Preaching Heaven, Sabbath, and Health in a Post-Religious World
Preaching today feels like stepping into a foreign land.
The language is still English, but the words don’t mean the same.
The culture is fragmented, splintered into micro-communities where no single narrative holds sway.
And the questions people are asking—if they’re asking at all—are nothing like the ones that fueled Adventist preaching for generations.
Take heaven, for example.
For decades, we preached heaven as the ultimate reward—a crown of life, streets of gold, an eternal home.
But today, heaven isn’t the question people are asking.
They’re not staying up at night wondering if they’ll make it.
They’re wondering if life here—right now—is even worth living—especially with a cost of living crisis, ecological threats, nuclear war on the horizon, and AI both promising and threatening to remake the world.
How do you preach heaven in way that speaks to their lived anxieties rather than the anxieties our parents had? Thats the key.
Then there’s Sabbath.
We’ve preached it as day seven, the seal of God, the counterpoint to the mark of the beast.
But the modern listener?
They don’t care if it’s day one, day seven, or day three.
Sabbath as we’ve framed it doesn’t resonate.
Yet, what if Sabbath isn’t about a day at all?
What if it’s about something deeper—something this restless, anxious, overworked world desperately needs but doesn’t even know how to name?
And the health message.
Once a shining example of Adventist relevance, it now feels overshadowed by the cultural backlash against far-left, secular vegan fanaticism.
People hear "plant-based," and they roll their eyes.
The conversation has been hijacked by non-religious extremes, leaving us with a challenge:
How do we preach health in a way that speaks to the deeper human desire for wholeness rather than rehashing the very points that create resistance? And how do we do this in a way that doesn’t feel like a cooking class for grandma’s?
This is the world we’re called to preach to—a fragmented, anxious world with different fears, different questions, and different priorities than the ones Adventism has wrestled with for over a century.
But here’s the thing:
The gospel has always been bigger than our frameworks.
The gospel can speak to every culture, every language, and every question—if we let it.
And nested within the Adventist message is all the raw material we need to nurture a movement of preachers that interact with the culture rather than lecture it.
But how? What are the steps? What does this look like in pen and paper?
Well, I can’t answer that in a blog.
So I did the next best thing. I’ve put together a 3-day workshop titled, “Preach to Reach” that is focused entirely on how to articulate the beauty of Adventism for our secular, post-religious world of today.
It runs from February 3-5, from 7-8:30pm EST over those 3 nights.
This 3-day workshop will give you the tools, the frameworks, and the practical exercises to meet people where they are in our modern age… and lead them to where God is calling them to be.
With only 4 spots left, this is your chance to be part of a conversation that could transform your preaching—and your ministry.
👉 REGISTER NOW.
If you’re ready to reimagine how to preach heaven, Sabbath, and health (plus more) in ways that truly connect with young and secular generations, join me for Preach to Reach!
