One of the best ways you can bless a preacher, no matter how long they have been preaching for is to give them feedback. It blesses them in a few ways. One way is that it helps them to know that someone has been listening. One of the toughest times for preachers was during the pandemic because we suddenly found ourselves speaking to cameras with little real feel for how things were landing, if at all with people listening in. To be honest we didn’t really know if anyone was really listening at all for much of the time. Secondly, it blesses them because it should help them to grow in their gift. With that in mind, here’s some feedback on giving feedback.
First, feedback is best asked for. Don’t rush to offer feedback when it is not wanted. In fact, I would generally encourage most congregation members to wait for the invite before going much beyond the “thank you …that was helpful because” or the “I didn’t quite get” which should be a normal part of post sermon response. Waiting to be asked for feedback will help everyone for two reasons. First, because we want to get the timing right. I remember when I was training that the senior pastor would ask me “Do you want your feedback now” (straight afterwards) “…or would you prefer to receive it later in the week.” He also would say “It wasn’t perfect … and that’s good news.” Sometimes we need to hear feedback quickly but sometimes, especially if we are feeling discouraged and already know it wasn’t good, the last thing we need is for someone else to brutally confirm it. Not only that, straight after the sermon may be the time when we need to be helping one another to engage with what God was saying, even through a lousy talk. Second, because they may already be getting feedback from others and we don’t want to overload or confuse them.
I would usually expect preachers to be ready to hear feedback at some point from pastors/elders, even still, I’d ask them in advance if they were okay for me to give them some feedback. I’d get their permission first. Though to be honest, if someone doesn’t want feedback from an elder/pastor, even if they are themselves the senior pastor, you probably don’t want them preaching in your church.
Second, it’s good to start feedback by asking the person how they felt it went. The more that you can help them to see both positives and negatives for themselves the better. In fact, I’d specifically ask them what went well and where they needed to improve. This guards against them either becoming too complacent or too harsh on themselves.
Third, I think we can very quickly get into questions that are about our evaluation and these can be very subjective. Of course, you’ll have an opinion, of course there will be things that need improving and yes, there’ll be things it is right to praise and encourage. However, the more that these points arise obviously and naturally out of the feedback conversation, the better.
So, it can be a good idea to focus feedback on some objective points. Tell the person what you understood the main point to be. Describe back to them the illustrations they gave, tell them about the mannerisms they used, their tone of voice etc. Eventually of course you will be stepping into areas that are a little more subjective. Pose those things back as questions “Did you realise that you sounded angry when talking about x.” They may have intended to sound that way, get them to articulate why. If they didn’t then talk more about what caused that effect.
What we are really doing at this stage is offering feedback at its most basic and fundamentally. We are helping the speaker to gauge how it landed. If I feedback a completely different point to the one I was intending then that enables them to grasp more clearly how and why things went astray than if I tell them it was good or bad. By the way, on a side note, I would discourage preachers from trying to get away with the excuse that “well it wasn’t what I mean to say but isn’t it amazing that God can surprise us by enabling you to get something else out of it.” To be sure, God can use our feeble efforts in surprising ways but that’s not the point here. The point is that God commissioned you as the preacher on that Sunday morning to bring his message. If people did not hear that message, then you did not do the job asked of you.
Of course, it is possible that the reason lies more with me and my failings as a listener. So, it’s helpful for a preacher to get feedback from more than one person. So, if my feedback is given later in the week, after opportunity for reflection, I’ll also ask “what feedback have you already had?”
If you are a listener (and we all should be), then keep being available to give feedback. If you are a preacher, keep actively seeking feedback.
Faithroots 