sermon Archives - Passion for Planting

5 Pro Tips on How to Get Amazing Sermon Feedback

Patrick Bradley — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 09:00:38 +0000

by Carey Nieuwhof: One of the worst feelings any preacher has is finishing up a message and having no idea how it really went.

I mean you have your own subjective opinion, but we all know ourselves well enough to realize that sometimes we thought our message was awesome when it really wasn’t, and sometimes we thought it was awful when it was actually great.

Ugh.

Making the problem worse is the fact that everybody actually has an opinion about your message. Trust me, they’re talking about it/not talking about it in the foyer, on the ride home or at lunch.

So even if you don’t evaluate your message, I promise you everyone else does.

So, then, every preacher should get an accurate assessment of how the sermon went. And that’s hard too.

It’s hard because while everyone has an opinion, they’re just not able to give you the kind of meaningful feedback that helps you get better.

By the way—speaking of getting better—I just launched my brand new course, The Art of Better Preaching, a 12 part course I developed with Mark Clark, lead pastor of a rapidly growing megachurch in Vancouver BC. Each weekend for years, Mark and I have preached to thousands of post-modern, post-Christian people.

Hundreds of leaders have already jumped in on the course and (thanks for the suggestion!) we just made it easier than ever, adding a 3 part payment plan to make taking the course even easier (it’s still a fraction of the price of any seminary course you’d take). And one of the big questions from early participants? Where was a course like this when I was in seminary?

Check it out here.

But back to our key question: how do you get an accurate, helpful assessment of your message? I mean that would be amazing, wouldn’t it? Because that’s how you grow.

Here are 5 pro tips.

Preachers, even if you don’t evaluate your message, I promise you everyone else does.Click To Tweet

1. Get Over Your Natural Defensiveness

Great sermon evaluation starts with you. More particularly, it starts with how open you truly are to the truth.

So here’s some truth. There’s a part of me that wants everyone to tell me that I knocked it out of the park every single time I talk. That I crushed it. That I’m the best preacher they’ve ever heard preaching the best message they’ve ever heard.

Except of course, that’s not just not true. It can’t be true.

If I don’t check that part of my spirit, people will tell from a mile away. Because your sermon evaluation process will consist mostly of you fishing for compliments.

Preachers who fish for compliments usually only hook half-truths and lies. Nobody wants to burst your bubble or make you feel bad about yourself, so they won’t tell you the truth.

Preachers who fish for compliments usually only hook half-truths and lies.Click To Tweet

Which is why you need to get over your natural defensiveness and seek honest, real feedback.

Thank the messenger, don’t shoot them. If it hurts, grieve privately. Go for a ride and get it out of your system. But always thank people for whatever they have to tell you.

Growth-minded leaders know the truth is your friend, even when it hurts. Sometimes especially when it hurts.

Growth-minded leaders know the truth is your friend, even when it hurts.Click To Tweet

2. Don’t Settle for What. Discover Why.

Now that you’re working on your defensiveness, you’ll discover that you get all kinds of feedback casually.

Think about the foyer. Most people will tell you it was a good message if they liked it. And I usually go out after a service and find some core staff or volunteers and ask them what they thought. We also have a Monday evaluation meeting with staff where I try to get feedback. So I’m actively seeking feedback.

Here’s the problem with that though: most people will only tell you that they liked your message or didn’t like your message. They’ll say it was good or not so good.

And the conversation almost always stops there (even with staff and team members who are not preachers)—which makes it rather unhelpful.

When you get that kind of feedback (even through casual conversation or formal evaluation), go one step further and ask the person this simple question: why?

Why was it good? Why was it not my best? Tell me more….I’m open.

Do that, and you’ll learn a ton.

Maybe some of your ideas didn’t flow logically. Or your passion level was low. Or your delivery was too fast/too slow. Maybe one or two of your points weren’t clear.

That’s helpful feedback. And if you’re going into another service, it will help you do a mid-course correction.

When it comes to sermon feedback, don’t settle for what. Ask why. Why is helpful. It’s where the real learning comes.

