If you are a preacher, you know the scene all-too-well. It’s Sunday afternoon/evening, or Monday morning, and you’re thinking about how your sermon went. Perhaps it was a cracker, or perhaps it was simply cracked!

My most recent one went too long! We need to process our frustrations, but how do we do this in a healthy way?

  1. Accept. Your weakness is God’s opportunity to demonstrate his glory through a cracked vessel. If you preached perfectly, no one would dare aspire to be a preacher.
  2. Analyse. Do at least one of two things. Either listen to a recording of your lesson, or go through your notes. Be as objective as possible, and make it a point to remember the things you did well, as well as the things that could have been better. Write down up to only three things which could have been improved. Then, decide to forgive yourself for all three (God does, after all), and to settle on the one which, if improved, would make the biggest impact on the effectiveness of your next message.
  3. Act. Now that you have picked one lesson to learn, decide how to implement it in your next sermon. Don’t try and change everything at once.

What helps you to conduct a healthy post-mortem of your most recent lesson? How do you handle your frustrations, or even, sometimes, your shame? What do you do when you receive less than kind feedback? Or, perhaps even worse, none at all?

Please add your comments on this week’s topic. We learn best when we learn in community.

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Thanks again for listening. Have a terrific Tuesday, and a wonderful week.

God bless,

Malcolm