How to Review Your Sermon: The What, Why, and How (Plus the Objections You're Already Thinking)
Reviewing your sermon affirms what is working, tweaks what is broken and ultimately makes the experience more engaging,In this 4 part series, we'll be sharing the key components of your sermon to review.
I want to give you the best ministry advice I have to offer: review your sermon before you preach it.
A sermon review affirms what's working, tweaks what's broken, and ultimately makes the message more engaging. It obviously applies to preachers, but it benefits everyone in the church. Guests get a better experience. Volunteers and staff get a measure of respite, spiritual refreshment, and encouragement over the weekend — and a weekend that embodies those things helps everyone avoid burnout. Whether you're the one preaching or not, keep reading.
I've worked in single-site and multisite churches for over 20 years. I've seen a lot of things succeed and a lot fail. The sermon review is one of the things I've seen work with wild success — which is why I consider it the best advice I have to offer anyone in ministry. This concept isn't new, and I don't take credit for inventing it. I've seen it refined at Liquid Church, where Pastor Tim Lucas has been running this process for over a decade. I'm just here to pass it on.
Here's the what, why, and how of a sermon review — plus the objections I hear most often, and why they don't hold up.
What a Sermon Review Actually Is
Review on Thursday. It's late enough in the week that you should have all your assets ready to practice with — manuscript, slides, videos, props. It's also not so late (like Friday or Saturday) that you've lost time to make corrections. If Thursday doesn't work for your schedule, Wednesday or Friday are still good days — a good day beats no day. And if you genuinely can't carve out any day for this, ask yourself who's leading your church. It's probably you. So lead: make the change to your schedule and your organization's work week that lets this happen.
Review with everything. Practice with as much as possible — your manuscript, your slides and videos, your props, your blocking, your tech. Practicing with everything is what surfaces the gaps. If you're telling a personal story about playing football in high school, maybe you need a photo of that. If a testimony video ends with ten seconds of black screen, maybe that needs editing out. If you're leading communion at the end, maybe the elements need to already be on stage.
Feedback on everything. You want a panel weighing in on every aspect of the message: was that cultural reference a little dated? Was that joke a little sexist? Was that illustration a little played out? Was that political reference a little divisive? Was that application a little weak? Was that theology a little heretical? Was that message a little long? The more exhaustive the feedback, the better the sermon gets.
Why You Should Do This
The sermon is the main thing. I polled over 30 growing churches on how they allocate service time, because I want to learn from churches that are growing. On average, they land on a 10/40/50 model: 10% hosting, 40% worship, 50% sermon. Whether or not that's the ideal split is a separate conversation — but growing churches are spending half their service time on the message. That alone earns it a serious degree of review.
It makes future messages better, not just this one. Think of it as compound interest for your preaching. If the panel keeps telling you there are too many points each week, that's not just feedback for this Sunday — it's a pattern to fix going forward. What you learn one week applies to every week after it.
It's worth going the extra mile for. Most preachers spend 10-20 hours a week preparing a sermon. The review itself only takes about 90 minutes — 45 to preach it through, 45 to review it. Most preachers only get general feedback after they preach. Feedback after a message makes you feel better. Input before the message makes you preach better. If your prep process needs restructuring to make room for this, How to Write a Sermon: A Simple Step-by-Step Guide is a good place to start.
It becomes a leadership pipeline. Think about how much knowledge and experience is packed into the way a seasoned preacher prepares a message. Inviting a panel to review that process means those people see behind the curtain — how you take the spiritual pulse of a congregation and respond to it, and what vulnerability and humility look like up close. Done consistently, it becomes a training ground for new and aspiring communicators. If you're intentional about that pipeline more broadly, How to Identify and Mentor Emerging Leaders in Your Church pairs well with this practice.
It gives you a weekend. A review builds in accountability — your panel expects the sermon ready by the end of the work week, not the end of the weekend. That gives you real professional and personal margin: professionally, you launch into Sunday instead of limping into it; personally, you get time to invest in yourself and the people around you. Tim Lucas, the pastor who taught me these principles, has a deal with his wife: he can work as late as he needs on Thursday night polishing the message, but when she wakes up at 6am Friday, he'd better be in bed beside her. The church gets him during the week. She gets him on the weekend. If protecting that time is a bigger structural problem for you, How Pastors Find Balance in Their Weekly Schedule is worth reading next.
