Rev Bill

Last month I posted about the art and craft of writing sermons.

One step in the writing process that many leave out is the evaluation of the sermon — either before or after the sermon is delivered. I found this post that discusses the importance sermon evaluation.

Here are some of the ideas about how to go about the process of evaluating a sermon:

1. Take time to evaluate a couple of messages at each elder’s meeting. Ask hard questions and listen to everything that is said without getting into a defensive posture or argument.

2. Meet with younger men in the ministry and let them help you pick apart your sermon over breakfast. These are the guys who are filled-up with theology and lots of reading, if they didn’t get your sermon then few others probably did.

3. Go to thoughtful and trusted laymen and ask them how they are growing through the pulpit ministry. Ask them what you can do to be more effective as a communicator and teacher of the Word. Do you have any bad habits that make listening difficult or distract?

4. Here’s a hard one: do you preach too long (or too short)? Good and godly men disagree on the “how long” question. Piper rarely preaches past thirty minutes and MacArthur has rarely preached under an hour. I recently came to grips with the fact that I just preach far too long more often than not. There is nothing holy about wearing people out beyond what they can endure so the preacher must measure his economy of words and make them count.

5. Seek out the prayer warriors in your church and have them pray for all aspects of the sermon preparation and delivery.

6. I often work on my sermon up to the last minute, many times editing in the pew just before I preach. However, try to allow some time between final prep and the actual delivery. I often relish the Saturday’s where I can spend the day away from my notes and think through the various aspects of tomorrow’s sermon. Sometimes I only have an hour in the early Sunday AM to do this but it’s always helpful.

Sermon evaluation is a needed step in the sermon process. We need to evaluate how well the word of God is being communicated to the congregation.

I’d welcome ideas about preparing — and evaluating — sermons.

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