What is the trend? Are church members and church leaders saying sermons should be longer or shorter? The answer is “yes.”
If my answer is confusing, I understand. But the reality is there are two major trends taking place related to sermon length. I have been following these trends through anecdotal information and social media polls for three years. There are growing numbers of respondents who believe sermons should be longer. There are also growing numbers of respondents who believe sermons should be shorter. And there aren’t many people in the middle of those two divergent views.
By the way, there is a smaller, but consistent, number that feel the pastor should preach “as long or short as God leads” with no constraints at all. That view is the third of the three perspectives.
I am reticent to put my numbers in statistical percentages since my social media polls of the past three years are not scientific. Since numbers, however, can provide greater clarity, I list them here with the caveat that the accuracy is definitely not precise.
- 41%: Sermons should be shorter, in the 20 to 30 minute range. These respondents see a cultural barrier related to short attention spans. Any sermon over 30 minutes, they say, does not connect with the typical mind of today, especially in Western culture. We, therefore, must keep the message shorter and pack more information into a relatively brief time period.
- 37%: Sermons should be longer, in the 35 to 55 minute range. A solid exposition of Scripture, this perspective argues, cannot be done in just a few minutes. The sermon is the central part of the worship service, and the time allocated should be significant. We do a disservice to the Word of God when we move toward shorter sermons.
- 9%: There should be no time constraints on the pastor’s sermons. The pastor should have a sermon length that is only subject to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Anything else lacks sensitivity to God’s work and involvement.
Obviously, if you add the numbers, another 13% had a variety of responses that fit none of the categories. By way, some of the responses in my most recent social media poll and in previous polls advocated sermon lengths from 8 minutes to 75 minutes. We church members definitely are not in full agreement on these issues.
What do you think of the two trends moving in opposite directions? One group is advocating longer sermons; the other group embraces the shorter sermon. Let me hear your thoughts on this issue.
Posted on July 30, 2014
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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153 Comments
My sermons are typically twenty to twenty-five minutes. We are struggling because we are a small rural church that is growing, and we cannot put everything into the service that we want. I drew the line at fifteen minutes because that is just not long enough to present a well developed sermon. The goal is not to do a thorough exposition but to give a balanced sermon that everyone from the person attending for the first time to members who have been attending for fifty years. I see the the sermon as a way to open up the conversation to be continued in other more appropriate situations. I am a Methodist pastor so I see the small group as the main means of faith formation. I have preached more that a few well developed expositions of scripture and know by looking out at the church that some people are not getting it. In the sermon format there is no opportunity to stop and let people ask questions, our for the pastor to ask questions and have them answered. Sometimes our well crafted expositions leave the new person thinking that there is no way that they could fit into the church where everyone seems to understand what is being said.
I believe the average attention span is 10 minutes at best, whatever the age. So unless you REALLY have a vital word from God that takes an hour to convey, why do ministers expect that people should be able to sit inert and give their full attention to an hour long sermon? If you’re going to preach much longer than 10 minutes, make sure you have plenty of hands-on illustrations (and a video in the middle of your sermon does NOT count as a hands-on illustration), to help me remember what you spent so much time talking about. Words are too often forgettable; hands-on illustrations are easily remembered. And make sure your content is worth hearing. If you spent little time preparing your message, pleeze spare us, give us your pithy points in 10 minutes, and let us out early. Or extend the music/worship time so we can actively reflect on Him. Don’t repeat your points over and over and waste our time, to cover your lack of preparation and just fulfill a preset schedule. Pleeze pleeze pleeze…….
I believe it rests on the pastor and his gift of teaching. For instance, Matt Chandler could talk about paint drying for an hr and people would want to listen. That being said there are very few great communicators out there like this. Being realistic with your capabilities and looking at the data will point most preachers to the thirty minute range.
Ernest Campbell, who preached for years from the pulpit of The Riverside Church in New York City, said, “A good sermon can never be too long; a poor one can never be short enough.”
