Fewer than 10% of Evangelical Protestants want to have shorter sermons during worship, while nearly a third want more in-depth teaching, according to recently released survey.
Grey Matter Research and Infinity Concepts released a new report titled “The Congregational Scorecard: What Evangelicals Want in a Church.”
According to the report, only 7% of respondents want sermons to be shorter, while 85% believe the sermon lengths are acceptable as they are. About 8% percent said they wanted sermons to be longer.
These trends were fairly consistent across generations, as 10% of Evangelicals under the age of 40 preferred shorter sermons, while 11% over the age of 70 responded the same.
Additionally, the data shows that 30% of respondents want more in-depth teaching from their churches, while 69% responded that they felt the depth of teaching was “fine as is.”
Mark Dreistadt, CEO of Infinity Concepts, said “This demonstrates an opportunity for pastors to go deeper into the Word of God. This is good news at a time in our culture when biblical literacy is so low — there appears to be a desire among Evangelicals to deepen their understanding of biblical truth.”
A 2019 LifeWay Christian Resources survey found that the average length of sermons was declining compared to four years earlier. Today, the typical sermon lasts 27 minutes.