3 Major Trends in Sermon Length

Years ago (emphasis on the “years”), my family went to another church’s special service with a guest speaker. (Today, I couldn’t tell you his name—it’s been that long ago.)

Past 75 minutes, and as he began to make the same point for the third time, there were a couple of audible groans in the sanctuary. (The point really wasn’t worth making the first time.) Soon, people were actually getting up and walking out.

One Wednesday night, an evangelist Who Shall Not Be Named was in my old church. I was a normal church member. The sermon went past 60 mins. Then 75 mins. Then 85 mins. The man was rambling incoherently about nothing at all. I told my wife we were leaving. We got up and just walked out in front of everybody. By that time it was 8:45 at night, and we had three small kids. The nursery worker was beside herself with rage. It was inexcusable. That evangelist comes back to the church every year. From then on, we always skipped church when he preached. I’d rather stay at home and play Sorry with my kids than listen to him again.

As recorded in Matthew, it’s been said that at an average rate of speaking it lasts about 12.5 minutes. (And in those 12.5 minutes there is more content than we can do justice to in a lifetime…)

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Not sermons obviously, but immensely memorable:

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address lasts less than 3 minutes when spoken.

King’s I Have a Dream speech lasted something like 17 minutes.

[dcbii]

That said, I disagree that every message must have an immediate application that day. I think the reason many of our churches and church attenders are weak on theology is because of the mindset you mention — if a message can’t immediately tell me how to fix a problem or how to do something better, then it wasn’t worth the time to listen to. While I agree that messages or series of messages without any application ever are indeed just teaching (or lectures if you want to call them that), sometimes you need to take the time to build on a hard or involved topic. I’ve heard excellent series that went 15 or 16 weeks, and guess what, I didn’t get a practical application from each particular week, even though at the end, there was a very large practical application (IIRC, the last two messages in the series were ALL application), and there were occasionally small applications along the way.

Some topics were not meant to be covered in a single 45-minute presentation with an immediate application. If all messages boil down to sound bites, don’t wonder when you have an uneducated church membership, uninterested in hard topics or with no tolerance for biblical history, theology, or the deeper truths of God’s word which can’t always be plumbed in a single message. Obviously, we need application of biblical truth in order to help us change to be more like Christ. However, we also need doctrine and teaching, not all of which may result in a direct application every time we hear the Word.

Thanks for your comments - I appreciated them.

There is a difficulty with what I said. Yes, there is not always an immediate application like “go out and love your neighbor” (from Luke 10:29-37), but what I fear in preaching is that we present concepts about God that leave people amazed, but then they walk out and they have no idea how that concept correlates to practical, immediate, daily living.
I spoke with a woman this summer who miscarried for the second time, and part of our discussions was how does she apply the messages that she is getting to her immediate and daily living at all. Oh, she knew about the passages and could talk with me about, say, the love of God but she needed the ginoskw kind of knowledge that is where the rubber hits the road - knowing the concept through experience and application. That’s where she was. It’s already really easy for me to stay in the abstract and not put things on immediate context level, so that’s something I work at, and her struggles bumped that concern higher in my consciousness.

For example - I’m teaching the book of Haggai in Sunday School, and I took three or four weeks to explain Haggai 1:8 (go and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified), and I worried the most about how to make sure that the doxological purpose of God (as a concept) would be immediately helpful to the students as they went to work on Monday and Tuesday. That’s where I wanted to push an application each week because theology is nothing but the practical application of God’s word.
Make more sense?

Pastor Morrell at 4th Baptist: Messages are about 30 min. I don’t think ever over 30 minutes. AM service basically always ends at 11:30 AM. He uses time very efficiently. Much appreciated.

[Jim]

Good to have a defined “terminus ad quem” because other events are linked to the AM message:

• Children’s church & nursery, et cetera
• And some folk have planned activities (might be hosting someone for Sunday dinner) after church