It gives your team a weekend too. Your team can't have a weekend if you don't have one — and if you do, they usually can too. Your message is the first domino; a whole line of other dominos is waiting behind it. Finish early, and your worship leader isn't picking a response song Saturday morning, your graphic designer isn't choosing fonts Saturday afternoon, and your videographer isn't editing Saturday night. Giving your team that margin helps them avoid burnout and stay committed — to the church and to their own faith. If coordinating everyone's piece of the weekend (worship, graphics, video, staging) is the actual bottleneck, Tithely's service planning software is built to get the whole team working off the same schedule instead of racing the clock on Saturday.
How to Actually Run the Review
Review with trusted advisers. Assemble a panel of 3-4 people — fewer perspectives isn't enough, and a much larger panel drags the process out. These need to be people who genuinely want you to grow, not talent-show judges looking to land a harsh critique. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend" (Proverbs 27:6) — they speak the truth, but they speak it lovingly.
Review with a diversity of advisers. Get varied perspectives: someone tracking your appearance and demeanor, someone tracking delivery (did you enhance or diminish what you wrote?), someone reviewing the written material for spelling and clarity, someone watching structure and flow, a timekeeper, and someone assessing how the message lands for both believers and non-believers. The more diversity across age, gender, ethnicity, and background, the stronger the feedback.
Start with an overview, then go page by page. Open with brief, positive overview comments — under a minute — on how the message landed overall. That gives you a mental transition from preaching mode into critique mode. Have advisers annotate the manuscript as you go through it, then discuss page by page afterward.
It's not a democracy. This process runs as a benevolent dictatorship, with the preacher as the decision-maker. The panel offers feedback; you decide what to implement. Both sides need some emotional resilience here — some suggestions get adopted, others don't. If a panel can't accept that some feedback won't be used, the process breaks down, because preachers start appeasing the panel instead of engaging the congregation.
The Objections You're Already Thinking
"I don't have time." You're going to do the same amount of prep either way — this just moves it earlier in the week. When a pastor says "I don't have time for a review," what's usually actually true is "I haven't restructured my week around it yet." Instead of front-loading meetings and back-loading message prep, flip it: message prep Monday and Tuesday, meetings Wednesday and Thursday. Do that, and the 90 minutes shows up. If time really is the deeper issue in how your week runs, How to (Really) Avoid Burnout as a Modern Church Leader is worth reading alongside this.
"It isn't Spirit-driven." There's a misconception that the Spirit only shows up at the last minute — that revelation for Sunday morning only arrives Saturday night. But if God could lay out His whole plan of redemption in eternity past, He can guide you to write a message at a planned, purposeful pace too. Preparation doesn't eliminate spontaneity; it supports it. You can't confidently take a detour unless you know your destination. You can't go off-script with confidence unless you have a script to leave.
"I can't trust others." Few pastors say this outright, but it often shows up in their actions — a hesitation to be vulnerable enough to let people into the process. That's understandable; it takes something to let people pick apart your work. But here's the thing: people are already picking it apart, on the drive home from church. Letting a small, trusted group shred it lovingly to your face beforehand minimizes how much shredding happens in the car afterward.
Bring It Full Circle
That's the what, why, and how of a sermon review — and the objections that tend to get in the way of starting one. It's the best ministry advice I have to offer.
Now I'll flip the question back to you: what's the best ministry advice you have to offer? Think it through, and share it — write a blog post, post it on social media, tell your staff team. Sharing what you've learned crystallizes your own thinking and sharpens your practice, and it makes all of us better at this. So take the plunge and share it.
If you'd like help implementing a review process like this one at your church, visit benstapley.com/coach to schedule a free consultation.
Ben Stapley has created and captured moving moments for individuals, non-profits, and corporations globally across twenty years. He has served on executive teams at multiple megachurches and currently serves as Executive Pastor at Zarephath Christian Church in New Jersey. He also consults for churches, teaches at universities, and speaks at conferences about leadership, communication, and creativity. Visit www.benstapley.com for more.
