Sunday 1 November 2009

Self-assessment of today's sermon

My sermon went well today. After both services many of the congregation thanked me for my sermon. Particularly I appreciated the comments of the worship teams at my placement church as they know how nerve wracking it can be.

To get my voice warmed up, my assessor asked if I'd led the bible readings too. I was happy to do so, after all, I had been over them a few times while preparing for today.

To be critical of myself, as I know I must.

Positives:
  1. My point was clear.
  2. I covered the subject matter well.
  3. I paced the sermon more or less right
  4. I have a good clear voice.
  5. I knew my opening well enough I could present the beginning with minimum use of my notes. This way I could make eye contact with the congregation and, hopefully, engage them with God's message.
Negatives:
  1. I didn't modulate my voice enough. This may have helped emphasise a point.
  2. At some points during the sermon, particularly during very theological comments, I was really reading from my notes, rather than using them for reference. I'm sure this will improve with experience, but it's something to look out for.
  3. Occasionally I could feel the nerves surface again and seemed to stutter a little. I'm not sure if many of the congregation picked up on this. Again, worth noting and being aware of.
On balance, I feel it went well. I know, from the congregation's feedback, they took something away from it. Whether they took the message I thought I was preaching or not, it doesn't matter. What does matter is God uses me through the breaking of His word to speak to His children.

2 comments:

  1. well I liked it enough to sit through it a second time.

    either that, or it was because you had the car keys. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm becoming more and more convinced that preaching is an art. Like all arts you need to practice, even if you're good at it. And it needs effort and you can always get better at it.

    I think that by being aware of how you're performing, and caring about it, you'll do really well.

    I still get nervous. I still find myself reading from my notes and I still wish I could modulate my voice more without sounding like I'm auditioning for Radio Clyde!

    ReplyDelete

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