How to record, what gets scored, how to read your report, and the honest limits of what a recording can tell you.
Reports go out by email within 24 hours, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Central. Weekend submissions are reviewed starting Monday morning.
When: Once the outline is set. Send it by Thursday to have your review back before the weekend.
Best for: Tightening the main insight, cutting what isn't helping, fixing the opening, and moving the invitation to the peak.
When: After you preach, while the sermon is still fresh.
Best for: Seeing what landed, how the energy moved, and whether your practice changes held up.
Doing both on the same sermon gives you the clearest picture. Bring your practice report along with your final recording, and the review shows what moved between them.
| File types | Gives you |
|---|---|
| MP4 or MOV (video) | The full review, with content, delivery, and energy |
| M4A or MP3 (audio) | The full review, with content, delivery, and energy |
| Pasted transcript | Content scores only; delivery and energy aren't measured |
Before you submit, you'll name what you want the church to walk away with, in five words or less each. Short answers force a clear aim, and your report compares what you intended with what actually came through.
God goes after the lost.
Wanted, not just tolerated.
Reach out to one person.
Every report is a designed PDF that prints cleanly. It follows the same order each time:
| Section | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Cover | Your overall score, its band, and all 11 scores at a glance |
| Coaching | What's working, the hard truth said kindly, the one thing to practice, Listen Back moments with ▶ timestamps, and any checks against Scripture |
| The scores | Each category with its score, the evidence, and why |
| Delivery | Section times, pace, the energy arc, the open and the landing, pauses, and words you lean on |
| Time breakdown | How much time went to the text, teaching, illustration, application, and side trails |
| Questions and intent | The genuine questions you asked, beside your Know, Feel, Do |
| Growth | Only when you bring past reports: what moved and why |
Eleven categories, each scored 1–10 (half points allowed), in four weighted groups. Faithfulness to the text and the gospel stay at the center of every score and every piece of feedback.
Scores are honest, so most good sermons don't land at the top. Here's how to read where you are.
| Score | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| 9–10 Master preacher | Faithful, clear, connected, and moving, all at once. Rare even for seasoned preachers, and not meant to be a weekly target. |
| 8–9 A standout week | Nearly everything is working, with one or two things to sharpen. |
| 6–8 Most weekly sermons | Solid, faithful preaching with clear room to grow. Landing here is normal, and good. |
| 5 Growth range | The foundation is there. One or two big fixes will move you up quickly. |
| Below 5 Red flags | Something major is missing. See the list below. |
Your overall score is a weighted average, so one weak category rarely pulls a sermon below 5 by itself. Problems with the text and the gospel weigh the most. Delivery alone seldom does it, though a flat delivery from start to finish can pull a borderline sermon down.
| Measure | How it works |
|---|---|
| Pace | Words per minute. Most sermons fall between 130 and 160. Scripture reading pace is noted separately. |
| Pauses | Every pause of 2 seconds or more, sorted by purpose: after a question, turning to Scripture, the end of a thought, or for emphasis. A pause in the middle of a phrase is flagged as worth a listen. |
| Words you lean on | Fillers, hedges, crutch phrases, and check-ins like "Amen?" or "right?" Also words that could lose a newcomer: archaic wording, unexplained church terms, and unexplained biblical names. |
| Genuine questions | Questions that ask listeners to consider something or to do something. Recall questions are counted separately, and rhetorical lines are left out. |
| Time breakdown | Time spent reading and explaining the text, teaching, illustrating, applying, opening, and chasing rabbits (15+ seconds off topic). |
| Energy arc | Pace and volume together, minute by minute, compared with a typical sermon. Long or frequent pauses lower it. The report says honestly when a sermon is likely to feel flat, and whether the energy went into the main points. |
Your report marks key moments with timestamps (like ▶ 27:10) matched to the recording you sent. Open your file on your computer and jump to that time to hear the moment for yourself.
If you add a YouTube link when you submit, those timestamps become clickable links that open your video at that exact moment. Transcript-only reviews have no timestamps.
We don't keep your history, so your saved reports are the record. Add one or more past Love Your Sermon PDFs to any upload, and the review reads their scores to show what moved, category by category. First-time reviews skip averages and trends, because there's nothing fair to compare yet.
Found a problem or have a suggestion? Send it to jed@broadwaycoc.com.