How Long Should Your Messages Be?
It seems that in the world of speaking, there have been quite a few changes. A few years ago there was a trend to keep messages very, very short.
Recently, there’s been quite a few speakers out there that actually speak quite long (45 minutes to an hour), and yet they’re part of growing churches with many listeners on podcast such as Mark Driscoll, Rob Bell, Matt Chandler, and a few others.
One of the top speakers at the moment is also the pastor of the second largest church in North America: Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv. He recently wrote a short, but very interesting blog post concerning how long speakers should speak. You can read it here.
Here’s a great quote from it:
“As a communicator I try to guard against sharing material that I’m emotionally attached to that doesn’t hold a high impact value for the listener.”
In other words, there are things that are really interesting and fascinating to us, but that might not be that interesting or relevant to the listener. I’ve often made this mistake, but realize it only when I’m in the middle of sharing the story. Most often it happens in the middle of a message when I try to veer “off script.” I think of something or a story, and I launch into it. I can tell the story well because it’s my story, but I realize afterwards that it slowed the pace of the message down, and I could have done without it.
Make sure to to read the post and also the comments that follow. People ask him some followup questions and the answers he gives are quite fascinating.
For the record, I usually aim for 30 minutes, but normally end up speaking about 40 min.
What about you? How long are your messages usually? If you’re not a speaker, what do you think is the optimal length for a message?
[image by Catherine]
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i'm like you, bro…always aiming for 30 but sometimes go about 40. i will say that i only do that at one of my churches. at my other church i'll often speak from 45 minutes to an hour. it may depend on the audience, but i don't know. i believe that for the most part, you should be able to say all you have to in about 30…and as you know, you have to consider the recipients and their attention span. plus, i don't see the "preaching" as the recipients only "spiritual food." it should be a springboard for the week ahead and hopefully they should be feasting all week on other spiritual food.
I usually aim for 25-30 minutes. I find that if I go much longer than that I begin to lose people's attention.
I think that's probably a really nice sweet spot as far as time….i'm aiming for it as well.
That's a good point, I think it does depend on the context. Some groups can go and like longer sermons. But I think you can never go wrong if you go cut the fat and get to the heart of the matter in 30min. I've only had a handful of people in my days, when I've preached just 30 min, say "wow…I wish you would have gone longer…"