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For over twenty years Ben has created & captured moving and memorable moments for individuals, non-profits & corporations across the globe. He has served on the executive team of multiple megachurches and currently serves as the Executive Pastor at Zarephath Christian Church in New Jersey. Ben also consults for churches, teaches at universities and speaks at conferences about leadership, communication and creativity. For more information visit www.benstapley.com.
I want to give you the best ministry advice I have to offer: review your sermon before you preach it.
A sermon review affirms what's working, tweaks what's broken, and ultimately makes the message more engaging. It obviously applies to preachers, but it benefits everyone in the church. Guests get a better experience. Volunteers and staff get a measure of respite, spiritual refreshment, and encouragement over the weekend — and a weekend that embodies those things helps everyone avoid burnout. Whether you're the one preaching or not, keep reading.
I've worked in single-site and multisite churches for over 20 years. I've seen a lot of things succeed and a lot fail. The sermon review is one of the things I've seen work with wild success — which is why I consider it the best advice I have to offer anyone in ministry. This concept isn't new, and I don't take credit for inventing it. I've seen it refined at Liquid Church, where Pastor Tim Lucas has been running this process for over a decade. I'm just here to pass it on.
Here's the what, why, and how of a sermon review — plus the objections I hear most often, and why they don't hold up.
What a Sermon Review Actually Is
Review on Thursday. It's late enough in the week that you should have all your assets ready to practice with — manuscript, slides, videos, props. It's also not so late (like Friday or Saturday) that you've lost time to make corrections. If Thursday doesn't work for your schedule, Wednesday or Friday are still good days — a good day beats no day. And if you genuinely can't carve out any day for this, ask yourself who's leading your church. It's probably you. So lead: make the change to your schedule and your organization's work week that lets this happen.
Review with everything. Practice with as much as possible — your manuscript, your slides and videos, your props, your blocking, your tech. Practicing with everything is what surfaces the gaps. If you're telling a personal story about playing football in high school, maybe you need a photo of that. If a testimony video ends with ten seconds of black screen, maybe that needs editing out. If you're leading communion at the end, maybe the elements need to already be on stage.
Feedback on everything. You want a panel weighing in on every aspect of the message: was that cultural reference a little dated? Was that joke a little sexist? Was that illustration a little played out? Was that political reference a little divisive? Was that application a little weak? Was that theology a little heretical? Was that message a little long? The more exhaustive the feedback, the better the sermon gets.
Why You Should Do This
The sermon is the main thing. I polled over 30 growing churches on how they allocate service time, because I want to learn from churches that are growing. On average, they land on a 10/40/50 model: 10% hosting, 40% worship, 50% sermon. Whether or not that's the ideal split is a separate conversation — but growing churches are spending half their service time on the message. That alone earns it a serious degree of review.
It makes future messages better, not just this one. Think of it as compound interest for your preaching. If the panel keeps telling you there are too many points each week, that's not just feedback for this Sunday — it's a pattern to fix going forward. What you learn one week applies to every week after it.
It's worth going the extra mile for. Most preachers spend 10-20 hours a week preparing a sermon. The review itself only takes about 90 minutes — 45 to preach it through, 45 to review it. Most preachers only get general feedback after they preach. Feedback after a message makes you feel better. Input before the message makes you preach better. If your prep process needs restructuring to make room for this, How to Write a Sermon: A Simple Step-by-Step Guide is a good place to start.
It becomes a leadership pipeline. Think about how much knowledge and experience is packed into the way a seasoned preacher prepares a message. Inviting a panel to review that process means those people see behind the curtain — how you take the spiritual pulse of a congregation and respond to it, and what vulnerability and humility look like up close. Done consistently, it becomes a training ground for new and aspiring communicators. If you're intentional about that pipeline more broadly, How to Identify and Mentor Emerging Leaders in Your Church pairs well with this practice.
It gives you a weekend. A review builds in accountability — your panel expects the sermon ready by the end of the work week, not the end of the weekend. That gives you real professional and personal margin: professionally, you launch into Sunday instead of limping into it; personally, you get time to invest in yourself and the people around you. Tim Lucas, the pastor who taught me these principles, has a deal with his wife: he can work as late as he needs on Thursday night polishing the message, but when she wakes up at 6am Friday, he'd better be in bed beside her. The church gets him during the week. She gets him on the weekend. If protecting that time is a bigger structural problem for you, How Pastors Find Balance in Their Weekly Schedule is worth reading next.
