How Long Should A Sermon Be?

[Romans922]

It depends on the congregation.

 

[Skyler]

The opening message is usually between 15-30 minutes, and the main message is usually between 45 minutes and 1 hr 15 minutes.

It helps that our congregation doesn't, in general, watch television.

 

[reformedminister]

Our services last only an hour. Typically, I try to keep the preaching at about thirty minutes. I might run five minutes under or over. Before I was a minister, I had no problem listening to forty and fifty minute sermons. My former pastor sometimes preached for an hour. I think unless you are someone like "The Doctor", you should keep it under forty-five minutes. The "average" preacher (as far as ability to give a good sermon) should probably keep it under thirty minutes.

 

[AThornquist]

Our main teaching elder typically preaches the Word of God for over an hour. And our church loves it. We leave loving Christ more than when we entered.

 

[Willem van Oranje]

How long should a sermon be? I've heard all manner of answers before. I'm curious as to what principles guide your answer. I have known many say that time shouldn't be a consideration at all but I there are certainly limits to even that.

I preach for about 45 minutes each Sunday morning. Some have charitably complained that its too long. I wonder if the puritans had any general rule on this matter. If not, yours will suffice just fine.

As I understand it, the puritans' rule was something like this:

set an hour glass at the beginning of the sermon

preach until all the sand is in the bottom

continue preaching--oblivious to time, until someone remembers to turn over the hour glass.

finish when the sand is all in the bottom again.

Here's another rule you might want to consider:

Make it like a woman's skirt: long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to be interesting.

 

[ChariotsofFire]

Examine your heart if you want shorter sermons. Why want less of such a wonderful thing?

It's sad that we can watch a 2 hour movie and that doesn't phase us, but listening to his Word preached has to be limited to a time span far less than that.

You speak as if a sermon could never be too long. Oh, it can. Wanting a shorter sermon in many cases is not a matter of the heart--it's a matter of practicality. Two points to consider:

1) There is a reason that educational courses are generally the length that they are. Perhaps your mind works differently, but most of us decline in our focus between 45 minutes and 1 hour of uninterrupted teaching.

2) The first point is even more true for children. Perhaps my children are abnormal, but they can only sit still and quietly for so long. I'd be rather frustrated if my pastor preached for over an hour each week. Frankly, it's an issue that would cause me to consider switching churches.

Hearing the Word preached is a blessing, we should be hungry for the Word of God. We do need to be wise with worship, not to unessarily burden people, but we should encourage others to discipline their minds by the power of the Holy Spirit to have a love for Jesus and his Word. I realize that there's a point where people need a break, but I'm suggesting it's longer than 1/2 hour to 45 min..

We should discipline ourselves to focus on the Word of God for longer periods of time. I don't claim that I have this discipline or that my mind works differently, but adults who have disciplined their minds should be able to pay attention for quite a bit longer than 1/2 hour to 45 min.. I can think of many examples from work/school how people spend hours diligently working and engaging their minds for hours on end. Even children sit in the classroom often up to 45 minutes. I guess that's why I think it's a matter of the heart. It seems like we can work 10 hour grueling days or study all night or watch soccer for hours on end, but when it comes to worship or hearing the Word preached we so easily complain when its too long.

Even if it were true that adults can't handle consecutive, uninterrupted learning for more than 45 minutes, there could always be a break during the sermon to sing a song or to have silent prayer.

I do understand that children can have trouble sitting still. I have a 1 1/2 year old who gives us plenty of trouble in worship. She's still learning to worship the great King. I don't think she understands everything or has the capacity to even pay attention for that long. However, it's all about training her up in the Lord. If our children are disciplined to sit still longer and pay attention for longer, this will pay dividends when they are older.

 

[Skyler]

I think unless you are someone like "The Doctor", you should keep it under forty-five minutes.

I knew The Doctor was good at opera, but I didn't think public speaking was his strong suit.

 

[SemperEruditio]

30-45 minutes is about right. It also depends on how engaging a speaker you are to be , Frank.

I didn't ask the question Ben. I'm pretty engaging...at least I like to think so.

 

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

 

[greenbaggins]

I'm not actually convinced that "better" preachers can preach longer. This fact struck me rather forcibly as I listened to Derek Thomas at TLF this year. Now, Dr. Thomas is a very good preacher. However, he is a slow speaker, with long pauses between sentences. This is his style. If he's going to say much, he has to have time to do that. And his style is very engaging. I don't think he could manage to get his point across in only half an hour. However, other speakers are much quicker in their delivery style, in which case, they can preach shorter messages, and still get the same amount of information into the sermon. For myself, I generally preach 25-30 minutes. This is due in large part to the restraint I have of doing two services (at two different churches!) with not much time in between.

Time itself (either much or little!) is no guarantee of quality, as has been said. For one thing, the longer a message is, the more difficult it is to keep it on a single point. Too little time, and one risks over-simplifying the text. All sermons should, I believe, have one main point, or else the passage being preached is too long. Too many preachers think that they have to preach the entirety of Reformed doctrine in every sermon. I find such sermons incomprehensible and disorganized. The temptation is to sound learned by expounding so much of Reformed theology in every sermon (which has the added "benefit" of lengthening the sermon). However many subpoints a sermon has, it should always have one main point. This one point needs to be followed like a laser beam.

Another difference in style needs to be mentioned here, and that is the tendency of some preachers to the big picture, and the tendency of others to the details. Presumably some kind of balance would be good here. On the one hand, I have seen preachers who want to skim everything, and they never want to get down to the details, which can often preach very well. Probably this is due to their inadequate exegetical skills and/or pitiful libraries. On the other hand, there are those Lloyd-Jones wannabes, who think that if they skip over a single sub-sub-sub point of the text, then they have failed to preach the whole counsel of God. I don't believe either position is correct. When the details are important and have a direct impact on the main point, they need to be carefully exposited. I well remember the sermon given by Eric Alexander on Romans 12:1-2, where he lovingly and in fine detail parsed the Greek words of those verses, and boy, did that preach! "Be transformed" as a (divine) passive imperative really preaches, I'm telling you. But I've seen preaching where Greek words are parsed, and nothing is gained for the expounding of the main point. It is done simply to show off. This is not helpful.

It is always appropriate to preach the big picture, even when one is preaching the details. One can never lose sight of the entire Bible, even if the entire Bible should not be preached in every sermon. This can be done by showing patterns within patterns in a suggestive rather than exhaustive (which is usually exhausting!) way.

All of this has a direct impact on how long sermons should be. I don't think that congregational expectations should be anything like a deciding factor in how long a sermon should be. One generally won't have problems with 30 minute sermons. Getting up to 45 minutes will be okay in some congregations but will stretch others (which may be a good thing!).

 

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

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