Yet, as preachers we need to be reminded that preaching is a skill that requires development and honing. Sure, giftedness cannot be taught and we have it in differing amounts, but we can all become better with the level of gifting we do have.
This week I've been watching some of the world's premier athletes compete against each other on tennis' biggest stage...Wimbledon. At various points in the matches, the tv camera pans to the players' boxes in which are seated not only their loved ones, but their coaches. Even at such an advanced level of play, they have coaches helping them get better and better.
Over the last two years I've had the opportunity to spend extensive time teaching two young men to preach. It has caused me to do a lot of soul searching about my own preaching. It has caused me to think about preachers and our preaching differently. There should be a bigger push among preachers to exhort each other to keep getting better.
Fellow preacher, I want to exhort you to get better than you are now at preaching. The thing is, I don't think it's that we don't want to get better, I think it's that we are hesitant because we know what getting better will entail--it is probably going to require us to ask someone to help us evaluate our preaching--which is about as easy as a grown woman asking someone to evaluate her figure! But I think we must, for the sake of the church and our people and the glory of God. Let's not let our sensitivity about this matter prevent us from asking for critique from people who know something about the craft of preaching, have our best interests at heart, and are not afraid to speak some truth into your life.
Here are some ideas for improving our preaching: 1. Watch a video of yourself preach to your church and using a good sermon evaluation form, critique yourself. I've started doing this more and more. 2. Get some people to watch a video of you preach and critique you. This could be a couple of fellow pastors you trust. One option would be to send a video to a preaching prof at a seminary and beg the favor of an evaluation. 3. If you manuscript your sermons submit a couple of manuscripts for evaluation.
In recent months, I've critiqued myself preaching via video and submitted video of myself preaching to preacher friends. It has helped me tremendously.
Let's get better at what we do. Just because a few people in our church think we are phenominal preachers doesn't make it so. When you are legitimately doing all you can with your preaching, then you are phenominal. Come on!
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