It gives your team a weekend too. Your team can't have a weekend if you don't have one — and if you do, they usually can too. Your message is the first domino; a whole line of other dominos is waiting behind it. Finish early, and your worship leader isn't picking a response song Saturday morning, your graphic designer isn't choosing fonts Saturday afternoon, and your videographer isn't editing Saturday night. Giving your team that margin helps them avoid burnout and stay committed — to the church and to their own faith. If coordinating everyone's piece of the weekend (worship, graphics, video, staging) is the actual bottleneck, Tithely's service planning software is built to get the whole team working off the same schedule instead of racing the clock on Saturday.
How to Actually Run the Review
Review with trusted advisers. Assemble a panel of 3-4 people — fewer perspectives isn't enough, and a much larger panel drags the process out. These need to be people who genuinely want you to grow, not talent-show judges looking to land a harsh critique. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend" (Proverbs 27:6) — they speak the truth, but they speak it lovingly.
Review with a diversity of advisers. Get varied perspectives: someone tracking your appearance and demeanor, someone tracking delivery (did you enhance or diminish what you wrote?), someone reviewing the written material for spelling and clarity, someone watching structure and flow, a timekeeper, and someone assessing how the message lands for both believers and non-believers. The more diversity across age, gender, ethnicity, and background, the stronger the feedback.
Start with an overview, then go page by page. Open with brief, positive overview comments — under a minute — on how the message landed overall. That gives you a mental transition from preaching mode into critique mode. Have advisers annotate the manuscript as you go through it, then discuss page by page afterward.
It's not a democracy. This process runs as a benevolent dictatorship, with the preacher as the decision-maker. The panel offers feedback; you decide what to implement. Both sides need some emotional resilience here — some suggestions get adopted, others don't. If a panel can't accept that some feedback won't be used, the process breaks down, because preachers start appeasing the panel instead of engaging the congregation.
The Objections You're Already Thinking
"I don't have time." You're going to do the same amount of prep either way — this just moves it earlier in the week. When a pastor says "I don't have time for a review," what's usually actually true is "I haven't restructured my week around it yet." Instead of front-loading meetings and back-loading message prep, flip it: message prep Monday and Tuesday, meetings Wednesday and Thursday. Do that, and the 90 minutes shows up. If time really is the deeper issue in how your week runs, How to (Really) Avoid Burnout as a Modern Church Leader is worth reading alongside this.
"It isn't Spirit-driven." There's a misconception that the Spirit only shows up at the last minute — that revelation for Sunday morning only arrives Saturday night. But if God could lay out His whole plan of redemption in eternity past, He can guide you to write a message at a planned, purposeful pace too. Preparation doesn't eliminate spontaneity; it supports it. You can't confidently take a detour unless you know your destination. You can't go off-script with confidence unless you have a script to leave.
"I can't trust others." Few pastors say this outright, but it often shows up in their actions — a hesitation to be vulnerable enough to let people into the process. That's understandable; it takes something to let people pick apart your work. But here's the thing: people are already picking it apart, on the drive home from church. Letting a small, trusted group shred it lovingly to your face beforehand minimizes how much shredding happens in the car afterward.
Bring It Full Circle
That's the what, why, and how of a sermon review — and the objections that tend to get in the way of starting one. It's the best ministry advice I have to offer.
Now I'll flip the question back to you: what's the best ministry advice you have to offer? Think it through, and share it — write a blog post, post it on social media, tell your staff team. Sharing what you've learned crystallizes your own thinking and sharpens your practice, and it makes all of us better at this. So take the plunge and share it.
If you'd like help implementing a review process like this one at your church, visit benstapley.com/coach to schedule a free consultation.
Ben Stapley has created and captured moving moments for individuals, non-profits, and corporations globally across twenty years. He has served on executive teams at multiple megachurches and currently serves as Executive Pastor at Zarephath Christian Church in New Jersey. He also consults for churches, teaches at universities, and speaks at conferences about leadership, communication, and creativity. Visit www.benstapley.com for more.
podcast transcript
For over twenty years Ben has created & captured moving and memorable moments for individuals, non-profits & corporations across the globe. He has served on the executive team of multiple megachurches and currently serves as the Executive Pastor at Zarephath Christian Church in New Jersey. Ben also consults for churches, teaches at universities and speaks at conferences about leadership, communication and creativity. For more information visit www.benstapley.com.
