How Your Church Members Could Make Your Sermons Better—Before You Preach Them

Every week, I sit down and read my sermon out loud to one or more church members and ask for feedback. I’m not a great preacher, but I can say with 100 percent confidence that my preaching has gotten much better over the years because of our weekly sermon previews. I wonder if they could help you, too, my pastor friend.

Why You Should Do Sermon Previews

Theologically

A pastor’s sermon might feel like his baby, but it’s important to remember that it takes a community to raise a child. Most pastors would readily admit that theology is done best in community (Acts 2:42, Eph. 4:15, Heb. 10:24–25), and yet the most crucial theological study we engage in every week—sermon prep—is often done in complete isolation. The reasons for solitary sermon prep are many and most of them are good and necessary. But I would argue that it’s even more necessary to get at least a second set of eyes on your sermon every week before preaching it.

If you have even the slightest bit of spiritual self-awareness, you know that a preacher’s sermon can always be improved. So why not let your fellow Spirit-indwelled church members help you make it more edifying before stepping into the pulpit?

Pastorally

Sermon previews reveal how different people hear me. Like a bat with echolocation, my words strike their heart, and then when they give me feedback, my words reverberate back to me, usually with more clarity. “Oh, you heard me saying that? Then I have some work to do on this point/paragraph/illustration.”

Remember, brothers, we don’t preach to avatars. Our local church is full of saints who bring different perspectives, fears, strengths, weaknesses, hopes, and baggage to the Sunday morning gathering (1 Thes. 5:14). One way I can better minister to all the sheep God has given me is to seek feedback on the front end of my preaching. Why not spare 99 percent of your church from weaknesses in your sermon that one percent of them could’ve caught in a sermon preview?

Sermon preview is also a great way to train up young preachers and teachers. Rather than holding your breath, hoping and praying that a young man gets the point of the text right as he preaches his first sermon or teaches his fifth Bible study, you can walk through his material with him in advance. The lessons learned from these sessions add up over time and work together to help train future men for the ministry.

Practically

Among the many practical benefits of sermon previews, the main one is having someone there to say, “You missed something.” It never ceases to amaze me how often someone catches a mistake in my manuscript: wrong Scripture reference, grammatical error, or incomplete thought. I work really hard on my manuscripts, but I still have blind spots. A good sermon preview is like working with a good editor on a book. A second (or third!) set of eyes will always catch something you missed. Always.

How You Should Do Sermon Previews

The nuts and bolts of sermon preview will vary from pastor to pastor, and they may even vary for an individual pastor over time.

As I read my manuscript out loud, I stop every page or so and ask if anyone has feedback. I encourage participants to interrupt me if something is particularly unclear or they’re afraid of forgetting a particularly helpful thought. But I also encourage them not to interrupt more than necessary.

I used to do sermon previews on Saturday mornings but have since moved it to earlier in the week. This gives me more time to adjust to feedback from a sermon preview. I know a pastor who writes his entire sermon on Saturday and does his sermon preview on Saturday night. That terrifies me! Find what day works best for you. I like to do my sermon preview standing, in the pulpit, in the meeting hall where I’ll be preaching. You may find it more helpful to do yours sitting down, behind your desk, in your office. Don’t overcomplicate it.

Scheduling is complicated enough! These days, I primarily do sermon previews with a fellow lay elder, staff elder, or pastoral assistant, but I’m always on the lookout for an opportunity to do a preview with a non-staff/non-elder church member. Their feedback is often the most helpful.

Additionally, there have been times when I’ve chosen to do previews with a certain kind of church member to get a specific kind of help, e.g., just single members or ladies. Again, be flexible. You’re a pastor, you know your people, and you will—over time—learn how to wisely choose members based on the text you’re preparing and the congregation you’ll be preaching to.

Possible Objection

A pastor once told me that he could never do a sermon preview because he feared it might lead him to rework his sermon at the last minute. Maybe. But wouldn’t it be better to scramble to improve your sermon than to risk saying something untrue, unhelpful, or unclear from the pulpit?

We know, brothers, that we will have to stand before the Lord on the last day and give an account for our preaching (Heb. 13:17, Jas. 3:1), and that’s a big deal. So, don’t treat your sermon like your baby—something to be protected and coddled at all costs. Rather, see your sermon for what it really is: an instrument given to you by God to build up his church. Therefore, brother pastor, joyfully take advantage of any and all help you can get in your labors, including sermon preview.