As the calendar races toward December 31, newspapers, magazines and TV channels line up for their end-of-year reviews. Everything from movies to politics to technology gets the treatment. Some of these year-end reviews help certain industries decide how to move forward when the calendar flips over to January.

Each year, churches have the same opportunity to review the past 12 months. And you need not publish the results in order to gain insight, clarity and opportunity for the new year. One of the best year-end reviews you can run is in the area of your sermons. By doing a year-end reflection of the messages you preached the previous 52 weeks, you can be ready to improve on your pulpit skills in January.

Where to Begin?
What’s involved in a year-end reflection of your sermons? Does it mean that you re-read or listen to every single message you preached the previous year? No, probably not. I doubt many pastors have enough time to do that. But if you’ve kept a preaching calendar with the themes, topics and texts you’ve covered, it will be easy to peruse this document to see the peaks and valleys, the high spots and low points of your services.

Here’s where a few other pieces of information are very helpful. As you look over the past year of sermons, make note of the attendance each week, or better yet, the following weeks to gauge retention. Additionally, take a look at when you had the most salvation reports and baptisms or when you had an increase in visitors. This data taken together can be extremely helpful.

However, this assumes you’ve been keeping track of that information all along. And when you did keep track of it, you might have wondered why and how you could use it. This is just one way to incorporate careful records into your own sermon reflection.

But even without a careful record of attendance, visitors and even baptisms, year-end reflection can still be an important way to improve on the coming months. Instead of pouring over data, take some time to talk to the people behind the numbers. Set up some casual meetings to discuss what they remember about your messages, how they were impacted that week, and how God has changed their lives throughout the year.

Keep the Ball Rolling
By reflecting over the past year’s worth of sermons, you can gain important insights into the effectiveness of your preaching. Did you speak on a subject that is maybe an “insider” topic during a week when you had a jump in visitors? Maybe you missed an evangelistic opportunity. Or perhaps you can trace a sharp increase in attendance to a particular felt-need themed sermon series. Why not try that again in the coming year?

As you look at the calendar, pick out two or three of your best sermons and your not-so-great sermons. What did you do right and wrong in each message?

The year-end reflection should always include an evaluation of the themes and topics of your messages. At the beginning of last year you might have resolved to talk about finances more often or include more expository preaching into your church services. Did you accomplish those goals? Or maybe you didn’t realize you covered a particular topic as much as you did. Perhaps that can help you be more balanced next year by asking yourself, What did I talk about too much? What topic did I miss that I should have covered?

How was your sermon prep last year? As you review your messages take some time to reflect on how you did studying the text, researching topics and preparing your notes. Did you find yourself constantly rushed? Maybe next year put aside extra time for sermon prep to make sure you’re not hustling at the last moment to get ready for the weekend service.

Another benefit of year-end reflection is personal improvement. As you look at the calendar, pick out two or three of your best sermons and your not-so-great sermons. Take an afternoon to listen to them again or watch them if you videotaped them. Take notes about your posture, speed of speech and physical mannerisms. What did you do right and wrong in each message? What did you notice doing or saying that you missed before? Have you picked up any habits that get in the way of your message in the last year? This is the time to drop them.

You also may find the sermons you felt weren’t delivered that great were actually very good and got a great response upon a second look. This isn’t a time to beat yourself up over a past mistake, but a way to find opportunities to improve poor skills and repeat good past behaviors.

Doing a review of your sermons before the ball drops on New Year’s Eve will keep you from dropping the ball when it comes to sermon planning, research and preaching this coming year. Find out what made your messages great and what can be improved. But most of all, spend time reflecting on how God used your words to change lives, inspire hope and glorify Him.