How long do you think is too long for a sermon?-Interfaith Post

[hrmjustin]

Interfaith posts

It depends of course where you worship becomes some places the sermon really is the sermon but in my parish after 10 minutes people get bored. Our mass is 90 minutes with a ten minute sermon so if it goes longer it gets annoying.

Your thoughts?

[cbayer]

1. How long is too long for any lecture?

It all depends on the quality of the speaker and the topic, doesn't it?

I have heard horrible ministers go on far to long and others that I could have listened to for an hour.

I've had the same experience with those that lecture on just about anything.

The socratic style is more to my liking, but I can enjoy a talk or lecture or sermon by someone who is good at it.

I think a 90 mass is too long, though.

[hrmjustin]

3. Episcopal high masses do tend to go on.

[PoliticAverse]

2. When you can hear snoring it was too long. n/t

[hrmjustin]

5. Lmfao! yes this is true!

[TexasTowelie]

4. The church I went to

started service at 11 a.m. and the preacher would normally start delivering the sermon at 30 to 35 minutes into the hour. The sermon typically lasted about 30 minutes and then about 10 minutes to close the service. The general guide was to have things conclude by 12:15 unless the Cowboys were playing the early game in which case you did not go past noon.

[hrmjustin]

6. Well we get out at 12:45 usually so I can just make the Jets and Giants.

[Cleita]

7. Depends on the sermons and sermon giver.

If the pastor is a good speaker, let him speak. If he drones on about sin and the need for more money in the collection plate five minutes is too long IMHO.

[hrmjustin]

8. Sounds about right.

[NRaleighLiberal]

9. We went to Duke Chapel today - the sermon was absolutely wonderful - at 20 minutes was just about

right. A former preacher at the chapel, Will Willimon, could go on for as long as he wanted and people would have been transfixed (he was utterly brilliant and typically spot on) - he tended to be in the 20-30 min. range. He left and the preacher who replaced him put people to sleep after 5 minutes.

So to me, it depends!

[hrmjustin]

10. Episcopal or Presbyterian?

[NRaleighLiberal]

11. It is ecumenical - kind of a Methodist flavor with a dash of Episcopalian (esp in the music)

[hrmjustin]

12. sounds good.

I go to a high churvh Episcopal parish.

[ColesCountyDem]

13. Thirty minutes, give or take a bit, is standard for my church.

As a denomination, we tend to view sermons as 'teachable moments', and 30 minutes is not considered excessive.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

14. In my Catholic parish, they try to keep the masses under an hour

My mother's pastor in rural Wisconsin tries for about 45 minutes. He can give a pretty good sermon in about ten minutes -- he typically has one point, makes it, then stops.

I once attended the Bar Mitzvah of the son of a friend in a Conservative synagogue. The service started promptly at 9 am and ended equally promptly at noon. That was apparently quite typical for that synagogue.

I knew the former Ukrainian Rite Exarch of Chicago, Bishop Michael Wiwchar, and attended several Ukrainian Rite Masses, which went for about 90 minutes.

[goldent]

15. I think you can go a little more than 10 minutes

it the sermon really requires that much. But I think sermons often have too much "filler" in them.

[No Vested Interest]

16. When my pastor first introduced himself to the congregations

He quoted his mother re sermons:
Remember the 3 B's - be brief, be brief, be brief. He has pretty much stuck to 5 minute sermons, which leaves more time for the choir, which might be a good thing.
The pastor of another parish I frequently attend always begins with a joke - some good, others groaners. I don't think he preaches more than about 7-8 minutes, because we're invariably finished with Mass, there in about 40-45 minutes.

I believe Protestant ministers put more emphasis on sermons, and that they are trained in seminary on that aspect of worship more than R.C. candidates.
My personal opinion re R.C. priests and preaching is that we cannot expect all who are called to the priestly vocation to have the gift of eloquence and we should appreciate the their service for whatever talents they bring to it.

[hvn_nbr_2]

17. Depends on the speaker and what else they do in the service

A good speaker can go 30-40 minutes, BUT it all depends on how much other stuff they try to do. If they want to do three hymns plus a choir song plus a solo plus three formal prayers plus a doxology plus a long fundraising speech before offering plus ten minutes of announcements plus a children's program plus a closing song plus a benediction and another prayer or two plus assorted ritual elements and then bring the children back for a children's song before the benediction and closing song, well, then they better cut the sermon to five minutes because I want to get home before halftime of the afternoon games.

[TexasProgresive]

18. It depends on the style of the service.

For those of us whose service is centered around the Eucharist; there is a liturgy of the Word which includes a homily generally 6 to 10 minutes tops, then comes the liturgy of the Eucharist. Other churches the service centers around the sermon which can run longer.

This question got be to dig into our DVDs for a movie I haven't seen in years. It is one of those that came out of the Dance movie era. "Do You Wanna Dance?" takes place in Greek Town Chicago. Billy Duncan has meet failure after failure. He lost his dance studio and steals a car for money to get it back. He gets caught and sentenced to 500 hours of community service. Fr. Chris the pastor of St. Basil's takes him on much to the disgust of some of his parishioners.

Billy gets Fr. Chris Black Hawk game which happens to fall on a Sunday. Fr. Chris is the biggest Black Hawk fan evah! and will not miss the whole game. The Divine Liturgy may be the fastest ever. In the Divine Liturgy the sermon is at the end. Here is the text of Fr. Chris' sermon:
"In the Gospel according to St. Matthew we are told not to use meaningless words. The Clergy, myself included, often forget this. So I say to you; Faith, Hope, Love; and the greatest of these is Love."

This and one other thing that Fr. Chris tells Billy make watching this movie again worthwhile. It was attributed to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but actually was Dr. Benjamin E. Mays
"Whatever you do, strive to do it so well that no man living, dead, or yet born can do better."

Dr. Benjamin E. Mays was an inspiration and advisor to his students, including Julian Bond, Andrew Young, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who referred to Dr. Mays as his "spiritual mentor."

Perhaps the student did say it as well.
Thanks, hrmjustin, for leading me to rewatch this film.

[Dorian Gray]

19. I believe in Douglaston

The Roman Catholic Seminary of Brooklyn/Queens, they tell the seminarians 8 minutes.

(Though a lot of priests don't get the message.)

Anything beyond that, you're going to lose the audience. But some people like to hear themselves talk.

[hrmjustin]

20. I applied to go there but was rejected.

I love the chapel.

[okasha]

21. Their loss.

You'd make a good priest, Justin.

[hrmjustin]

22. Thanks.

No interest now but it I look good in black.

[Dorian Gray]

24. Life turns out

as it's supposed to for us.

[Dorian Gray]

23. That's funny you know it

I have a few friends who are priests and i've been to a few celebrations out there. My husband went to Cathedral Prep for high school, and all their reunions are in Douglaston, too. So I'm more familiar with it than I would have thought I'd be growing up nominally Catholic in NJ!