How long should sermons be?

During lockdown, when congregations were meeting virtually, sermons were noticeably shorter. According to Scott McConnell, executive-director of Nashville-based LifeWay Research, more than a quarter of churchgoers would prefer such shorter sermons now that we are back to in-person worship.

But what is a shorter sermon? It all depends on one’s starting point. In this regard the Bible gives no guidance. We read that Ezra read from the Book of the Law “from early morning to midday” (Neh 8.3); while Paul at Troas “continued speaking until midnight” (Acts 20.7) and then after a brief interruption by Eutychus, who in every sense of the word dropped off to sleep, Paul continued until daybreak.

Some believe that preaching should have no time constraint. The preacher should be open to God’s Spirit. If a sermon takes longer to deliver, than more time should be allowed. At this point, however, the Apostle Paul does give some guidance. For in the context of a, Paul Christian worship service, Paul wrote: “The spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets”: in other words, there is no place for licence. As Gordon Fee, himself a Pentecostal, wrote in his massive commentary on 1 Corinthians (982 pages long): “Some Pentecostal and charismatic assembles would do well to heed these directives”.

Down through the years the length of a sermon has varied. In the time of Queen Elizabeth I long sermons with doctrinal discourses were the flavour of the month. It was in that period that hourglasses were attached to the pulpit – although there was nothing to stop the preacher by turning the hourglass upside down and starting all over again.

In my own tradition, there was a stage when the whole day was given over to sermons of one kind or another. In 1689, for instance, Hugh and Anne Bromhead gave a description of worship amongst English Separatists who had fled from persecution to Amsterdam:

We begin with a prayer, after read some one or two chapters of the Bible; give the sense thereof and confer upon the same; that done, we lay aside our books and after a solemn prayer made by the first speaker he propoundeth some text out of the Scripture and prophesieth out of the same by the space of one hour or three quarters of an hour. After him standeth up a second speaker and prophesieth out of the said text the like time and space, sometimes more, sometimes less. After him, the third, the fourth, the fifth etc., as the time will give leave. Then the first speaker concludeth with prayer as he began with prayer, with an exhortation to contribution to the poor, which collection being made is also concluded with prayer. This morning exercise begins at eight of the clock and continueth unto twelve of the clock. The like course of exercise is observed in the afternoon from two of the clock unto five or six of the clock. Last of all the execution of the government of the Church is handled.

In the 19th century expectations were different. The Victorian ‘Prince of Preachers’, Charles Haddon Spurgeon spoke at the rate of 140 words per minute for 40 minutes. In his Lectures to My Students he wrote: “A man with a great deal of well-prepared matter will probably not exceed forty minutes; when he has less to say he will go on for fifty minutes, and when he has absolutely nothing he will need an hour to say it in” (Lecture IX ‘Attention’).

On the other hand, F.F. Bruce, a renowned Biblical scholar and my former PhD supervisor, said to me in the late 1960s: “if preachers had anything worthwhile to say, they could say it within 20 minutes; while if they had nothing to say, then they would need at least 40 minutes”.

However, there are many preachers who would disagree with Bruce. My understanding is that the American preacher Rick Warren, author of the best-seller The Purpose Driven Life, still preaches every Sunday morning for 52 minutes.

Prior to the pandemic, on 4 April 2005, a group of ‘mystery worshippers’ visited 70 London churches and timed the sermon. They came up with the following results:

The ten churches with the longest sermons were:

  1. 80 mins: Pierres Vivantes, Hyde Park
  2. 60 mins: Kingsway International Christian Centre, Hackney
  3. 53 mins: Hillsong, Dominion Theatre, Tottenham Court Road
  4. 52 mins: Westminster Chapel, Buckingham Gate
  5. 45 mins: The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Tooting
  6. 43 mins: Covent Garden Evangelical, Neal Street
  7. 42 mins: Metropolitan Tabernacle, Elephant & Castle
  8. 35 mins: West Croydon Baptist Church
  9. 35 mins: Church of the Nazarene, Clapham Junction
  10. 34 mins: Westbourne Grove Independent Baptist, Notting Hill

The ten churches with the shortest sermons were:

  1. 5 mins: Hinde Street Methodist, Marylebone
  2. 5 mins: St Alfege, Greenwich
  3. 6 mins: Westminster Abbey
  4. 6 mins: St Margaret’s Westminster
  5. 6 mins: St Stephen’s, Lewisham
  6. 7 mins: St John the Evangelist, Waterloo
  7. 7 mins: Brompton Oratory, Kensington
  8. 8 mins: Our Lady and St Joseph, Hackney
  9. 8 mins: The American Church in London

Over the years my sermons have tended to be 20 or 25 minutes long – but as I grow older I am finding that my sermons are growing shorter. The Sunday morning sermons at Chelmsford Cathedral are normally less than 10 minutes in length, but when I was invited to preach in Chelmsford on one Good Friday, I was told the congregation would expect a two hour sermon! The reality is that the context will often determine the length of a sermon. To my mind, there is no one God-given length for a sermon.

