The Anatomy of Preaching, part 3

Expositional preaching doesn't have to take 60 minutes. You can exposit scripture in 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. But sound biblical preaching doesn't have a time requirement. That's like saying a good haircut has to take one hour. Sure... it can take an hour... but after a while, it's just overkill.

I've been listening to tons of sermon podcasts on my road trips, and I can't tell you how many times I hear these phrases come out of pastors' mouths: "We've got a lot to cover, so let's get right to it" or "We don't have much time, and I've got a lot to do" and so on...

Take the pressure off! Say less for more impact! I'll take one point well-said over 10 crammed points any day.

Comments

[Jason Roberts]

What if the one point or one verse or one theme just simply takes some time to work through?

I agree with your statement "sound biblical preaching doesn't have a time requirement" -- to me this means that some texts/topics might take 45 minutes while others might take 30. The problem is more an issue of pastors thinking what time slot do I have to fill or what time boundaries do I need to make sure I stay within.

What if we just attempted to do the best job with the text regardless of time? Wouldn't that be the best way to handle the preaching? The obvious problem would be when the text required 60 min (or 10).

Don't you think that these statement that come out of Pastor's mouths are often due to the fact that we are faced with the overwhelming task of handling God's word correctly and effectively. Haven't we all gotten up in front thinking how in the world am I going to do justice to this passage of scripture or this view of God or something else -- especially in the 30 minute block of time I have this morning.

[Billy Chia]

This series has raised some great questions and challenged some notions I personally hold about what is good preaching and what isn't.

Thanks.

[Ben]

great meeting with you over coffee today Jason... thanks Billy