Congregants still enjoy Sermonizing

padre31 · Jan 22, 2010

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6993099.ece

Roman Catholics were most keen on sermons that educated rather than challenged them. Baptists wanted sermons to convert them, Anglicans wanted to be entertained and members of the new, independent evangelical churches wanted to be challenged and encouraged.

Baptists and Catholics were also more enthusiastic about the Bible being mentioned in sermons than were Anglicans and Methodists.

The ideal length of a sermon also seems to divide the denominations. While many Anglicans wanted less than ten minutes — although up to 20 minutes was fine if there was no “waffle” — some Baptists wanted to sit through at least an hour and a quarter. Catholics, by contrast, wanted their homilies to be completed within ten minutes.

The results of the survey of 300 worshippers came as a surprise to church leaders. In spite of frequent exhortations from commentators for the Churches to “get with it” and embrace modern communications technology, many clergy do not use Facebook or Twitter and some even spurn the mobile phone. They prefer old-fashioned methods of communicating with parishioners, face to face on pastoral visits or preaching to them from their pulpits.
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Well, let's hear it for the Preaching professionals...but the RCC has 10 minutes to get their message to the congregation, I'm having visions of the "fastest speaker in the world" working through 4 psalms in 9 minutes with a Benediction at the finish..

Ohiophinphan · Jan 23, 2010

Thanks for the affirmation.

What a sermon is or does is very different from denomination to denomination and even from congregation to congregation. Do I teach, exhort, nurture, what??? It also varies on holidays with lots of guests. I usually bring out narratives on those occasions. Stories work better there.

And for those wondering my "average"? 12-15 minutes and largely exhortation/nurture. Education would be a strong second.

padre31 · Jan 23, 2010

Ohiophinphan said:

Thanks for the affirmation.

What a sermon is or does is very different from denomination to denomination and even from congregation to congregation. Do I teach, exhort, nurture, what??? It also varies on holidays with lots of guests. I usually bring out narratives on those occasions. Stories work better there.

And for those wondering my "average"? 12-15 minutes and largely exhortation/nurture. Education would be a strong second.
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Nice, I tend to like the Educational and Historical ones.

For the Roman Catholic Church's flaws, they are the only ones that I've seen that reference early Church history for things like taking in refugees when the Black Plague was a pandemic in a neighboring town.

Ohiophinphan · Jan 23, 2010

padre31 said:

Nice, I tend to like the Educational and Historical ones.

For the Roman Catholic Church's flaws, they are the only ones that I've seen that reference early Church history for things like taking in refugees when the Black Plague was a pandemic in a neighboring town.
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You should come to Ohio. As I have said before my concentration in sem was on early Church history and the development of doctrine/dogma/canon/creed etc. I often bring in an historical perspective.

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