Preach on Alienation….to Reconcile

Many voices today are calling on preachers to abandon the usage of concepts like sin, alienation and (especially) hell.  Chad Brand, Professor of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, disagrees. Here is Dr Brand’s biblical and counter-cultural advice for preachers:

“So, we preach on alienation, but not in order to alienate. We preach on alienation in order to reconcile. So, when you preach on sin, do it with tears in your eyes and not a flash of anger. (Don’t preach against anger angrily.) When you preach on sin and alienation, do it recognizing your own sinfulness and alienation. Admit that you, too, have been where they are, and that you are not the expert come here to lecture them on getting their lives right. You are simply the one who got out of the mire before they did, so that you could throw them a rope of rescue. But when you preach on sin, make it clear that this is a crucial moment. With both anger and lust, Jesus said, “Do something now! This is not the time to mull it over. Get out now, or you may be in hell by morning.”

The whole article.

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