I was reading another pastor's blog today and he was asking the question, "How long do most pastors preach for"? As I read the comments I noticed that most were around 30 minutes. I generally preach for about that time also. It wasn't always that way however.
Mark Batterson's blog got me thinking about the first time I ever preached. I was in high school and my youth pastor had asked me to preach to my peers in a youth group setting.
I worked hard on my message for a couple of weeks and when the night finally arrived I was done preaching in about 5-10 minutes. My youth pastor had to come up and add on another 20 minutes. I laugh now thinking, "It takes me five minutes just to introduce my message".
I don't know if there is a right length of time for a pastor to share a message. There are many factors to consider such as the audience, the topic, consideration for the children's workers, being obedient to God with whatever He has given you and if there are time restraints because of multiple services. I think the attention span of most allow for around 30 minutes.
At Living Hope Church, where I pastor, we meet in two locations. On the Sunday's when I am preaching at both, I am more conscious of the length in our first service because I need to allow time to visit people after and still get to our second service on time.
I am curious about your thoughts. Jot me a note.
2 comments:
I think that you always seem to balance it out, with video clips at times and or just speaking.
I think communion Sundays get a bit long, but, I think that is normal for any church.
I can only imagine the balancing act that must go on. I feel that you do a good job.
However, I watched Rick Nanez struggle with the clock a few Sundays ago and I felt bad. He had an annoited message that got cut short because of the time restraint.
I think that sensitivity to the Spirit is the key rather than the hands of the clock.
~Roxane
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