is that it can take something old and make it new.”
That idea of remixing and reimagining tradition became a recurring theme throughout Moss’ lecture. Drawing on music, film, visual art, and preaching, he challenged those gathered to expand the sources that inform their theological imaginations.
“We are stewards, poets, prophets,” Moss said. “I would submit this day that we are DJs with an assignment to produce a mixtape homiletic for this moment and movement for dignity and flourishing.”
The metaphor was more than a creative comparison. Moss encouraged preachers to continually expand what he called their “crate”—the collection of experiences, stories, sounds, images and ideas they draw from in their work.
“And so the goal is to expand your crate,” he said. “That means you listen to different music. You read different books. You watch different movies. You have conversations with people who are different than you. You go to different places. You expand your crate.”
For Moss, engaging the present age also means paying attention to the ways people encounter stories beyond the pulpit. His lecture moved into film, social media, and visual storytelling, asking listeners to consider how theology is communicated through the images they create and the stories they choose to frame.
“We must do the same thing, whether it is on YouTube, social media, TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook, because the camera now has theology,” Moss said. “The camera now has theology. How you frame a shot, what you decide to leave in the shot and what you decide to take out of the shot is a theological decision.”
That attention to framing ultimately returned Moss to story: one of the most fundamental tools of preaching.
He shared from his own experience as a filmmaker and storyteller, reflecting on the importance of preserving stories in their fullness, particularly at a time when stories can be edited, abbreviated, or erased.
“In a moment where people are trying to erase story, trying to delete story, it becomes even more so that the act of telling a story becomes a revolutionary act when you share the fullness of a story, not the edited version, the fullness of the story becomes powerful,” Moss said.
The emphasis on storytelling, imagination, and faithful engagement with the present age also reflects the purpose of the Gardner C. Taylor Lecture Series. Sponsored by the Office of Black Church Studies, the series seeks to equip ministers and pastoral leaders with new and innovative perspectives for proclaiming the Gospel “with power and precision in the present age.”
Moss’ visit offered one way of continuing that work—honoring Taylor’s legacy not simply by looking backward, but by asking what faithful preaching requires now.
For Moss, that means remaining rooted in the tradition but continuing to "expand the crate," to not let ourselves become static.
And it means continuing to treat preaching as an art form capable of making the old new for the sake of the present age.
