2026.07.26
As part of our student Matthew’s classes, he recently finished his course with me, studying Pastoral Theology. For this class, we studied the book “Pastoral Theology,” authored by John H. C. Fritz (1874-1953). Fritz served as a parish pastor for over 20 years in the LCMS and became a professor of church history and pastoral theology at Concordia Seminary St. Louis for 33 years, 1920-1953. Fritz is perhaps best known for his Pastoral Theology. Originally published by Concordia Publishing House in 1932, it has been used to train generations of Lutheran pastors. Using C. F. W. Walther’s Amerikanisch-Lutherische Pastoraltheologie as the basis of his book, Fritz wished to produce a faithful pastoral theology in the English language and address topics that Walther did not, or only in passing, covered.
Anyhow, Matthew will soon begin a class on homiletics, that is, sermon preparation. In his Pastoral Theology, Fritz lists the chief characteristics of a good sermon. The seventh characteristic is that the sermon cannot be too long. That’s sound advice. But what is too long?
It has been said that Luther would preach for over an hour. If you read one of Walther’s sermons out loud, it will take you about forty minutes. Many years ago, when Vern Grieger taught me, I recall him saying that 20 minutes was plenty long enough.
It has been said that the Sermon on the Mount was less than twelve minutes (Matt. 5-7). Peter’s sermon at Pentecost was less than three minutes, and three thousand souls were saved (Acts 2). If Hebrews is a sermon, as some suggest, it would have lasted about forty minutes. Acts 20 tells us Paul once preached for such an extended length that a young man fell out a window.
The point is that sermons vary in length. Given this, here are some points to ponder about sermon length.
The Text
How long is the chosen text? How complex is the text? Some texts simply require more time for the preacher to explain, proclaim, and apply than others. For example, for the Third Sunday in Lent, Series B (we are in Series A this year), the First Reading is Exodus 20:1-17, the Ten Commandments. A sermon that expounds on each of the commandments would be of one length and probably quite long. A sermon that expounds the idea of loving God and loving neighbour would be of another length. A sermon on just one commandment would, most likely, be of shorter length.
The Culture
We live and work in an electronic communication culture. Most information is processed through a screen. Attention spans are short — just forty-five seconds when looking at a screen. Television shows provide us with a break every so often. Phones never give us a break.
Shortened attention spans can greatly affect sermon length. A crucial question a preacher needs to ask is, “Are there enough captivating elements in my sermon to hold and recapture the hearer’s attention for ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes?”
The Occasion
Sometimes the occasion dictates the sermon length, such as at weddings or funerals. Midweek night service sermons tend to be shorter than those delivered on Sunday morning.
The Audience
Is the audience young or old? Are they mature Christians or catechumens? How tired or awake are they? When it comes to length, what is the audience used to, and what do they expect? A preacher would surely not, I hope, preach a full Sunday sermon as the children’s address. Again, funerals and weddings are often filled with unbelievers for whom a shorter sermon might be more easily received.
Gifts as a Preacher
Preachers need to know themselves and the kind of response they get from their hearers. Some preachers are so gifted that the hearers are held captive. Forty-five minutes to an hour can go by, and no one seems to notice. Other preachers struggle to make it through ten minutes. Preachers need to ask themselves, “What are my gifts and abilities? How long can I hold the hearer’s attention? Ten minutes? Fifteen minutes? Twenty or twenty-five minutes or longer? Or do I just not have that gift?”
What Do You Think?
As preachers work the text and write the sermon, they must consider their own reaction to what they have created. Sometimes there are moments when the preacher has to say to himself, “This is beastly long. I have to cut this down.”
Concluding Thoughts
So, what’s too long? It is hard to say. There is no hard and fast rule for ensuring that a sermon isn’t too long.
Luther once wrote, “Some plague the people with sermons that are too long, but listening is a tender matter, and [the listeners] soon become bored and tired of one thing… The office and sign of a good speaker is that he stops when people most want to hear and think he is just getting started. But if people are bored and unwilling to listen and would like him to stop and come to the end and conclusion, that is a bad sign. So also with a preacher. If one says, ‘I would have liked to have listened to him yet a while longer,’ that is good; but if one says, ‘He got started chattering and could never stop,’ that is a bad sign (Erlangen Ed., LIX, 222 f. 242).