There’s some humor in that. There’s also considerable wisdom in it.
In reading through the article & comments, I’m reminded of two comments that Charles Spurgeon made.
First, “If some men were sentenced to hear their own sermons, they would soon cry out with Cain, ‘My punishment is more than I can bear!'”
Second, “Surely if men’s hearts were right, shorter sermons would suffice.”
I preach as long as it takes to deal adequately with the text in front of me. Generally, for me, that means 30-40 minutes; although sometimes I like to preach for 25 just to keep the deacons on their toes. 🙂
Good article, Dr. Rainer!
Thank you.
Maybe we should spend a little more time on how we can love our congregations better, how we can give more one on one time to the individuals who come to our church, understand their needs, wants and hopes. Love them for who they are, where ever they are in their faith journey and promise them blessings that only God can provide.
I guess I fall in either the longer sermon camp or the Spirit-lead camp. As a former member of The Church at Brook Hills, I saw a few times where Pastor David preached for less than 30 minutes – and he did a great job and it was very appropriate. However, these were the exceptions and not the rule. In general, I don’t think you can faithfully explain most texts and make application in less than 30 minutes. The question for the shorter sermon crowd then is whether or not they are faithfully advocating a recovery of expository preaching. I think that’s a better litmus test than sermon length. My guess (showing my skepticism here) is that most of the folks wanting shorter sermons are not good expositors, but instead are opting for Christianized pep talks.
I think that there are a number of factors at work, both in terms of the length of a sermon, but also in terms of how people respond to sermon length:
1. What do the people think a sermon is for? If they think a sermon is primarily about a didactic conveying of information, then they will likely think that sermons are too long based on current thinking about teaching.
2. What is people’s level of maturity? Most school pupils think they should have less school and homework. Most parents don’t 😉
3. What does the preacher think sermons are for? Much like point (1), a preacher may preacher shorter, punchier sermons if they think it’s just about conveying an idea.
4. What is the preacher’s level of maturity? Immature preachers often don’t know how to weed out the non-essentials in a sermon.
5. What is the preacher’s level of gifting? When people ask me about how long they should preach, I tend to say “it depends”. Some people could preach for 60 minutes and leave you wanting more. Others can preach for 10 and still leave you wanting less!
6. What are the other structures in the church for discipleship? People who are well discipled and led in the Word are less likely to be looking to the Sunday sermon as their primary (or even sole!) point of contact with the Word.
It amazes me that the group in the 20 to 30 minute range attributes their reasoning to the following:
“These respondents see a cultural barrier related to short attention spans”.
It’s almost sadly humorous that our culture can spend several hours in a stadium in near freezing weather cheering on their favorite football team in an overtime game and think nothing of the time allotted to this activity. Yet when the pastor goes five minutes over in a Sunday morning sermon, preaching about something as important as the condition of our souls, we want to fire the guy.
In reality…this is more about a culture that has its priorities in the wrong place. After all, it seems our attention spans are directly regulated according to what is important to us and what is not.
I’m in that small community that believes that the length of a sermon should be regulated by God and the Holy Spirit rather than by a congregation with one eye on the pastor and the other on their Timex.
Based on some of the posts (I haven’t read them all) the apostle Paul wouldn’t stand a chance today. Certainly a babbler (Acts 17:18) who doesn’t speak in persuasive words (1 Corinthians 2:1-5) had better improve on his preaching skills.
Perhaps the Spirit is at work and the particular details ought to be left with Him.
Interesting percentages. I like what Kevin DeYoung said at a conference at Gordon-Conwell awhile back during a Q&A… “How long should a sermon be?” KD: “As long as it can be without being fired.” I’ve heard all three views in my own church, but often the age demographic for the shorter view is an older generation while younger generations don’t mind longer sermons. I’d be curious to learn of a broader age demographic percentage for these views. That would be interesting. Also, many seem to want the worship service to be no more than an hour, I wonder how a balance as a worship leader/pastor of a small church might be found between both extremes of shorter and longer?