6 comments

  1. It strikes me that there are so many factors at play here. For instance:
    – Who will be hearing the sermon? Some people can maintain attention over a longer period than others; equally some people will pick up points quickly while others require longer to assimilate them. That poses a problem in a “mixed” congregation!
    – What is the occasion? For instance I’d expect a longer sermon at a “main morning service” than during a “lesson and carols one” – although I always something in!
    – As you say, some subjects require more “unpacking”. I’m afraid the Anglican tendency to have short sermons militates against this – there have been many times when I’ve thought, “Ah, now we’re getting to the really interesting bit”, only for the preacher to stop!
    – Some preachers are good at putting their points over concisively, others do ramble and could (should!) easily prune their discourses by 25% at least.
    – Some preachers are better than others at attracting and maintaining their listeners’ attention. That may be because of the way they explain their material; it may be due to their actual delivery.
    – The bigger question is, “Are sermons the best way of offering Christian teaching?” They may not be. But so many people in churches don’t want to (or can’t) attend midweek cell groups or studies, sermons of some kind probably remain the prime method. But they must not be trite or dull!

  2. Hello Paul,
    I guess I come to Sermons, from the other end of the tunnel, from you. I have heard thousands of sermons in my life, whereas you may have preached just as many. I am, as it were, “Sermon fodder”, I have never stood in a Church six feet above contradiction.
    Few of those sermons, I experienced, are memorable. As to the length of a Sermon some have been far too long and others too short. The physical length, time wise, has been far less relevant, than their perceived length, that depends on the subject matter, insights, presentation and how well upholstered the chairs/pews are, that the listener must sit on! etc.
    I remember some sermons, not so much for their content, but more for the idiosyncrasies of the preacher. In one particular sermon, I heard the preacher, like a ham actor reciting Shakespeare, declaiming each phrase with embarrassing theatrical aplomb. I noticed, that indeed , he had learned his lines from an essay by F.W. Boreham. His sermon was the complete essay learned by heart!
    I remember, sitting with friends, as a teenager, to listen to another Sermon, in which the preacher kept repeating “Isn’t it wonderful brothers and sisters – we are going to have hinds feet” The preacher concerned – who came from the North of England pronounced the “hind’s feet” as “ ‘inds feet”.
    I remember a Sermon by Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones in which he had a two word text “But God”. This was a long Sermon from the point of view of time, but seemed as but a few minutes, because of the insights provided by the preacher. That made a great impression.
    Over the years, especially with the introduction of microphones and sound systems, Sermons seem to have become more like a chat. Microphones may have helped, but if the speech is lazy, all one gets is amplified indistinct speech. Sometimes preachers think, the microphone will somehow make indistinct, or lazy speech more understandable.
    I sometimes wonder what effect, these many Sermons I have heard, have had upon me. Most I cannot remember. But I also cannot remember all the meals I have had, which have kept me alive all these years. Perhaps, like the meals, the Sermons have been ingested and have nudged me towards a better understanding of the the Lord Himself.

    Cheers, Phil

  3. Hi Paul – I think Spurgeon’s comments are wise. But length is only one thing – keeping attention with audiovisuals is now important. And preachers ought to ask themselves what they are trying to do: exhort, encourage, teach, challenge? Viz – what outcome do they want? Normally clear in an evangelistic sermon but sometimes I do wonder.
    On a lighter note, I suggest you read the P G Wodehouse short story (if you haven’t before): The Great Sermon Handicap. And a few good jokes in the average sermon wouldn’t hurt.

    1. Provided they’re not the hoary old chestnuts that should have been consigned to homiletical oblivion decades ago.

  4. Kia ora Paul,

    I enjoyed this read and suggest that Rick Warren’s 52 minute sermon only proves Spurgeon’s and FF Bruce’s point!

    I have some sympathy for the view of ML Jones, who refused live sermon broadcasts on the basis that the Holy Spirit can not be constrained to a time-sheet.

    On a personal note, I have always considered preaching the primary task of the minister. As a Baptist Minister I’d preach for 25 – 35 minutes. Now, as a Anglican Priest the expectation is 10 – 15 minutes. While I usually edge closer to 15 minutes, I believe the cutting edge of my preaching has only been made sharper by the editing. There are downsides however. My guess is that the average Baptist congregation is far and away more biblically literate that the Anglican equivalent. I’m convinced that this is directly related to not just the length, but also the quality of the preaching.

  5. Hello Paul,

    I came across the following quote in my reading today:
    The motto of all true servants of God must be, ‘We preach Christ; and him crucified.’ A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it. No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.”
    ― Charles H. Spurgeon

    What do people think?

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