I asked one of the guys in our church for feedback on a recent message of his choice. He seemed to pick up the basic structure, big idea, context and application of the message. He did seem particularly and personally challenged by the message. He didn’t remember any illustrations other than a more modern retelling of the parable that was part of the text the message was based on. (For the record he is right… there weren’t many illustrations needed from outside the text itself).
I asked him for any criticism or points of growth needed that he could give me after listening to me preach over the last few years. He’s not a super critical dude which caused me to wonder if I should have asked someone that might have been more critical or maybe I should have asked him to be more critical as he listened. The feedback he did give was more along the lines of the growth he has observed over the last few years in my preaching and I think it’s super helpful because what he said resonates and reminds me that I haven’t arrived yet with this craft of preaching. The following are three areas of growth I have to continue to pay attention to.
Growth in clarity…
I have to keep an eye on bunny trails and continue learning to toss some in the trashcan. It’s helpful to craft an introductory question and big idea with points that flow out of those, build on the big idea or answer the question. I seek to be a slow expository preacher who takes a long time to move through a book of the Bible. I’ve discussed with some of our leaders the possibility and helpfulness of spending extra time chopping up a book into short 6-8 week series chunks before preaching through a book. I think this would help to add to clarity, direction and connectedness for people hearing the messages especially if it takes a few years to work through a book.
Growth in time sensitivity…
This has been difficult for me over the years. Learning what information to cut, how long the manuscript should be for me to stay in a 45-50 minute timeline, spending time actually manuscripting instead of a few bullet points on a page with a ton of study coming into the pulpit, how to not communicate every thought that comes to mind while preaching and not needing to present every fact that I’ve learned from reading a ton of sermons or commentaries on the text in front of me are things I’ve been working to implement. I have to remind myself that less is more and more is less and that preaching needs to be like a finely honed arrow or sniper shot rather than a shotgun blast. Sticking to my notes helps with this usually but sticking with notes on a manuscript means that I have to read in a way that doesn’t sound like reading while having enough of the manuscript committed to memory that I don’t have my head buried in the notes the entire time and therefore get disconnected from making eye contact with the audience. Only stepping away from the notes if an extra thought is just absolutely burning a hole in me has been helpful too. Course sometimes a burning hole just means bad pizza, little sleep or un-dealt with emotions from a meeting the week before.
Growth in application…
I’ve been learning to craft application questions and directives that hopefully engage the thinking, desires and behavior of my hearers. It seems to be helpful to really unpack the underlying issues of the heart’s desires that motivate the behavior of our lives on the surface and how what we think or know competes with or feeds our desires and behavior.
Feedback in preaching has been crucial for me over the years and I think I’m good at asking for it from our leaders often. I do like the line of questions in this assignment as they give a more objective way of getting feedback. As I grow in preaching I hope to live out 2 Timothy 2:14-26 & 4:1-5.