Todd Rhoades wonders how we settled on 30-40 minutes as the typical length of a sermon. He asks, “Why do you speak the length you speak? Is it because it takes you that long to say what you need to say, or because you have that much time to fill?” The amount of valuable content, not the size of the time slot, should determine how long the sermon lasts.

Rhoades notes that we’ve changed so many things about church services–songs, order, attire, tone, etc. But we’ve kept the sermon length the same.

He mentions being involved with two online conferences where speakers were limited to 6 minutes–and they all came through. So, could a six-minute sermon work?

I’m reminded of a freelance magazine article I wrote 30 years ago about an experience helping a woman and her mentally-challenged son during the Blizzard of ’78, when we were stranded together in Denver. It started at 2700 words, but I couldn’t find any takers. So I cut it to 2400 words and sent it out again. Then 2000 words. Still couldn’t sell it.

I cut it to 1800 words, then 1500, then 1200, sending it out anew with each edition This stretched over a period of probably 5 years. I just wouldn’t give up on the story.

Finally, I sent a 1000-word version (about one-third of the original size) to a Mennonite publisher. The editor wrote back, “We like your article and would like to use it…if you can cut it to 800 words.”

So I did. They bought it and published it at that length. And it was the best version of the article. No fluff, no padding. Just the essential story, with a punch you couldn’t avoid.

So could a 30-minute sermon be packed into a 10-minute slot, or a six-minute slot? A six-minute sermon might actually take more preparation than a 30-minute sermon. I know it could be done, and it could be really effective that way. But, as Todd Rhoades says, it’ll never happen. We’re tied to the 30-40 minute sermon paradigm, and nobody’s gonna change that.