I am not a churchgoer myself, nor am I a Christian, so my viewpoint may be different than yours, onlytheword. Yet, I believe the point of church service is to show the congregation how to grow in the love of the Lord, not simply avoid burning in hell for eternity. Thus, sermons should be focused on how to become a better person through Christ, and how the Bible teaches us that this is possible. Many people also believe that Edward'skind of sermon fosters a Puritanical attitude that can be counter-productive to Christianity's overall message. I live with someone who practices the Christian faith, whose father is a preacher, and they both abhor the kind of self-righteousness thatpasses for spirituality in many cases today. Instead, they want to encourage everyone to seek God for themselves, and use the Bible as a tool to achieve this kind of understanding.
Simply put (perhaps too simply), you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. People respond to discussions of kindness and love with a deeper understanding than people who are scared into coming to church. You may think it's better to keep a congregation in line with fear, but then you miss a greater portion of the people you could reach through preaching God's love. Also, is the point of church to simply "keep people in line?" I hope not. I'd like to think that every Christian church's goal would be to spread the gospel of Christ to each member, not simply scare them so badly they don'tdare skipa service.
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