How long should you preach on Sunday?
Pew Research Center recently analyzed 50,000 sermons preached between April 7 and June 1, 2019, in order to determine the median sermon length in the United States. Their answer? 37 minutes.
In response, I asked a few pastors how long they thought a sermon should be. Timothy Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian, remarked, “In general I think for most Sunday congregations the sermon should be under 30 minutes. That’s safest. If you are a solid preacher but not very eloquent or interesting it should also be shorter.”
Mark Vroegop, pastor of College Park Church in Indianapolis, IN, thinks pastors should go a bit longer: “35 to 40 minutes. I think that is long enough to adequately explain the texts and sensitive to the shortened listening ability of most people.”
Pushing the envelope, Adam Sinnett, who pastors a young and vibrant congregation in Seattle, argues, “The sermon should be as long as needed to clearly communicate the point of the passage, apply it to the hearts of God’s people, while removing potential obstacles, and delivering with passionate persuasion. That typically takes 40 to 50 minutes, depending on the size of the passage.”
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