Q: How can a communicator get good and useful feedback?

A: When I started at Southeast Christian, I was just thrilled to be on the team and excited to be working with Bob Russell. On Saturday night we would talk after the service, and he'd say, "What did you think? What would you change?"

I'd say, "Great sermon. Awesome. You're the man. Don't change anything."

After about three weeks of that, he said, "This isn't helping me a lot."

So the next week when he asked, "What do you think?" I responded, "What are you doing in the ministry?!"

Now we have struck a happy medium. After Saturday night worship, we critique each other by voicemail. Then together with five others, we critique whoever preached.

Can you get good critique before you've preached the message?

Really the critiquing takes place throughout the entire process. On Monday, whoever is preaching talks about the outline. We share thoughts. On Thursday we actually preach ...