wasn't what I expected

RomansFiveEight said:

I often preach loud and with a lot of inflection. I wouldn't say 'screaming', but I am loud. Gee, hope nobody finds it frustrating! LOL. I don't use a microphone at one of my two churches. They told me I didn't need it.

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Alrighty then......

If you see anyone wincing in pain, then you'll know that someone is being frustrated or some such thing.

Maid Marie said:

Alrighty then......

If you see anyone wincing in pain, then you'll know that someone is being frustrated or some such thing.

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Haha, well I don't think I've had any complaints. I'm not a hellfire and brimstone kind of guy. I just have a voice that 'carries'.

There's another gentleman in my conference, someone I've grown quite fond of; who could've been one of those field preachers back in Wesley's day. He somehow manages to simultaneously be soft-spoken but with this booming, loud, boisterous voice. At annual conference, where hundreds of people are crammed into a huge echoing convention center; I can almost always pick him out of the crowd if he's talking to someone. Even across the room hundreds of feet away.

RomansFiveEight said:

Haha, well I don't think I've had any complaints. I'm not a hellfire and brimstone kind of guy. I just have a voice that 'carries'.

There's another gentleman in my conference, someone I've grown quite fond of; who could've been one of those field preachers back in Wesley's day. He somehow manages to simultaneously be soft-spoken but with this booming, loud, boisterous voice. At annual conference, where hundreds of people are crammed into a huge echoing convention center; I can almost always pick him out of the crowd if he's talking to someone. Even across the room hundreds of feet away.

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At least it is not hellfire and brimstone!

Maid Marie said:

At least it is not hellfire and brimstone!

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Repent, ye foul and wretched sinner!

RomansFiveEight said:

Repent, ye foul and wretched sinner!

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Ha!

I was going to post some quotes from Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the hand of an angry God" in retort, but just couldn't. That sermon was rather.... harsh and out there. Oh well....

I don't mind loud for emphasis, but I equate screaming and yelling more with the fire-and-brimstone preachers, not what I'm used to with Methodist churches.

And yeah, not a fan of hour long sermons either. Not a deal breaker, but I prefer shorter sermons.

"Leave them wanting more" is a good maxim for preachers.

JCFantasy23 said:

I don't mind loud for emphasis, but I equate screaming and yelling more with the fire-and-brimstone preachers, not what I'm used to with Methodist churches.

And yeah, not a fan of hour long sermons either. Not a deal breaker, but I prefer shorter sermons.

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As a life long Nazarene, I have heard plenty of hour long sermons in my time. Done under the anointing of God and they can be wonderful things. But as I have gotten older, I have grown to appreciate the value of shorter sermons [20 min].

Makes sense to me. Most folks aren't learning or even attentive after 15 minutes or so anyway. I've read and heard that breaking your sermon up into a couple of 3 to 5 minute blocks, and either changing the "point", injecting some media, or doing "something" at those points can help information retention. I preach 20-25 minutes. Sometimes a little longer. Sometimes a little shorter. And sometimes I think my 25 or even sometimes 30 minute sermons are pretty long.

It's easy to puff ones chest out and say "well people should desire God and want to learn with hours of preaching!", but that's not the reality. Even if we'd like it to be.

an example of how I've used that 3 to 5 minute rule is this morning. I opened with a short story of a man I once met and how a seed planted by a church that brought his impoverished family dinner one day grew into fruitful ministry and a genuinely powerful relationship with God. Then I switched gears and broke down the Old Testament reading from Isaiah, and since I'm in a series I also used that opportunity to reintroduce the series and do a mini re cap of the previous weeks. Then after a couple of minutes we switched gears again to the New Testament reading and drove home the point of the sermon by recalling John the Baptists testimony to the Jewish leaders when he was baptizing at the river side. This format is probably how most of us write our sermons but sort of being aware of that and trying consciously to have a good flow and stay on theme but change gears every couple of minutes has, I think, improved my sermons. Sometimes I break things up with media, like playing a short clip of something relevant to the sermon (I've used interviews before, clips from movies that might demonstrate my point, etc.). It's worked well.