I want to give you the best ministry advice I have to offer: review your sermon before you preach it.
A sermon review affirms what's working, tweaks what's broken, and ultimately makes the message more engaging. It obviously applies to preachers, but it benefits everyone in the church. Guests get a better experience. Volunteers and staff get a measure of respite, spiritual refreshment, and encouragement over the weekend — and a weekend that embodies those things helps everyone avoid burnout. Whether you're the one preaching or not, keep reading.
I've worked in single-site and multisite churches for over 20 years. I've seen a lot of things succeed and a lot fail. The sermon review is one of the things I've seen work with wild success — which is why I consider it the best advice I have to offer anyone in ministry. This concept isn't new, and I don't take credit for inventing it. I've seen it refined at Liquid Church, where Pastor Tim Lucas has been running this process for over a decade. I'm just here to pass it on.
Here's the what, why, and how of a sermon review — plus the objections I hear most often, and why they don't hold up.
What a Sermon Review Actually Is
Review on Thursday. It's late enough in the week that you should have all your assets ready to practice with — manuscript, slides, videos, props. It's also not so late (like Friday or Saturday) that you've lost time to make corrections. If Thursday doesn't work for your schedule, Wednesday or Friday are still good days — a good day beats no day. And if you genuinely can't carve out any day for this, ask yourself who's leading your church. It's probably you. So lead: make the change to your schedule and your organization's work week that lets this happen.
Review with everything. Practice with as much as possible — your manuscript, your slides and videos, your props, your blocking, your tech. Practicing with everything is what surfaces the gaps. If you're telling a personal story about playing football in high school, maybe you need a photo of that. If a testimony video ends with ten seconds of black screen, maybe that needs editing out. If you're leading communion at the end, maybe the elements need to already be on stage.
Feedback on everything. You want a panel weighing in on every aspect of the message: was that cultural reference a little dated? Was that joke a little sexist? Was that illustration a little played out? Was that political reference a little divisive? Was that application a little weak? Was that theology a little heretical? Was that message a little long? The more exhaustive the feedback, the better the sermon gets.
Why You Should Do This
The sermon is the main thing. I polled over 30 growing churches on how they allocate service time, because I want to learn from churches that are growing. On average, they land on a 10/40/50 model: 10% hosting, 40% worship, 50% sermon. Whether or not that's the ideal split is a separate conversation — but growing churches are spending half their service time on the message. That alone earns it a serious degree of review.
It makes future messages better, not just this one. Think of it as compound interest for your preaching. If the panel keeps telling you there are too many points each week, that's not just feedback for this Sunday — it's a pattern to fix going forward. What you learn one week applies to every week after it.
It's worth going the extra mile for. Most preachers spend 10-20 hours a week preparing a sermon. The review itself only takes about 90 minutes — 45 to preach it through, 45 to review it. Most preachers only get general feedback after they preach. Feedback after a message makes you feel better. Input before the message makes you preach better. If your prep process needs restructuring to make room for this, How to Write a Sermon: A Simple Step-by-Step Guide is a good place to start.
It becomes a leadership pipeline. Think about how much knowledge and experience is packed into the way a seasoned preacher prepares a message. Inviting a panel to review that process means those people see behind the curtain — how you take the spiritual pulse of a congregation and respond to it, and what vulnerability and humility look like up close. Done consistently, it becomes a training ground for new and aspiring communicators. If you're intentional about that pipeline more broadly, How to Identify and Mentor Emerging Leaders in Your Church pairs well with this practice.
It gives you a weekend. A review builds in accountability — your panel expects the sermon ready by the end of the work week, not the end of the weekend. That gives you real professional and personal margin: professionally, you launch into Sunday instead of limping into it; personally, you get time to invest in yourself and the people around you. Tim Lucas, the pastor who taught me these principles, has a deal with his wife: he can work as late as he needs on Thursday night polishing the message, but when she wakes up at 6am Friday, he'd better be in bed beside her. The church gets him during the week. She gets him on the weekend. If protecting that time is a bigger structural problem for you, How Pastors Find Balance in Their Weekly Schedule is worth reading next.
