Lectures to My Students: Attention, Part 4
From Lectures to My Students: A Selection from Addresses Delivered to the Students of The Pastors’ College, Metropolitan Tabernacle
First Series, Lecture IX
By C.H. Spurgeon
Younger Evangelicals More Likely Than Older to Want In-Depth Sermons, Survey Finds
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“Some people have advocated for short sermons for the younger generation … with the idea being that younger adults have shorter attention spans. Yet only 10 percent of evangelicals under age 40 would prefer shorter sermons at their church.” - C.Leaders
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Survey: Less than 10% of Evangelicals want shorter sermons; 30% want more in-depth teaching
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“According to the report…only 7% of respondents want sermons to be shorter, while 85% believe the sermon lengths are acceptable as they are. About 8% percent said they wanted sermons to be longer.” - CPost
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Will the 10 Minute Homily Be the New Normal?
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“…. pastors have recognized that it’s challenging to listen to a typical sermon of 20-40 minutes online and they’ve shortened their presentations accordingly. Now some of their parishioners are saying they like it!” - CLeaders
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LifeWay research: Pastors think their sermons are shorter than congregations do
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“Pastors have a wide range of styles when it comes to sermon length….However, the clear differences by denomination and church size indicate many churches themselves have different traditions when it comes to the length of sermons.” - BPNews
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Pew: Black Protestants, Evangelicals Top Rankings for Longest Sermons
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“…an analysis by the Pew Research Center—billed as the first of its kind—of 49,719 sermons delivered in April and May that were shared online by 6,431 churches. Pew described its research as ‘the most exhaustive attempt to date to catalogue and analyze American religious sermons.’” - Christianity Today
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3 Major Trends in Sermon Length
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“1. The most frequent preaching length is 20 to 28 minutes… fastest growing segment…
2. The second most frequent length is 45 to 55 minutes… diminishing…
3. The third most frequent length is one of no time constraints… [small % but holding steady]” CPost
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When Is It Time to Quit?
From Faith Pulpit, Winter 2014. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Every once in a while I do something that feels akin to beating my head against a wall. This article feels like that because my intention is to discuss how long preachers should preach. I have discussed this topic with enough preachers to know that preachers will preach as long as they want to preach. Certainly every preacher needs to be “convinced in his own mind” of what length of sermon is appropriate. I acknowledge this is an area where good men can disagree. Perhaps there is a certain arrogance when a preacher insists on preaching as long as he wants, or more “spiritually” stated, as long as the Holy Spirit leads.
Certainly no hard and fast rule on sermon length exists other than the guidelines of past practice and good sense. Let me say at the outset that I am advocating for shorter sermons that pack a greater punch. The bottom line is that few preachers have the ability to keep an audience for 50-plus minutes. (I know that I am not one of those preachers and chances are you aren’t either.) In fact, for every preacher who can engage an audience and keep its attention for that length of time, there are a dozen who can’t. I am not arguing for sermonettes for that would only produce “Christianettes.”
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