The major branches of Christianity in the U.S. have sharply different traditions when it comes to sermon length.
That’s among the findings of an analysis by the Pew Research Center — billed as the first of its kind — of 49,719 sermons delivered in April and May 2019 that were shared online by 6,431 churches.
According to Pew, the median length of the sermons was 37 minutes. Catholic sermons were the shortest, at a median of just 14 minutes, compared with 25 minutes for sermons in mainline Protestant congregations and 39 minutes in evangelical Protestant congregations. Historically black Protestant churches had by far the longest sermons, at a median of 54 minutes.
Pew said sermons at the black churches lasted longer than mainline Protestant sermons even though, on average, they had roughly the same number of words.
Prominent pastors have pondered the question of a sermon’s length, including Hershael York, dean of the school of theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentcuky. York offered an answer in 2016: “You can preach as long as you hold [the congregation’s] attention.”
In addition to sermon length, the new Pew analysis delved into an examination of words and phrases most commonly used by preachers from the different Christian traditions.
It found that the word “hallelujah” appeared in sermons from about 22% of the historically black Protestant churches, and those congregations were eight times more likely than others to hear that word.
Sermons from evangelical churches were three times more likely than those from other traditions to include the phrase “eternal hell.” (AP/RNS)
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