How Long Should Sermons Be?

Photo by Tye Doring on Unsplash

Over at TGC-Australia, there has been a great discussion about sermon length with Rory Shiner arguing for shorter but better-prepared sermons, and then with Mikey Lynch arguing for slightly longer sermons. Both guys make some good points!

So how long should a sermon be? Well, it is hard to say, and there’s no single correct answer.

I used to work with a Roman Catholic Chaplain who told me that in his seminary he was told were told that homilies (i.e., sermons) should last no longer than eight minutes because eight minutes is the normal period between adverts on television.

However, I also once talked to a missionary from East Timor who told me that people in his region can walk up to three hours to get to church, so when they arrive, they don’t want a ten-minute pep talk. They expect three sermons of about 30-40 minutes each interspersed with worship, prayers, and community notices.

The famous Scottish preacher, William Still, typified the Puritan style by offering a Bible reading that went for 20 minutes, what we’d call a reading with exegetical notes, followed up with a sermon that was largely an exhortation or reflection based on the Bible reading that went for 45-60 minutes. I’m told that if you heard William Still preach that you would hardly notice the time fly by.

Me, personally, I tend to preach for about 25 minutes, because I find that after 25 minutes of my own preaching, even I’m bored.

But I think it does depend on the preacher. There are some great preachers/teachers I could listen to all day: D.A. Carson, Vaughan Roberts, or Karen Jobes. It also depends on the audience, what are they used to, what are they expecting, what keeps them fed but not tired by the preaching length.

Part of me thinks that sermons are like artillery, there is a quality to quantity. If you preach McNuggets you’ll get McDisciples. But in an age where we are more distracted than ever, where advertisers and social media maestros measure attention spans in seconds not minutes, I do think we can say that “less is more.”

As my Wheaton-bound buddy John Dickson writes:

John Dickson @johnpauldickson

I agree modern western sermons should probably be under 20mins long, i.e., less than 3000 words (says the guy who's never done that in his life!). But we should perhaps note that this is likely a function of our specific culture's diminished capacity for slow & deep thinking. 1/3

So, sermon length, what are your thoughts? Feel free to put your answer into this poll!