How long should a sermon be?
How long is a piece of string? Twice as long as from the end to the middle, as everyone knows. It's a nonsense question, and so, up to a point, is this. So much depends on the kind of church we're talking about, the expectations of the congregation, and – crucially – the abilities of the minister. Some preachers can enthral you for an hour; others bore you rigid after five minutes. In some traditions the sermon isn't really all that significant – the focus falls on the communion, the corporate prayers or the music.
Even so, granted that a Sunday morning sermon matters and that it's a significant way in which God speaks to people today, there are things we can usefully say.
1. It should be long enough for people to engage seriously with the Bible.
There are certain minimum standards a preacher ought to reach: he or she ought to have consulted commentaries, read around the text or passage, thought and prayed about it. The congregation needs to be taught, and part of the preacher's job – not by any means all of it – is to convey knowledge. So there has to be room for a text to be introduced and explained.
2. It should be long enough for them to engage seriously with the world.
The three questions everyone reading the Bible should ask are: what does it say? What does it mean? And, what does it mean to me? It's easy to get bogged down in the first two and never to make the transition to the real, lived experience of people in the real world. It might be small-scale and personal, or large-scale and prophetic – but the Bible doesn't only talk to itself, it talks to us.
3. It should be short enough to leave us wanting more.
We listen to sermons in different ways. Sometimes we listen to every word and follow the reasoning through from the beginning to the end. At other times we're struck by an illustration or an argument and think about that for a few minutes rather than what the preacher's moved on to – and that's fine. But we're held by an expectation that the preacher has something interesting and important to say if we keep on listening; and if we reach the end thinking they probably haven't, it's been too long.
In the end, it's the quality of thinking that counts rather than the number of words the preacher uses. Some long sermons would be far more effective if they were shorter. Some short ones could do with being longer. Preachers need to respect their congregations – but congregations need to respect their preachers, too, and be willing to be stretched.
How long is a piece of string? Just the right length for the job.
Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods
