Ernest Hemingway said, “As a writer, you should not judge, you should understand.” The same is true for preachers. Unfortunately, a good bit of the preaching I hear isn’t understanding, it’s judging.

Here is the template and tenor: “You people (the church), ​​are doing X. God hates X. Stop doing X or God will hate you too. Now here are three takeaways so that you will stop making God mad and risking your eternal location.” It may be my ear, but that sounds condemning. Worse, many pastors have convinced themselves that this sermon construction is “prophetic.” They miss the fact that it is judging.

Condemnation Corridor

“What’s the problem with that?” you may be asking. “Should preaching name sin?” Obviously, the answer is yes. Throughout the sermons, both in the Old and New Testaments, sermons and prophecies highlight where the people of God have misstepped and fallen short, but the great majority of them are ultimately rooted or return to God’s faithful goodness, restoration, and salvation not simply feature the failings of human.

Paul proclaims in Romans 8:

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)

The apostle then goes on to illustrate what that looks like, and how those in Christ Jesus encounter and see the world differently than those who do not. Paul is not saying that those in Christ Jesus no longer sin or are never in need of repentance. He is saying that, because of Jesus, the fundamental crisis of humanity, sin, has been dealt with and the “just requirement of the law might be fulfilled.”

For those in Christ, condemnation no longer exists as a relational factor between those who follow Christ and the Creator of the cosmos. The gospel is actually “You people (the church), ​​did X. God hates X. But God through Jesus did Y. In light of Y, you are not condemned.”

If sin has been dealt with and the “just requirement of the law might be fulfilled,” why is there so much preaching that condemns? Why do so many sermons I hear center human condemnation rather than where Paul is headed: “But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you (Rom. 8:9)”? So, if your preaching has stumbled into a condemnation corridor, what are some steps to recover your balance?

How to Recover Our Balance

The first step is to ground sermons more in stories and less in points. Stories unfold, draw people into human experience, and create space for understanding. When people talk to us in “points,” we interpret those interactions as top-down, aggressive, and come across as lectures. It takes time, but it is possible to wrap Biblical truths in the context of story–both the stories of our lives and the stories of the context of Scriptures.

The second step, and this will sound strange, is to spend more time with people, even if that means spending less time studying. As I tell my preaching clients, a week’s worth of lunches will give you a year’s worth of sermons. Time with people, rather than in the hindquarters of the latest Christian book, gives us entry into the lived-experience of the church. It allows us to hear and, more importantly, empathize, with real life.

Any preaching that narrows or limits the actual space where hearers live cannot help but distance the preaching from the people. The outcome here, more likely than not, will be preaching that judges rather than understands.

The third step is to envision yourself as the hearer. As humans, we naturally understand, at least to a degree, our own stresses, motivations, intentions, and behaviors. Even, in retrospect, when we suspect we would have behaved differently, we know why we made the choices we made. Condemning sermons simply don’t work, because our hearers mentally pushback against our condemnation. The church’s inner monologue is constantly ringing: “This church doesn’t understand me.”

The fourth step is to commit to never preach angry. If your sermon is animated by being upset with US politics, a controversy in the church, a personal grudge or trauma, and about some personal issue centered on your personal life, then put it on the shelf until you can preach the Good News without your individual annoyances. The pulpit is not a place for grievance. The church will know that your teaching is neither about them nor the kingdom of God. They will know the sermon is about your own resentments and unhappiness.

The Good News Is Good News

Ultimately, preaching is the proclamation of the Good News. Frederick Buechner was right, the good news is sometimes the bad news before it is good news, but what is clear is that the good news is good news. Exiting the church building, the church should feel as though they have encountered something good, even if they are pierced by what made it good.

The sermon is not a time to make people think and feel less of themselves and no preacher needs to try to make their church think and feel less of themselves in order, as some have said, to make much of God. The good news is good enough without denigrating people.

Humans are made a little lower than the angel, and we were created good. When we step into the pulpit, the wise preacher will see their church as that, as created good and beloved of God, and their preachers will sound like it.

Sean Palmer is the Teaching Pastor at Ecclesia Houston, speaker and speaking coach, and author of several books including--Speaking by the Numbers: Ennegram Wisdom for Teachers, Pastors, and Communicators.