I think for most of us, this is a given. I just don't want to go back to the "moral majority" thing of the 80's. I have some pretty bad experiences from all that. Now with that said, I think this country could benefit from an infusion of Christian principles, particularly when it comes to the whole "love your neighbor" part of the equation. I think it's safe to say we CLEARLY need more of that.
As a lay preacher in the Episcopal Church, I've been trained to shoot for 8-10 minutes.
True story. It's a homily, not a masters level theology course.
Nope, you will rarely hear a priest deliver a homily longer than 10 minutes.
Don’t forget the Catholics. I’ve left tire peels in my wake trying to beat the crowd to Roadhouse.
Any pastor can tell you, putting together a sermon is extremely hard. It has to be understandable by everyone and unfortunately that often means dumbing everything down. Fortunately, for people who need more there are classes and Sunday School.
I've been to a lot of churches in my lifetime, and *BY FAR* the best example of real Christianity (by all biblical measures of the fruits of the Spirit) have come from churches where the sermons were 30 mins or longer. The reality is that for a lot of people, that's all the bible they're getting for the week - dumbing it down does nothing but make it easier to fill the pews.
Not my intent, but if a 10 minute sermon is enough to feed you for the week you're probably not spending a lot of time in bible study.
I was speaking of what I observed as correlation, not causation.Talk about dumbing it down...this measures a sermon by the amount of verbiage. The sermon on the Mount is pretty short if I remember correctly. Sometimes all it takes is a well spoken sentence that speaks to the head and heart.
I do not agree with your criteria...getting Bible for the week...much of what long winded pastors tend to say is more their opinion than the gospel. A good short sermon is much more difficult to write than a long one.
After 48 years of preaching -- and retired for a few now -- I can say that my longer sermons were often too convoluted to comprehend. Speak a few words, speak to the heart, and give the Holy Spirit some credit for comprehension and ergo, conversion.
Same here. Most people in this town don’t even realize we even have a Catholic Church. We have a new priest who is a very young guy and he is high-energy. He talks about finding new ways to outreach to the community. I don’t think he realizes just yet how disliked we are around here, but he will figure it out.
I get that. It seems to me (and correct me if I'm wrong) that Evangelical services combine 3 important things: worship, education and evangelization. For Catholics, Orthodox and (I assume) mainline Protestants, that is not the case. A Catholic mass has one function: worship, that's it. The focal point is receiving the sacrament. Education and evangelization are separated from the mass. That's why there are no alter calls at the end.
IMHO, you are correlating Bible Study and a sermon. If all the "Bible Study" a person has is a Sunday sermon then they will be hard pressed to grow. OTOH, if I rely on one person to tell me what to think, then I''m in trouble...no matter who that person is.
