8 Responses to "Pastors Preach Too Long"

• Comment by: Randy

  1 12/3/07 9:52 AM | Comment Link |

  I agree. If you can’t say what you think is important in 25 minutes, you need to get another job.

  Pastors do know about how people feel (I was one for nine years). But the fact is not everyone thinks this way. There are whole Christian segments who think the only thing that should happen for the “worship hour” is teaching, believe it or not.

  Not sure about the sensitivity question. People in general are too sensitive, and most pastors of churches get beat up a lot weekly by the disgruntled. It doesn’t seem to matter what you do or don’t do…somebody is angry with you.

  I listened to a message on video by Micheal Frost on Missional Church this past week that was almost an hour long. I really didn’t have the time, but it was so compelling and interesting that I couldn’t stop listening (and I could have with just a click of the mouse!). Not sure the length of time makes as much difference as the content and perhaps the delivery. It also helps if God shows up somewhere in the message with some conviction and affirmation.

  I spent 20 years speaking to adolescents with Young Life. The general rule of thumb is that you have about one minute of attention span per year of age…if you’re pretty good. That gave us a 15 minute time frame to work with in our weekly club message, and we’d be able to go about 25 at our summer camps. So I guess I think most messages should be in the 20-25 minute range. If you have more to say, say it next week.

• Comment by: Randy

  2 12/3/07 9:56 AM | Comment Link |

  Here’s a link to that Micheal Frost message if you’re interested.

• Comment by: Kevin J.

  3 12/5/07 6:44 AM | Comment Link |

  Sermon length, just like times of services, type of music, really is more of a personal preference issue than anything else. I’ve been at churches where other elements of the service (the guaranteed two hymns, communion, the passing of the plates, the passing of the peace, the passing of the peace that passeth understanding, the featured musical moment, the kid’s sermon, etc.) left the minister with approximately 14 minutes if he were to conclude a service in an hour. And since this is Texas, he’d better well finish before the Cowboys game starts…

  I think it’s a much larger issue than just how long a minister speaks. It’s more to the core of the rituals of a church and whether they hold meaning to people. Why people do stuff during a service is rarely explained, thus shutting a lot of outsiders out, or rarely inviting them into the club (where they learn the secret handshake).

  Specifically, as far as sermon length, that’s largely dependent on the message, the points that the minister intends to cover, and how well they’ve done their work instead of just pulling from a lectionary. Some ministers didn’t do well in homiletics during seminary. Some ministers have a tunnel vision of God’s vision.

  I think that our short attention span society isn’t willing to let people (even ministers) be human and ramble a bit. Of course, since that’s what I’m doing, I’ll stop here. :)

• Comment by: Steve

  4 12/5/07 10:37 AM | Comment Link |

  I have listened to 20 minute sermons in which I’m bored stiff. I have listened to 55 minute sermons that have enthralled me the entire time. The content (depth of the truth) of the message is what matters. Not how long. If the content is good, people won’t “tune out” regardless of sermon length. Sadly, I feel that content (truth) rich sermons are extremely rare in the church today.

• Comment by: Jim E

  5 12/5/07 12:59 PM | Comment Link |

  If the rule of one minute per year of age holds true, with my congregation of several senior saints, I should get to preach well over an hour. Yet I am held to about 25-30 minutes. That is usually sufficiant for most topics or texts. The problems we face with time restraints are mostly sociological. I’ve often wondered how it is that worship services (including several sermons)in some African churches can go on for several hours. I also like the account recorded in Acts 20 where Paul spoke all evening and through the night interupted only briefly by a young man falling asleep and out the window. (Onother hazard of long sermons) The factors in the case seems to be that it was a special occasion (Paul’s leaving the next day) and the nature of the message. I think we need to be sensible as well as sensitive about our use of time given. Urgency and substance will sometimes over-rule a time limit. I try to keep in mind that the uspoken agreement of most people coming to church is that they are giving me until 12:00. If I go beyond that I am taking time that I havn’t been given. Some truely would not care but others would.

• Comment by: Rob M

  6 12/7/07 11:02 AM | Comment Link |

  Kevin J.’s point above speaks to the issue of whether a church is high or low context - for explanation, see
  http://nakedchurch.wordpress.com/2007/11/12/video-venues-small-groups-and-context/

  That being said I think Steve and Kevin both have it right. A compelling message evokes a response of wanting more. That’s possible on a purely human scale. When the divine presence steps in, something supernatural happens, and again, people tuning out isn’t a problem.
  If folks are tuning out to your sermons, then really you’re the problem. The remedy is in preparation - pray, pray, pray during preparation! And work, work, work. If God isn’t grabbing your heart with a compelling message, don’t expect your message to be compelling to listeners. If God’s unction is present in the study, it will be present in the pulpit. Passionate preparation results in passionate presentation and a concomitant response.
  If folks are tuning out, there’s too much information and not enough transformation going on.
  Have a look at the post on context (used here in a different sense than you’re used to) and also you might want to look at Dr. Israel Galindo’s _The Hidden Lives of Congregations_ for more on congregational dynamics. You’ve got to understand these and move your congregation toward lower context and higher intentionality to really move.
  Hope this helps!

• Comment by: kathyescobar

  7 12/8/07 8:23 AM | Comment Link |

  what if pastors stopped preaching for 30 minutes week after week and started facilitating conversations? gave people a chance to interact on their own, think, reflect, dialogue? (yes, i think it’s possible even in larger congregations) what if pastors gave that time to others in the congregation on a regular basis and allowed them to be as creative as they wanted to be? what if they cried foul and taught their congregations to quit relying on them to spoonfeed something inspirational week after week? i am not dismissing that there aren’t some great things that happen for people after hearing a 25-30 minute message. it can be very powerful, but personally i think it’s overrated and has become so engrained into what we think “church” is supposed to include that we are scared to mess with it. i think it’s a crazy cycle…pastors think that’s what they are supposed to do, people think that’s what pastors are supposed to do, and we miss out on something far more powerful and beautiful if the body could actually bring all of its parts to the mix instead of being about one big talking head.

• Comment by: Randy

  8 12/9/07 5:58 PM | Comment Link |

  Kathy…you radical revolutionary, you! Are you guys doing this at the Refuge? If so, how is that working? I love the idea, and certainly most churches could adapt at least SOME interactive conversation into the “message time”. I’d love to hear some stories from you (or anyone else who is doing this).

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