Does Your Pastor Preach Too Long?

Sunday morning church services are traditionally conducted in buildings constructed mostly for that purpose. Thus, the congregation is seated in church pews facing a stage in which a choir and a pastor perform for the onlooking members. One time that arrangement came to my attention as questionable, and you’d never guess by who.

I tell in my new book, Christ on the PGA Tour (1965-1982), about famous evangelist Billy Graham speaking to our PGA Tour Bible Study fellowship three times and once at a big banquet at a Marriott Hotel in Atlanta in which perhaps most of the PGA Tour players attended, all of them invited by Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, and Jack Nicklaus.

Asking Billy Graham about Going to Church

I knew the pastor of the church where Billy Graham and his family attended regularly at home. Calvin Thielman was the pastor of the Montreat Presbyterian Church in North Carolina. Our Tour Bible Study fellowship used to conduct an outdoor, early morning church service on Easter at the Heritage Classic on Hilton Head Island, North Carolina, and Calvin delivered that Easter message twice.

So, I state in my book (p. 113), “Because I knew Calvin, at one of the Tour Bible Study meetings in which Billy Graham spoke to us, I afterwards asked him, ‘Billy, what is it like for a minister of your stature to attend your home church?’ We were standing amidst the circle of chairs in which we had been sitting. He pointed to the chairs and answered, ‘I would prefer that we gather like this, sharing the Lord together.’ It seemed he meant believers who gathered like we did—in a less formal atmosphere and freely sharing our spiritual lives together—was vitally important for living a Christian life.”

Church Sermons Long and Short

Sunday morning church services have traditionally been conducted with their central focus on a pastor or minister delivering a sermon. Church goers have often discussed the length of the pastor’s message. My experience as an evangelical in the Bible church movement has been that this feedback was that the sermon was too long rather than too short.

The Christian Post reports today that a 2019 Pew Research Survey revealed the following statistics (I’m rounding off these numbers for easier memory): Catholic Church 15 minutes; Protestant Church 25 minutes; Evangelical churches 40 minutes; Black Protestant churches 55 minutes. However, the latter figure is somewhat deceptive since its sermons have the same number of words as that of Evangelical churches, which reflects slower speaking, more pause between sentences, etc.

Trump’s UN Speech Was 57 Minutes Long

Of course, what I’m saying here about a preacher’s sermons is generally true of any public speech or private conversation. Take President Donald Trump. He spoke combatively two weeks ago to the United Nations General Assembly, scolding nations for believing in global warming and calling their efforts to reduce it “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.” He bragged to this august body of his success as the U.S. president even though he has thrown the world somewhat into chaos with his threatening tariffs upon nearly all the world’s nations.

In my opinion, Trump spoke like a fool. The Bible’s wisdom literature repeatedly singles out the “fool” and heaps scorn upon him. One way it does so is by the fool’s lengthy speeches. He spoke an ill-received message that lasted 57 minutes. The UN has a rule that speakers ought not go beyond 15 minutes, though it is often ignored.

Fewer Words Reveal Knowledge & Wisdom

This subject also applies to book authors like me. Thus, when I write a book, I’m always trying to “tighten it up” which means reducing the number of words that prove to be unnecessary. It’s called “editing” in the book trade. The following texts are from the Bible’s wisdom literature about this subject, and some of them are rather provocative:

“When words are many, transgression is not lacking” (Proverbs 10.19 NRSV).

“One who spares words is knowledgeable” (Proverbs 17.27)

“Let your words be few…. The more the words, the more vanity” (Ecclesiastes 5.3; 6.11).

“A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing personal opinion” (Proverbs 18.2).

“The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouting of a ruler among fools” (Ecclesiastes 9.17).

“Fools talk on and on” (Ecclesiastes 10.14).

“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver” (Proverbs 25.11).