It gives your team a weekend too. Your team can't have a weekend if you don't have one — and if you do, they usually can too. Your message is the first domino; a whole line of other dominos is waiting behind it. Finish early, and your worship leader isn't picking a response song Saturday morning, your graphic designer isn't choosing fonts Saturday afternoon, and your videographer isn't editing Saturday night. Giving your team that margin helps them avoid burnout and stay committed — to the church and to their own faith. If coordinating everyone's piece of the weekend (worship, graphics, video, staging) is the actual bottleneck, Tithely's service planning software is built to get the whole team working off the same schedule instead of racing the clock on Saturday.
How to Actually Run the Review
Review with trusted advisers. Assemble a panel of 3-4 people — fewer perspectives isn't enough, and a much larger panel drags the process out. These need to be people who genuinely want you to grow, not talent-show judges looking to land a harsh critique. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend" (Proverbs 27:6) — they speak the truth, but they speak it lovingly.
Review with a diversity of advisers. Get varied perspectives: someone tracking your appearance and demeanor, someone tracking delivery (did you enhance or diminish what you wrote?), someone reviewing the written material for spelling and clarity, someone watching structure and flow, a timekeeper, and someone assessing how the message lands for both believers and non-believers. The more diversity across age, gender, ethnicity, and background, the stronger the feedback.
Start with an overview, then go page by page. Open with brief, positive overview comments — under a minute — on how the message landed overall. That gives you a mental transition from preaching mode into critique mode. Have advisers annotate the manuscript as you go through it, then discuss page by page afterward.
It's not a democracy. This process runs as a benevolent dictatorship, with the preacher as the decision-maker. The panel offers feedback; you decide what to implement. Both sides need some emotional resilience here — some suggestions get adopted, others don't. If a panel can't accept that some feedback won't be used, the process breaks down, because preachers start appeasing the panel instead of engaging the congregation.
The Objections You're Already Thinking
"I don't have time." You're going to do the same amount of prep either way — this just moves it earlier in the week. When a pastor says "I don't have time for a review," what's usually actually true is "I haven't restructured my week around it yet." Instead of front-loading meetings and back-loading message prep, flip it: message prep Monday and Tuesday, meetings Wednesday and Thursday. Do that, and the 90 minutes shows up. If time really is the deeper issue in how your week runs, How to (Really) Avoid Burnout as a Modern Church Leader is worth reading alongside this.
"It isn't Spirit-driven." There's a misconception that the Spirit only shows up at the last minute — that revelation for Sunday morning only arrives Saturday night. But if God could lay out His whole plan of redemption in eternity past, He can guide you to write a message at a planned, purposeful pace too. Preparation doesn't eliminate spontaneity; it supports it. You can't confidently take a detour unless you know your destination. You can't go off-script with confidence unless you have a script to leave.
"I can't trust others." Few pastors say this outright, but it often shows up in their actions — a hesitation to be vulnerable enough to let people into the process. That's understandable; it takes something to let people pick apart your work. But here's the thing: people are already picking it apart, on the drive home from church. Letting a small, trusted group shred it lovingly to your face beforehand minimizes how much shredding happens in the car afterward.
Bring It Full Circle
That's the what, why, and how of a sermon review — and the objections that tend to get in the way of starting one. It's the best ministry advice I have to offer.
Now I'll flip the question back to you: what's the best ministry advice you have to offer? Think it through, and share it — write a blog post, post it on social media, tell your staff team. Sharing what you've learned crystallizes your own thinking and sharpens your practice, and it makes all of us better at this. So take the plunge and share it.
If you'd like help implementing a review process like this one at your church, visit benstapley.com/coach to schedule a free consultation.
Ben Stapley has created and captured moving moments for individuals, non-profits, and corporations globally across twenty years. He has served on executive teams at multiple megachurches and currently serves as Executive Pastor at Zarephath Christian Church in New Jersey. He also consults for churches, teaches at universities, and speaks at conferences about leadership, communication, and creativity. Visit www.benstapley.com for more.
