Three Keys to Sermon Length
Brian Croft more from this author »
Briancroft.Wordpress.com
Date Published: 5/7/2013
In the ongoing search for the perfect sermon length, here are three factors to help determine the length of your sermon on any given Sunday.
I had an interesting conversation yesterday that reminded me that this question needs to be addressed. I find many pastors, especially younger ones, are regularly wrestling with this question. They should be. The pressure to answer can be self-imposed, or forced by those in your church who complain that your sermons are too long. The problem is, there does not seem to be one right answer. The answer to this question largely depends on the kind of pastor you are, the quality of preacher you are and the kind of congregation you serve. In light of this, here are a few principles that might help you answer this question in your particular context.
A pastor should determine the length of a sermon …
1. Based On Where Your People Are, Not Where You Think They Should Be.
We should always challenge our folks to grow. Yet I hear of many pastors preaching sermons at a length they know is overwhelming the majority of their congregation. The reason … to push their people to be able to listen to God’s Word for the amount of time the pastor thinks they should be able to listen. Push your congregation to grow, but not at the expense of exasperating them by trying to make them something they are not. God must do that work. Preach faithfully, but meet them where they are. Let God mature them to that place as your preaching causes them to long for more of it.
2. Based On How Good And Seasoned A Preacher You Are.
I fear that so many of us who love the Puritans read that they preached one- to two-hour sermons and think, “Hey, I want to be like the Puritans.” The problem is, many men who want to preach an hour are not good enough or seasoned enough to preach an hour … yet. I realize that we are treading in subjective waters.
The point here is the necessity to evaluate honestly how good and seasoned you are as a preacher. If you are in your first year of pastoring a church, your sermons should probably be shorter, more succinct and simpler than you probably think or want. If you are not able to honestly evaluate your preaching gifts and you do not allow others to speak into your life to assess them with you, I believe you will have a difficult time determining what length your sermons should be so that they will be most helpful to your congregation.
3. To Leave Your People Longing For More, Not Less.
Every preacher has been there. We can sense we are losing our people and we still have 10 minutes left in the sermon. We want to make sure we give adequate time to the preaching of God’s Word, but this principle, to leave them longing for a bit more, is a good goal to pursue. I would rather leave my people in a place where they wanted just a little more versus exasperating them with too much. Do not underestimate the discouragement that comes when someone who honestly desired a nice big glass of water instead got the fire hose jammed down his or her throat.
Remember, these are just principles. Do not overanalyze them. Just take them and apply them in your context with your level of preaching experience. Lastly, remember you are a shepherd of these people to whom you are preaching. Think like a shepherd as you determine the length of your sermons. Push them to grow. Nurture them where they are now. Then, trust that God will use his Word and your efforts to find that balance every pastor should seek.
Brian Croft is senior pastor of Auburndale Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He is also the author of "Visit the Sick: Ministering God’s Grace in Times of Illness (foreword by Mark Dever) and "Test, Train, Affirm, and Send Into Ministry: Recovering the Local Church’s Responsibility to the External Call" (foreword by R. Albert Mohler Jr.). Brian blogs regularly at Practical Shepherding.
Source: sermoncentral.com
posted by Tony Seel at 1:41 PM
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