In II Timothy 2:2, Paul exhorts Timothy: “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and teaching.” It is interesting that of the three terms Paul uses here to describe the kind of preaching he wants Timothy to do, TWO of them might be considered “negative”: “reprove” and “rebuke.” (“exhort” would be the 3rd)

The point being that if people criticize preaching as being “too negative”, the Bible teaches here that “reproving” and “rebuking” are to be a central part of preaching. To do less is to give in to the very trend Paul warns against in the next verse: “wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.”