What does preaching at the borders really mean? Luke Powery got his audience thinking and singing about this very question as his voice filled the theater with spirituals. “Preaching a la the spirituals is a collective exorcism of individualism,” Powery declared. Preaching at the borders is reclaiming our singing voice as a community; singing out of the rubble of human existence, he avowed. The audience left affirmed of the viability of the practice of singing as a homiletical strategy because when life is hard and tough, there is always a song.

Later in the evening, Sam Cruz took the ...