When it comes to sermon feedback, don’t settle for what. Ask why.Click To Tweet

3. Watch Yourself. Listen to Yourself.

I’m well aware that most non-narcissists hate the sound of their own voice. I have spent most of my life getting used to my voice and thinking “Do I really sound like that?”

Want to make it even worse? Watch yourself on video. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve thought I actually do that? Man, I look so awkward.

So I get the natural inclination most of us have to not listen to ourselves or watch our messages back. And that’s a mistake.

Preachers, as painful as it is, watch yourself preach. Everyone else has to. You should never expect hundreds or thousands of people to watch you if you won’t watch you.

Preachers, as painful as it is, watch yourself preach. Everyone else has to.Click To Tweet

You’ll learn so much. From verbal ticks (um, ah), to annoying habits (why do I always touch my glasses or put my hands in my pocket?) to moments in the message that just didn’t work, you’ll see yourself more accurately.

But it’s not all negative. You’ll see what worked too. You’ll see what connected and what didn’t.

I have learned so much listening back to my messages and watching myself on video, even though every time I have to make myself play the message back.

You may be your own worst critic, but if you’re not, everyone else will be.

So endure the pain, and watch and listen.

You may be your own worst critic, but if you’re not, everyone else will be.Click To Tweet

4. Watch and Listen with a Friend

I haven’t done this as much as I should, but whenever I have done this it’s so helpful.

Watch and listen to yourself with a friend you trust who will give you honest, accurate feedback. Someone who loves you enough to tell you the truth.

You might think you’re moving around awkwardly and they’ll say that actually you’re not. That it’s fine or endearing. Conversely, you may think you’re as smooth as butter and they may tell you that all your slouching or weird arm movements take away from the message.

The combination of your own commitment to self-improvement by watching and listening back and doing the same with a friend from time to time will improve your preaching immensely.

5. Get A Peer To Review It

Saved my favourite and most valuable tip to last.

You know who the best evaluator your preaching will be? Another preacher who will tell you the truth.

The challenge with getting a non-communicator to evaluate your communication is that they will be hard pressed to tell you exactly why something worked or didn’t work and how to get better. They don’t do what you do, so their ability to help is limited.

Imagine knowing nothing about race cars, heading to a track and trying to advise a pro racer on how to shave 2 seconds off his lap. I mean what would you say? Go faster? You just don’t have the expertise to give meaningful advice.

That’s why a fellow preacher (who’s maybe a bit better than you) can be your best evaluator. He or she can tell you why something worked or why it didn’t, why your treatment of the text was solid or why you got lost in the first century and didn’t bridge things well for the 21st century. In the same way, another preacher can help you brain storm on better application examples, better intros, better endings.

They’re practitioners. They have studied both theology and the craft of preaching.

Don’t have anyone on your staff who can fit that bill? Ask a colleague or preacher across town. Even doing that a couple times a year can immensely improve your preaching.

Your best sermon evaluation will always come from a colleague who understands the craft.Click To Tweet

Some Practical Help…Instant Access

Another way to quickly improve your preaching is through my new course, The Art of Better Preaching.

I teamed up with Mark Clark, lead pastor of Village Church, a growing mega-church in post-Christian Vancouver, and in the course Mark and I share everything we’ve learned over decades of preaching and communicating at conferences and events around the world.

So what do you get in The Art of Better Preaching? You get 12 video training sessions, a comprehensive, interactive workbook that will help you create, write, and deliver better sermons and numerous bonuses (cheat sheets, game film of Mark and I breaking down how we teach and much more).

This is the complete course you need to start preaching better sermons, including:

7 preaching myths it’s time to bust forever
The 5 keys to preaching sermons to unchurched people (that will keep them coming back)
How to discover the power in the text (and use it to drive your sermon)
The specific characteristics of sermons that reach people in today’s world
Why you need to ditch your sermon notes (and how to do it far more easily than you think.)
How to keep your heart and mind fresh over the long run

In the Art of Better Preaching, Mark and I share everything we’ve learned about communicating in a way that will help your church grow without compromising biblical integrity.

We cover detailed training on everything from interacting with the biblical text to delivering a talk without using notes, to writing killer bottom lines that people will remember for years.

Don’t miss out! Check it out today and gain instant access. Special introductory pricing is time-limited, so don’t delay.

