In many English and American churches in which the authority of the Word has deteriorated, a ten-minute homily on a cultural topic has replaced even cursory explanations of “thus saith the Lord.” At the same time, proponents of the church-growth movement in the United States often advocate eighteen- to twenty-minute sermons as a means of reaching unchurched ears in our rapidly paced culture. Sermon length is not an automatic measure of orthodoxy, yet sermons long enough to explain what a passage means and short enough to keep interested persons listening indicate much about the vitality of a
...more