Although the what were finding in my area, is that our newer and fastest growing churches are sort of highlighted by a 90+ minute worship service that includes 45+ minutes of preaching. Largely because those churches do an amazing job at evangelizing and attracting former "nones", who are often very eager to learn and don't bring their own sacred cows to worship, so there's a lot of flexibility in worship and not a lot of expectation in what "has to happen".

RomansFiveEight said:

Makes sense to me. Most folks aren't learning or even attentive after 15 minutes or so anyway. I've read and heard that breaking your sermon up into a couple of 3 to 5 minute blocks, and either changing the "point", injecting some media, or doing "something" at those points can help information retention.

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During seminary, I was placed at a UCC church for field experience. The pastor's rule of thumb was "the mind can only absorb as much as the seat can endure". Wise counsel.

actionsub said:

During seminary, I was placed at a UCC church for field experience. The pastor's rule of thumb was "the mind can only absorb as much as the seat can endure". Wise counsel.

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Ha! Makes sense to me! Most of these same newer churches with 45 minute sermons have nice comfy chairs instead of pews!

I attended a Catholic funeral mass earlier this week (the parent of a parishioner). And I'm not kidding; this particular church had the most uncomfortable pews I had ever sat on. There was a sort of 'hump' in the middle of them (and no pew cushions). Ouch!

One of our churches in my district has a small Korean Methodist Church meeting within it's building, they have their own small sanctuary. What I thought was so fascinating, is that they have wooden pews; but the pews are lined with individual cushions, all different shapes and sizes. According to someone I spoke to, it's pretty common for individuals, especially older folks; to bring their own personal cushion; and they don't like the big bench-long pew cushions because they'd rather use their own. And they just leave it behind.

I'm probably the odd ball here. While I'm as against the long boring sermon as the next person, I also don't like the 8-10 minute sermon that shuts down just about the time it's getting around to saying something. My favorite sermons (by other pastors) seem to be about 30 minutes in which the preacher really takes time to open up and develop a couple of points so that I feel like I actually learned something. What the long-boring sermon and the too short sermon seem to have in common to me is that neither of them actually say anything. And that is when I feel like I wasted my time.

GraceSeeker said:

I'm probably the odd ball here. While I'm as against the long boring sermon as the next person, I also don't like the 8-10 minute sermon that shuts down just about the time it's getting around to saying something. My favorite sermons (by other pastors) seem to be about 30 minutes in which the preacher really takes time to open up and develop a couple of points so that I feel like I actually learned something. What the long-boring sermon and the too short sermon seem to have in common to me is that neither of them actually say anything. And that is when I feel like I wasted my time.

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I preach more in the 20-25 minute range which is a function both of my preaching style and our church being on the radio live. If I go too far over it pushes the rest of the service off the radio program. When we commune that happens anyway. But we work hard to keep the service within an hour as much as possible.

GraceSeeker said:

I'm probably the odd ball here. While I'm as against the long boring sermon as the next person, I also don't like the 8-10 minute sermon that shuts down just about the time it's getting around to saying something. My favorite sermons (by other pastors) seem to be about 30 minutes in which the preacher really takes time to open up and develop a couple of points so that I feel like I actually learned something. What the long-boring sermon and the too short sermon seem to have in common to me is that neither of them actually say anything. And that is when I feel like I wasted my time.

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That's why I like Nazarene sermons

GraceSeeker said:

What the long-boring sermon and the too short sermon seem to have in common to me is that neither of them actually say anything.

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Maid Marie said:

That's why I like Nazarene sermons

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Why? Because they don't say anything.

GraceSeeker said:

Why? Because they don't say anything.

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Nazarene ones say plenty

In other news, I went to Colonial Williamsburg yesterday to visit with a friend of mine. One of the events that they had going on was a reenactment of George Whitefield's sermons. It lasted 45 minutes. He had no powerpoint or long stories. I thought of this thread as we all sat and listened, enthralled. I could tell that my listening skills had decreased since I was a child listening to long sermons.