One of my parishioners was visiting out-of-town relatives and attended a church service where the pastor preached a 71-minute sermon. To my mind that borders on just plain wrong!
I was concerned about the length of my own sermon for tomorrow, because with communion I didn't want to see the service go too long. My philosophy on these things is that the mind can only absorb what the seat can endure. So as I looked at my introduction tonight, I realized that while it was endlessly interesting to ME, it was actually unnecessary to the sermon. So I cut it, introduced the message with a sentence, saved five minutes, and had a much stronger sermon.
John Stott says that a sermon should last 20 minutes . . . or feel like it. As usual, he's right.
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