I have been thinking about something lately and maybe some of you will help me think further. Most churches (including Bakerstown Alliance) have a main service (or services) once a week. Now planning a service is a lot of work. I calculated that on average for our 60 minute service there will be about 60 hours of preparation that will go into it.
Now what is interesting is that our church's main service has gone from 90 minutes to 75 minutes to 60 minutes (normally, but there are always exceptions). This whole process has not been so much cutting stuff out as it has been tightening. Little things here and there. Work on the transitions of the service so they are less awkward.
Now I have been to a lot of other churches over the years. One church I am thinking of goes about 80 minutes or so. But that 80 minutes flies by. I also have been to the 45 minutes service that goes seems to go on forever.
I wonder then if it is the time or the quality that makes a difference? I wonder of there is an "ideal" length.
If you have any insights I would love to hear them. I just am really convicted to try and make sure that quality is of utmost importance. And sometimes to increase the quality you have to decrease the length. Any thoughts?
3 comments:
I think it should all depend on what God has asked you to preach that week. Sometimes things take longer to say, sometimes they don't take very long at all. If its a good sermon, and I can tell this is something God wants me to hear, I'll be attentive all day. But, I guess more pragmatically, I don't think people want to sit still more than 75 to 80 minutes. I know generally, my attention span isn't much longer than an hour and 15/hour and a half.
I had a preacher once say, "A member of mine told me that I had to preach shorter sermons. Get to the point in 10 minutes and be done. Another member said I wasn't preaching long enough. The sermon should be at least 30 minutes so we understand what you are talking about. So I preach 20 minutes and make them both unhappy."
I always try to keep to an hour in the service, but if it goes over I just say the Spirit must have been working. You'll have people complain on both sides. The question really should be who is the service about? If it's about God, it could go on all day!
I agree with Blake. I know I am one of those people who doesn't want to sit for 90 minutes or more. I get distracted and fidgety and then anything you say just goes in one ear and out the other. I think your sermons are of a good length. But if you ever need to go over that, people would be OK with that if it's what the Spirit has moved you to do.
I like how we do praises and prayer requests. Other churches I've been to haven't done that, and I think it creates a personal touch.
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