Many organizations espouse ongoing evaluation for their employees, especially those in leadership positions. That church leaders should be included in this lot is not too surprising. Many churches evaluate their pastor annually. But that may not be sufficient for some ministry responsibilities such as preaching. Probably, no one understands the goals of preaching like the preacher. Input from the congregation is very valuable, but the pastor needs to evaluate his own preaching occasionally. In evaluating my own preaching and in working with numerous pastors, I have found three strategies that often lead to improvement.

Congregational Evaluation

The first strategy is that feedback is not enough. The preacher needs input on the sermon prior to preaching it. I need not reiterate the details of this strategy here, but merely refer you to "Stop Preaching in the Dark," Preaching (May-June, 1996), 15-16. I will add, however, that evaluation from the congregation proves very helpful. People hear and see things to which I'm oblivious. So, once each quarter, I insert a brief evaluation sheet randomly in about one-fourth of the bulletins. The evaluation form is included below.

Spouse's Evaluation

A second strategy follows closely from the first. I have found it more valuable than I can describe to gain both input and feedback from my wife. Though I cannot cite the source, or the preacher' name, I share this one example:

They say that a preacher's wife is always his number one assistant. An example of this came one Sunday morning after the preacher had just finished his sermon. He went and sat down with his wife and she asked him how he thought the church service went.

The Preacher shrugged and said, "The worship was excellent, and I think the prayer and communion times went quite well, but," he continued, "I just don't think the sermon ever got off the ground."

The wife looked over at him, and before she could stop herself, she said, "Well, it sure did taxi long enough!"

I give the sermon manuscript to my wife on Thursday. She reads it for clarity, flow of thought and mistakes. Often, she can turn to me and say, "Honey, I'm not sure what you're saying right here." Or, even better, she might say, "Hey, I have a great illustration of that!" I find that as spouses do this they need to learn to read the manuscript as a sermon to be heard rather than an article to be read.

Occasionally, it has been helpful for me to preach a short section of the sermon for my wife. She has a better idea then of how I intend to say something. She can here the emphases and what is stressed through simple voice inflection. So, strategy number two begins with gaining input from your spouse. It continues, however, with feedback.

On Tuesday, I've become emotionally detached from Sunday's message enough to here my wife's evaluation. In fact, on most Tuesdays, I can hardly remember what I preached last Sunday. So my wife will sit down with me to talk about the clarity of the message -- it's relevance and authority as well as the delivery. A few years ago my wife detected that I had developed a bad habit of speaking too softly, or without enough energy. Bumping up the force just one notch made huge improvement. Occasionally, she has to remind me of this tendency. It frustrates me a little when she has to remind me, but I'm thankful for her invaluable help. In "preaching clinics" and with seminary students' wives, I offer these guidelines for the wife's evaluation: