Randal Pelton quotes from Linda A. Mercandante’s 2014 book, ‘Belief Without Borders‘:-

“It has always been obvious to religious leaders that there are many ‘fuzzy’ faithful sitting in their pews; people who are neither completely clear, completely in agreement, nor completely faithful to the tenets of their religion” (p. 11).

Obvious or not, says Pelton, preachers would do well to work out strategies for speaking to these different groups of hearers:-

To the slightly confused I could say: “Let me try to make that clearer. In other words…”

To the slightly disagreeable I could say: “Let me try to prove this because you might not be buying it yet…”

To the slightly unfaithful (is that like saying someone is slightly pregnant?!) I could say: “Some of you know God has not been able to rely on you lately in this area…”

As Pelton says, this is what good preachers have always done (he cites the examples of Jonathan Edwards and Martyn Lloyd-Jones.  I think also of the advice of William Perkins).  But we lesser mortals should take a leaf or two out of their books.