HOW TO PREACH? – STORY
(As said by Srila Prabhupada about intelligent and innovative preaching)
One priest was preaching among the miners in Sheffield, where there are many coal mines, in England.
The preist was speaking that “You become devotee, followers of Jesus Christ,” and in this way he was preaching Bible.
So one of the miners, he never heard of Bible nor Jesus Christ.
So he inquired, “What is his number?” That means he thought Christ may be one of the miners, and they have got specific number.
The priest said, “No, you are mistaking. Jesus Christ is Lord. He is not one of you, like worker, no. He’s Lord. So if you don’t appreciate him, If you don’t worship him, then you will go to hell.”
Then another man asked, “What is hell?”
And the priest described that “Hell is very dark. It is very moist,” and so on.
“There is no air there, no light, and…”
So the miners are living always in the mine. There was no response, because they are habituated with this hellish life.
(laughing) So the description of hell did not appeal and they did not take it serious.
Then the priest was intelligent, said, “You know, there is no newspaper in hell.”
Then the miners said, “Oh, horrible!” (laughter) “It is horrible”.
We need to do something about this.
MORAL:
This is how, we should plan our preaching services for Krishna. First, we should understand our audience and to whom we are going to serve. The people have been threatened that God means to punish them for sins.
We should guide them nicely that God is a forgiver and he does not punish, but, only our actions gives punishments in our lives through some other persons and hence we should avoid sinful acts.
We should teach the people how to love god. Then, they will stop sinning.
Since the people are leading a difficult life, we should preach them how to balance their duties and devotion together nicely.
This is what our site is doing and this is the reason for the thumping success of our services.
Also read this story: DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY – STORY