VIDEO transcript
I want to give you the best ministry advice I have to offer: review your sermon before you preach it.
A sermon review affirms what's working, tweaks what's broken, and ultimately makes the message more engaging. It obviously applies to preachers, but it benefits everyone in the church. Guests get a better experience. Volunteers and staff get a measure of respite, spiritual refreshment, and encouragement over the weekend — and a weekend that embodies those things helps everyone avoid burnout. Whether you're the one preaching or not, keep reading.
I've worked in single-site and multisite churches for over 20 years. I've seen a lot of things succeed and a lot fail. The sermon review is one of the things I've seen work with wild success — which is why I consider it the best advice I have to offer anyone in ministry. This concept isn't new, and I don't take credit for inventing it. I've seen it refined at Liquid Church, where Pastor Tim Lucas has been running this process for over a decade. I'm just here to pass it on.
Here's the what, why, and how of a sermon review — plus the objections I hear most often, and why they don't hold up.
What a Sermon Review Actually Is
Review on Thursday. It's late enough in the week that you should have all your assets ready to practice with — manuscript, slides, videos, props. It's also not so late (like Friday or Saturday) that you've lost time to make corrections. If Thursday doesn't work for your schedule, Wednesday or Friday are still good days — a good day beats no day. And if you genuinely can't carve out any day for this, ask yourself who's leading your church. It's probably you. So lead: make the change to your schedule and your organization's work week that lets this happen.
Review with everything. Practice with as much as possible — your manuscript, your slides and videos, your props, your blocking, your tech. Practicing with everything is what surfaces the gaps. If you're telling a personal story about playing football in high school, maybe you need a photo of that. If a testimony video ends with ten seconds of black screen, maybe that needs editing out. If you're leading communion at the end, maybe the elements need to already be on stage.
Feedback on everything. You want a panel weighing in on every aspect of the message: was that cultural reference a little dated? Was that joke a little sexist? Was that illustration a little played out? Was that political reference a little divisive? Was that application a little weak? Was that theology a little heretical? Was that message a little long? The more exhaustive the feedback, the better the sermon gets.
Why You Should Do This
The sermon is the main thing. I polled over 30 growing churches on how they allocate service time, because I want to learn from churches that are growing. On average, they land on a 10/40/50 model: 10% hosting, 40% worship, 50% sermon. Whether or not that's the ideal split is a separate conversation — but growing churches are spending half their service time on the message. That alone earns it a serious degree of review.
It makes future messages better, not just this one. Think of it as compound interest for your preaching. If the panel keeps telling you there are too many points each week, that's not just feedback for this Sunday — it's a pattern to fix going forward. What you learn one week applies to every week after it.
It's worth going the extra mile for. Most preachers spend 10-20 hours a week preparing a sermon. The review itself only takes about 90 minutes — 45 to preach it through, 45 to review it. Most preachers only get general feedback after they preach. Feedback after a message makes you feel better. Input before the message makes you preach better. If your prep process needs restructuring to make room for this, How to Write a Sermon: A Simple Step-by-Step Guide is a good place to start.
It becomes a leadership pipeline. Think about how much knowledge and experience is packed into the way a seasoned preacher prepares a message. Inviting a panel to review that process means those people see behind the curtain — how you take the spiritual pulse of a congregation and respond to it, and what vulnerability and humility look like up close. Done consistently, it becomes a training ground for new and aspiring communicators. If you're intentional about that pipeline more broadly, How to Identify and Mentor Emerging Leaders in Your Church pairs well with this practice.
It gives you a weekend. A review builds in accountability — your panel expects the sermon ready by the end of the work week, not the end of the weekend. That gives you real professional and personal margin: professionally, you launch into Sunday instead of limping into it; personally, you get time to invest in yourself and the people around you. Tim Lucas, the pastor who taught me these principles, has a deal with his wife: he can work as late as he needs on Thursday night polishing the message, but when she wakes up at 6am Friday, he'd better be in bed beside her. The church gets him during the week. She gets him on the weekend. If protecting that time is a bigger structural problem for you, How Pastors Find Balance in Their Weekly Schedule is worth reading next.
