I'm not sure when I copied this quote in one of my journals. But I remember the impact it made on me.
A long sermon may be good. But a good sermon is rarely long.
Jazz great, John Coltrane, once talked about his idea that good experimental jazz had no time limits. If it took 20 minutes to play the song, that was the appropriate length for the song. Then he had an epiphany of sorts - he began playing with musicians who seemed to accomplish the same impact with their music in 10 minutes and Coltrane realized that quality, rather than quantity, was what he should strive for.
My mentor at the Seminary, Glenn Nielsen, was once asked, "How long should a sermon be?" His answer - "As long as it needs to be." So there's no time limit to how short or long a sermon should be, huh?
Yes, that's right. But that's not the only consideration.
We live in a day and age where people are not accustomed to receiving information from a talking head, standing in a pulpit, going on for 15, 20 or more minutes. The average attention span of a person today is, depending on who you read, is only a couple of minutes at best. So, if a pastor is going to go on and on, sharing every idea he's discovered in his study of the text, he'd better be a captivating speaker.
Most of us aren't.
Even someone as talented as Max Lucado doesn't speak endlessly. He brilliantly decides on one goal or theme for his message and then develops that one goal or theme. His books were sermons first - so you get an idea of how he arranges his thoughts and how he masterfully presents the central truth of the text. And he's such a great writer and speaker that he could go on forever and you'd never once look at your watch.
But he doesn't.
Not being one of those great speakers, I do pay attention to the length of my messages. That doesn't mean that I never stray into the 17, 18 minutes area.
But I'd better be convinced that I really need to speak that long and I'd better feel certain that the material that I've developed needs to be presented to the flock.
I started a new Advent sermon series last Sunday, "Moving Toward the Manger." The message lasted, I believe, 15 minutes. When I first read it the message timed out around 17 minutes. So, I reviewed the manuscript carefully. I looked for redundancies. I sought out paragraphs that could be tightened up. I found stray sentences that were just in the way of the main point I was trying to make.
I trimmed a good two minutes from the manuscript.
Was it a great sermon? I don't know. The feedback I received was good. Mostly, I felt like I had delivered the message I thought the flock needed and I did so in an appropriate time period.
This weekend I offer part two of the series - "Moving Toward the Manger - With Faith." We'll look at Mary's encounter with an angel and his message - that she would be the mother of the Most High God. The question I want to explore is, "What was it that the angel said that caused Mary to respond the way she did?"
The message takes 12 minutes to deliver. It could be longer. In fact, I wondered if I'd left something out that needed to be communicated. But having read through the message a couple of times, I'm satisfied with what I've written.
But the proof is in the preaching so I'm anxious to see how it goes.
Join us tonight at 5 pm or tomorrow at 8 or 11 am. Come and travel with us as we move toward the manger in Bethlehem to receive the gift God has given us - His Son!
And have a blessed weekend!
