In the South before World War II, especially black preachers made their reputations on their elaborate and frightening descriptions of Hell. It was said that a truly gifted preacher could make a congregation “smell brimstone, and feel the fire licking the floorboards beneath their feet.”
And because whether he wanted to or not, he was party to the church gossips, so had a pretty good idea of who was sinning, how they were sinning, and who knew about it. This gave him an opportunity to, without naming names, fix his gaze on particular sinners to let them know that he knew, and was speaking directly to them in his sermon, and that they had not evaded what was coming to them.
This went a long way to at least temporarily set many on a more straight and narrow path, and even somewhat defuse near homicidal anger at say, a straying or intemperate spouse, if he or she displayed some degree of contrition.
However, after the war, Hell fell out of fashion, with the general desire by the clergy to embrace the more joyous and redemptive aspects of faith. But as an experiment, this change has caused mixed reviews, at best.