I wanted to try something out, so I recently created a website that I want to let you know about. You can find it at sermonfocus.com.
The site is about listening well to sermons. It has three forms that can be used for this purpose.
The first form is called “Focus.” This is for people who want some guidance on what to look for when listening to a sermon. It gives you guided help in taking notes on the sermon, and sends you a copy of your notes when you submit the form. There are easier ways of taking notes–including pen and paper. But this might have a temporary usefulness if people want help in knowing what to focus on as they take notes.
The main reason I created the site is to provide a way for preachers to get the kind of feedback on their sermons that lets them know how well they are communicating and/or how well people are listening. I know some preachers don’t want this kind of feedback, but in my opinion they would benefit greatly from it. And as a result the congregation would as well. As you listen to the sermon you take notes in a guided way (similar to the Focus form). You also indicate how clear certain sermon elements were to you. This kind of feedback should be invaluable to the preacher. If he didn’t want everyone in the congregation to use it (that would be a lot of work looking at the results depending on the size of the church), he could ask a select group of people to fill out the form.
Since I had done that much work, I decided to add a form designed for homiletics classes. This form allows the teacher to assign a grade to the sermon, as well as give extensive feedback.
So if you are interested, take a look, try it out, and give me your thoughts. I realize not all preachers have the same approach as I do, but I tried to focus on the basic elements that (I think) should be present.
There are also a number of articles that explain my philosophy of preaching.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Looks like a great resource!
I think the form is helpful. I like pen and paper but the form is helpful to be a guide and was easy to use when I used it. I think it would be helpful to pastors. I guess it would be surprising for the pastor to find out the congregation was not understanding but how helpful it would be to him so he could clarify why they aren’t understanding.
The website looks good and helpful. I like how simply you laid it out, making it easy to use. Sounds to me to be a good tool to help people grow in Christ!
What would you think of adding a way to download a PDF version for those who might want to use pen and paper? It would have to have a copyright it, I guess? Just a thought!
Yes, I had thought about that.
Cool!