I think the teachers at Willow Creek would say that the evaluation of their preaching has been what has pushed their gifts to higher levels because that tends to be an area where the Christian community has taken a hands-off approach. When it comes right down to it, almost every other spiritual gift is evaluated by the congregation. If someone sings a solo and sings off pitch the whole time, they get the word that they'd better do something about improving their musical gifts or their gifts won't be in demand anymore. But a preacher can massacre a text and bore a congregation and never touch a chord of interest in the life of a person in the church. And as he stands at the back door, 250 people file out and say "great job today." That kind of deception just continues ineffective preaching that eventually destroys the church.

We have decided that preaching should be affirmed or corrected -- rebuked or encouraged -- just like all the other gifts of the church. Preaching should be subjected to that with a loving, Christ-like spirit and by invitation of the pastor with the kind of people that he can trust and knows don't have hidden agendas. I could not take an evaluation from certain people in our church because they're grinding an ax, and it would be too painful for me. I'd feel too emotionally vulnerable. But there are other people who I know really love God and they love me -- but they love God more than they love me -- and they want to help me grow in my preaching. They want the church to receive the best kind of preaching it can receive from someone like me and the other teachers. That has been a tremendous help in improving our preaching.

Preaching: In addition to your teaching team that evaluates one another, low many lay leaders would you say you pull into that group?

Hybels: About a half dozen.

Preaching: Do you give them a specific, written evaluation form?

Hybels: No, they usually do it on the front of the bulletin. I'm very clear with them saying it helps me emotionally if you write the encouraging parts first; if you're going to make a criticism of some sort, I would appreciate it coming in the form of a recommendation. It's easy to say, "I didn't like point two." What I need to know is, "How would you have changed point two for it to have been better?"

I don't always follow each suggestion made. It's not just because someone makes a suggestion that I change something, but if four of six evaluators say that my illustration of the boy and the dog didn't work well, I'd better rethink the illustration of the boy and the dog to make sure that it's doing what I hoped it would do.

Many pastors are in multiple services. We make dramatic changes between the Saturday night and Sunday services. I remember recently one of our other teachers was really struggling with a message. He gave it Saturday evening, and if it's not sacrilegious to refer to it this way I would have given him a "C" on Saturday night. We talked for an hour and a half after the service and made some changes on his message. At 9:00 o'clock Sunday it was about a "B," and we worked for another thirty minutes after that. And when he gave it at 11:00 o'clock, it was right up there in the "A-" to "A" level. He learned throughout the whole process, so all of those are lessons that will serve him and our church well the next time out.

That's very important. Think about it: professional athletes have batting coaches; businessmen have consultants; government officers have advisors; so it only stands to reason that preachers need coaches. Preachers need people to get up next to them and say, "I think I saw something that could help you improve."

One of the evaluators that I use regularly is an attorney, and he has impeccable logic; if I skip one step in the logical process, he's on me like a shirt. That's good for me because it challenges me when I'm putting the messages together. Another one of my evaluators is a theologian, so the attorney will watch my logic and the theologian will watch my theology. Another one is a homemaker who is a "feeler" type. She will alert me to any off-the-cuff remarks I make that might be offensive or be considered insensitive to some members of the congregation. I have a wide variety.

I even have one sort of non-church person. He's not a Christian yet, but he is a very wise, discerning man, and I check with him and he gives me the reaction from someone outside the family of God. It sounds funny to have a non-church person evaluate your preaching. It's much less formal because he doesn't even come to church each week. But I'll call him on Monday, and I'll say, "Did that make sense to you? What could I improve? What didn't you get?" It's amazing what people get and what they don't get. So all of the feedback is very important.