“Pastor, I’m having trouble following your sermons.” 

No pastor ever wants to hear these words. I heard them for the first time after preaching at my church for over a year. During this conversation, my confidence and pride must have shown through because after saying this, the church member began backpedaling and said it might be their issue. Of course, I latched on to that explanation. 

Week after week, I heard things like, “Pastor, thank you so much for your sermon.” “Today’s sermon was just what I needed.” “Thanks for preaching Jesus.” My pride and self-confidence encouraged me to think, “No big deal. I’ll just keep doing what I am doing. I’m sure it’s just them.” 

But God was trying to tell me something through a respected church member, and I wasn’t listening. Then two things happened. A family left the church, because, among other reasons, they couldn’t follow my sermons. This time I registered the criticism, but still blamed the hearers more than the preacher. But God was still trying to show me something.

A few days later I asked one of my adult children if my sermons were easy to follow. My child told me they were not. Shortly after this, a breakthrough from the Spirit of Christ convicted me of pride and woke me out of the stupor of self-confidence and pride that led me to cover my ears and protect my heart from receiving humbling feedback.

I should have known better. I am a second-career pastor, having spent 25 years as a software developer. I had learned, used, and become proficient in over 10 programming languages, learning new ones whenever it was needed, adapting to a changing industry. I had been through an Agile transformation and had even been a Scrum Master. 

The Agile method “is a project management approach that involves breaking the project into phases and emphasizes continuous collaboration and improvement. Teams follow a cycle of planning, executing, and evaluating.”

After each iteration, the Scrum Master guides the team through an evaluation process called a Retrospective. The Retrospective is designed to improve future work through actionable items. At a particular point in a Retrospective, the Scrum Master asks, “What didn’t go well? What went well? What can we do differently?” 

I’ve led these meetings countless times, and they are usually positive. The team understands that it needs honest evaluations if it is going to improve. Members need to say true things even if they are hard things. This is how a software team achieves better quality and fewer bugs.

How can someone whose career was built around honest evaluations fail to receive feedback? Why did I forget about continuous collaboration and improvement? As I look back on this humbling episode in my ministry, and consider Paul’s first letter to Timothy, here are three things I learned:

1. Continuous improvement is part of biblical ministry.

The idea of continuous improvement isn’t just found in software; it’s found in the inspired, infallible, inerrant word of God.  In 1 Timothy 4:13-16 Paul writes the following: 

“Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” 

Paul gives Timothy a command to “practice these things,” ταῦτα μελέτα. The Greek word in this phrase, μελέτα, is a present active imperative verb, meaning that it is a command that is expected to be followed not once, but as an ongoing process. The root word in this context (μελετάω) means to improve by care or study, practice, cultivation, or by taking pains with.

What are “these things?” Paul called them out explicitly: public reading of Scripture, exhortation, and teaching. I think pastors could safely include our preaching in this command, and elders could include any teaching they do. Just as athletes must work out regularly to improve their strength and endurance, so must ministers of the gospel and elders tend to their gifts of preaching and teaching so they can improve and fulfill Paul’s command. There is always room for improvement, so we must seek ways to optimize the talents that God has entrusted to us for the sake of his gospel.

2. Continuous improvement requires helpful feedback.

Pastors have blind spots, and pride that keep them from seeing themselves correctly. We often depend on our wives and closest friends to help us form a clear picture of where we can improve. In the world of software, the product improves as you get feedback from customers who are using it. In the church, the preaching and ministry of a pastor improve as he gets feedback from officers and members who love him. 

To be able to receive feedback without having it crush us, we must remember what Paul said earlier in 1 Timothy 1:2b, “Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord … .” Paul starts his letter by reminding Timothy of his relationship to God, which is found in Christ. Timothy has grace, mercy, and peace. Like us, he is counted as righteous through his union with Christ. Our standing as beloved children of God is secure and unchangeable. 

Because of this standing, it should be easy to receive helpful feedback from others. The trouble is that we often live with gospel amnesia. Because we have not been perfectly sanctified, our insecurities and weaknesses rear their ugly heads and cause us to recoil from helpful feedback. We feel the feedback threatens our “preaching righteousness” or whatever other thing we are trying to find our righteousness in. 

Hearing about ways you should improve is hard. The elders had made subtle hints that I should have heard, but they were generally pleased with my ministry efforts and didn’t want to derail them with focused feedback on my preaching. 

Living in a space of continuous improvement where we speak hard truths doesn’t always sound appealing. The conversations are uncomfortable, and it’s never clear how people, especially pastors, will handle even constructive criticism. 

But imagine if churches had a different perspective, and conversations like these were considered the way we more faithfully proclaim Christ and him crucified. Imagine if our pastors and elders were so firmly rooted and grounded in their identities in Christ that they welcomed hearing hard things for the sake of the gospel of Christ.

3. Continuous improvement leads to growth. 

What happened after I was made aware of the shortcomings in my preaching? I humbled myself before God, and he providentially directed me to a coach to help me improve my preaching in a biblically-faithful and Christ-honoring way. I then humbled myself before my elders and asked them to financially support this self-improvement effort. 

Not only did the elders agree to fund it, but they are also planning to include a line item for pastoral improvement in next year’s church budget. I have also asked that we set aside time every year for Retrospectives so we can build continuous improvement into our DNA.

For some pastors, preaching may be fine, but you might need to grow in organizational leadership, emotional intelligence, or counseling. If you are open to feedback, you will find that humility is fertile soil for growth. God gives grace to the humble. I resisted; God humbled me, and he is refining me through it. I’m confident that you will find yourself growing as you become open to helpful feedback about your ministry. 

The apostle Paul had never heard of the Agile method, and he certainly wasn’t a Scrum Master. But he would not object to a prayerful and humble effort to better preach Christ and him crucified. Continuous improvement is what happens when ministers of the gospel “practice these things.” 

Paul gives Timothy a command that we would be wise to follow. We should “practice these things, immerse” ourselves “in them, so that all may see” our “progress.” As pastors and elders, let’s reconsider committing ourselves to a practice of continual improvement for the glory of God. All of this, of course, must be directed by the Spirit through prayer and be under the word of God so that in everything, Christ might be preeminent to the glory of our Father.

James Pavlic serves as pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashua, New Hampshire.