Preaching Evaluation

As I was browsing the 'net the other day, I came across a Preacher Evaluation Form that got me thinking about the quality of sermons we preach. Some years ago, I read a book called Why Teenagers Reject Religion... and What to Do About It which reported on a survey by 'Zbaraschuk, who found that "quality of sermons" was one of the reasons young adults gave for leaving the church.' (Dudley, 1978, p. 23) Those of us who preach bear a great responsiblity if this is true! But how often do we really evaluate what we are doing? Sure, when we finish a sermon, people often come up to us and make comments. But given the importance of the sermon in the life of the church and its potential to positively or negatively influence our congregations, I believe we need to be much more rigorous in seeking feedback about the quality of our preaching. I know that this is something I have never really done -- relying primarily on informal feedback from my friends (those who think I've done well!) I plan to start doing it with my next sermon. If you preach and would like to do this, check out the Preacher Evaluation Form (or something similar). I suggest that, next time you do a sermon, give at least three people a copy of the questionnaire and invite them to fill it out. Choose people you trust and who you believe will be honest in their evaluation -- there is no point in doing it if the feedback you get is not honest! Collect the evaluations at the end of the sermon and prayerfully reflect on the results. May God bless each one of us who take on the weighty responsibility of preaching... Reference Dudley, RL 1978, Why Teenagers Reject Religion... And What to Do About It, Review and Herald Publishing Association, Washington DC.

Bible Tools

I'm always on the lookout for good Bible tools, particularly reference material that will help aid in high quality interpretation of Scripture. Two particularly important types of tools are cross referencing and word study tools. Comparing Scripture with other passages of Scripture on the same topic/theme is essential in getting an overall picture of Bible teaching on a subject. And because the Bible was not written in English, a student of Scripture needs to be able to study the original words in their context. In addition, it is often helpful to study words in relation to others. But how do you know what other Bible words are related to the one you are studying? I've come across a web site that provides an interesting approach to both of these issues. In both cases the product of a search is a set of cross references. Both tools can be found at the Bible Exposition website. You either type in a Bible reference to or a word you want to study and click appropriate button to get your results. The author explains that:

the cross references are unique to this site. They are constructed mathematically by analyzing the rarest words in the verse and looking for other verses with the same rare words. This certainly does not replace the painstaking labor of something like the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. However it is theology neutral and it does allow you to quickly find verses with similar keywords. I have found it particularly useful for tracking down imagery in prophetic passages such as Revelation and Daniel.

In the case of the word cross reference tool, I will quote the author at length:

This is one of those tools you will love or hate. It finds relationships between words in the bible based purely upon mathematics... This tool is designed do show which words of the bible are textually associated with each other. By textually associated I mean that where one word turns up another tends to. If two words tend to turn up a lot together then probably there is some kind of a relationship between them. At its very simplest this tool simply shows those people that are related to others and the main events they are related too. When I do a deep bible study I will often look up interesting words in a verse and see where else they appear in the bible. This allows me to see what emphasis the bible places upon a particular word. This is particularly useful when picking apart imagery as in Revelation. The problem is simply that this is a ton of work. This tool does all of that work for you. Look up any word and it will tell you which other words turns up in a way that is statistically significant. The data on these pages is entirely automatically generated using mathematics and computer horsepower. Note that no theology is implied. Look at the results and judge for yourself. I consider this a feature. This tool is turning up RAW data it has not been bent to anyone's opinion.

This is a fascinating, unique tool. Have some serious fun!