And we just introduced a payment plan to make jumping in the course even easier. Hurry while the pricing is the lowest it will ever be. The price increases tomorrow (Thursday, June 28th) at midnight.

What Helps You?

What helps you improve as a preacher? Scroll down and leave a comment!

The post 5 Pro Tips on How to Get Amazing Sermon Feedback appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 5 Pro Tips on How to Get Amazing Sermon Feedback

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Never Waste a Good Sermon! 6 Ways to Re-Purpose Your Message Content

Patrick Bradley — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 09:00:34 +0000

by Brandon A. Cox: Do you ever get that post-sermon, anti-climactic feeling that all of your research, all of your writing, all of your preparation just got burned up in a single half-hour shot?

It would be far more ideal to leave church on Sunday believing there was still much to come of the results of your preaching, even after the lights are turned off and the doors locked.

I think we should never waste a good sermon!

Here are at least six ways to stretch the reach of your message beyond the single weekend service…

Blog your points, one at a time.

A full sermon transcript or manuscript is probably too long for a blog post, but one point with its explanation is just the right size. So if you’re presenting three or four major truths this Sunday, write three or four corresponding blog posts during the following week.

And if you’re not sure about the difference between writing an effective sermon point and writing an effective blog post, let me offer this advice…

Write the title as if it will stand all alone – a blog post title needs to hint at what is contained in the post.
Write the first line as if it determines whether the reader will go any further, because it does.
Write the first paragraph to get people to take the next step, which isn’t what you think it is.

If you expect people to keep reading straight through your blog post, you’re still thinking of it too much like a sermon. When reading web copy, most readers do something different – they scroll to the end.

At the end, they’ll figure out whether the post is worth reading or not. Therefore…

Close with a strong, confident call to action and sign-off.
Between the first paragraph and closing paragraph, present your content.
Try to break it up with subheadings, bullet points, and occasional illustrations.
Share it bravely. The world needs it!

Use brief quotes and verses as social media messages.

Scan your sermon notes and separate out five or six sentences that are strong on their own. Share them as single sentence status posts and then, sometimes, turn them into an image with a tool like Canva.

It’s popular to brand them with your church logo and make them look professionally designed, but I still think there’s great strength in just shooting from the hip and dropping truth into your social networks without being polished.

Use the video.

When I was in college, I had to preach a sermon on camera. Then, I had to watch it and sit down with my preaching professor so he could critique it with me. This was extremely helpful… and excruciatingly painful.

It still is painful to see myself on video – that’s human nature. But it’s worth it. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a thousand pictures, and video is growing in popularity at a rapid rate with the advancement of mobile web platforms.

So, share your sermon video as a whole, and in pieces by using smaller clips as brief posts.

Create a podcast.

It’s fairly easy to use your sermon audio to create a podcast. Almost every church website solution will have some kind of rss or itunes feed capabilities, so with a few steps, you can be sharing your sermons as a podcast.

You may wonder why podcasting matters so much, but there’s a reason why it’s such a rapidly growing trend. People “subscribe” to podcasts. So rather than popping in and out, as with blogs, people usually form a pretty faithful community around a podcast and they’ll listen to every new episode.

Turn it into a small group study.

Our Community Pastor takes my notes and creates a discussion guide to go along with them. Then, some of our small groups download those notes from our small group studies page and use them in their group meetings.

It’s likely that in less than twenty minutes, you could breeze through your notes and create two or three strong discussion questions after each point. Then, offer it for download.

Create ebooks from your sermon series’.

Save your finished notes as a pdf file, add a nice cover, and then offer them as free downloads. Some people like to read content on web pages while others prefer to read longer form content as down loadable, portable files.

You can even publish them to Kindle with a bit of preparation, or give them away as lead magnets to people when they subscribe to your church’s email list.

Here’s the bottom line…

The gospel is the greatest content on the planet, and we Pastors write and say a lot of words about it every week.

It’s a shame for that knowledge to go to waste. Utilize modern technology and social distribution points to extend the message and fill every conversational space with the truth and glory of God!

This post was originally published at Ministry Pass.

Source: Never Waste a Good Sermon! 6 Ways to Re-Purpose Your Message Content

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