It gives your team a weekend too. Your team can't have a weekend if you don't have one — and if you do, they usually can too. Your message is the first domino; a whole line of other dominos is waiting behind it. Finish early, and your worship leader isn't picking a response song Saturday morning, your graphic designer isn't choosing fonts Saturday afternoon, and your videographer isn't editing Saturday night. Giving your team that margin helps them avoid burnout and stay committed — to the church and to their own faith. If coordinating everyone's piece of the weekend (worship, graphics, video, staging) is the actual bottleneck, Tithely's service planning software is built to get the whole team working off the same schedule instead of racing the clock on Saturday.
How to Actually Run the Review
Review with trusted advisers. Assemble a panel of 3-4 people — fewer perspectives isn't enough, and a much larger panel drags the process out. These need to be people who genuinely want you to grow, not talent-show judges looking to land a harsh critique. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend" (Proverbs 27:6) — they speak the truth, but they speak it lovingly.
Review with a diversity of advisers. Get varied perspectives: someone tracking your appearance and demeanor, someone tracking delivery (did you enhance or diminish what you wrote?), someone reviewing the written material for spelling and clarity, someone watching structure and flow, a timekeeper, and someone assessing how the message lands for both believers and non-believers. The more diversity across age, gender, ethnicity, and background, the stronger the feedback.
Start with an overview, then go page by page. Open with brief, positive overview comments — under a minute — on how the message landed overall. That gives you a mental transition from preaching mode into critique mode. Have advisers annotate the manuscript as you go through it, then discuss page by page afterward.
It's not a democracy. This process runs as a benevolent dictatorship, with the preacher as the decision-maker. The panel offers feedback; you decide what to implement. Both sides need some emotional resilience here — some suggestions get adopted, others don't. If a panel can't accept that some feedback won't be used, the process breaks down, because preachers start appeasing the panel instead of engaging the congregation.
The Objections You're Already Thinking
"I don't have time." You're going to do the same amount of prep either way — this just moves it earlier in the week. When a pastor says "I don't have time for a review," what's usually actually true is "I haven't restructured my week around it yet." Instead of front-loading meetings and back-loading message prep, flip it: message prep Monday and Tuesday, meetings Wednesday and Thursday. Do that, and the 90 minutes shows up. If time really is the deeper issue in how your week runs, How to (Really) Avoid Burnout as a Modern Church Leader is worth reading alongside this.
"It isn't Spirit-driven." There's a misconception that the Spirit only shows up at the last minute — that revelation for Sunday morning only arrives Saturday night. But if God could lay out His whole plan of redemption in eternity past, He can guide you to write a message at a planned, purposeful pace too. Preparation doesn't eliminate spontaneity; it supports it. You can't confidently take a detour unless you know your destination. You can't go off-script with confidence unless you have a script to leave.
"I can't trust others." Few pastors say this outright, but it often shows up in their actions — a hesitation to be vulnerable enough to let people into the process. That's understandable; it takes something to let people pick apart your work. But here's the thing: people are already picking it apart, on the drive home from church. Letting a small, trusted group shred it lovingly to your face beforehand minimizes how much shredding happens in the car afterward.
Bring It Full Circle
That's the what, why, and how of a sermon review — and the objections that tend to get in the way of starting one. It's the best ministry advice I have to offer.
Now I'll flip the question back to you: what's the best ministry advice you have to offer? Think it through, and share it — write a blog post, post it on social media, tell your staff team. Sharing what you've learned crystallizes your own thinking and sharpens your practice, and it makes all of us better at this. So take the plunge and share it.
If you'd like help implementing a review process like this one at your church, visit benstapley.com/coach to schedule a free consultation.
Ben Stapley has created and captured moving moments for individuals, non-profits, and corporations globally across twenty years. He has served on executive teams at multiple megachurches and currently serves as Executive Pastor at Zarephath Christian Church in New Jersey. He also consults for churches, teaches at universities, and speaks at conferences about leadership, communication, and creativity. Visit www.benstapley.com for more.
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For over twenty years Ben has created & captured moving and memorable moments for individuals, non-profits & corporations across the globe. He has served on the executive team of multiple megachurches and currently serves as the Executive Pastor at Zarephath Christian Church in New Jersey. Ben also consults for churches, teaches at universities and speaks at conferences about leadership, communication and creativity. For more information visit www.benstapley.com.
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