Long Sermons From the Viewpoint of a Layman by W. B. Holden

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 11, 1914

Long Sermons From the Viewpoint of a Layman

By W. B. Holden

W. B. HOLDEN, M. D.

THE writer has attended Seventh-day Adventist services for over thirty years, and listened to fifteen hundred sermons. Possibly once in two years he has been sorry that the sermon has ended. At least thirteen hundred of the services were too long to give the best results.

Not one per cent of public speakers can interest or instruct an audience on an abstract subject for longer than forty or forty-five minutes. For the average speaker to take more than this is to detract from the force of what has been said. The majority of ministers will agree with these statements. But judging from practice, one might conclude that this same majority considers itself in the one-per-cent class of specially interesting speakers.

Ninety-five per cent of the one-hour sermons would produce better results if concentrated and given in forty or forty-five minutes. This could be done by a little extra study and arrangement before entering the desk. Two hours spent on a sixty-minute sermon by the minister will produce a forty-minute sermon of more efficiency. This two-hour effort on the part of the preacher will save five whole days' time for an audience of four hundred.

Lack of preparation is responsible for many long-drawn-out sermons. Children and young people are driven from church by long services, and the old are fatigued.

One preacher spoke one and one-fourth hours on the subject of "Rest." His congregation felt the need of it by the time he was through.

In an audience there will possibly be five per cent that will appreciate a long sermon. This five per cent will tell the minister how they enjoyed his discourse; the ninety-five per cent that have been wearied by the long service do not declare their feelings, so he believes that he has edified his whole audience, when nineteen out of twenty have been exhausted.

When the listeners become restless, it is far better to stop and dismiss the people than to try to gain them back by repetitions and additions to what has been said.

If our church services could begin and end at a stated hour, the same as our Sabbath school, it would add to the interest.

There are times when long services may be fitting and proper. In our large churches where it is the custom to have preaching every Sabbath, short sermons should be the rule.

The interest and life that would redound from brief sermons and attenuated services would astonish those who have never tried them.