Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire There's a fine line ...

... between a long sermon and a hostage situation.

And - for those delivering same, the Stockholm Syndrome does not apply.

Thanks. I may have to appropriate that for one of my sermons.

Brevity is the mark of a great speaker! Get out early and beat the Methodists to the restaurant.

Billy Graham was arguably the greatest evangelist of our times. His actual messages were typically 15 minutes or less...

3 rules to speaking:

Be funny
Be brief
Be seated

Four "S":

> Stand Up
> Speak Up
> Shut Up
> Sit down

Our preacher does a remarkable job of delivering a great message in a reasonable amount of time. He goes a bit longer now and then, but no one objects. If the Holy Spirit is speaking through him, I’m sure not going to stand in the way!

When the young seminary graduate arrived at the small country Church to preach his first official sermon, he noticed it had snowed about three feet deep just hours before Church was scheduled to begin. Due to the snow, An elderly, white bearded farmer was the only person to show up for the service.

The young minister looked at the farmer and asked, "What do you think we should do?"

The farmer scratched his beard thoughtfully. "Well, I don't know much about preaching, but I do know about farming. If I went down to the pasture with a load of hay to feed my cows and only one cow showed up, I'd feed that cow."

The seminary graduate said, "That's great! You sit right there and I'll preach you a sermon."

After about ninety minutes of preaching hellfire and brimstone, the seminary graduate concluded his sermon. Feeling pretty proud of his accomplishment, the preacher turned to the farmer and asked, "Well, how was it?"

The farmer scratched his beard thoughtfully. "Like I said, I don't know much about preaching, but I do know about farming. Like I told you, if I went down to the field with a load of hay and only one cow showed up, I'd feed that one cow. But, there's just one thing."

"What's that?" the preacher asked.

The farmer replied, "I wouldn't feed her the whole load."

It is hard to hold people’s attention for much over thirty minutes. Less is better. Preachers love to give anecdotes and examples. The problem is they end up wearing out their welcome with them.

Along these lines: don't start off by saying that you are going to make X number of points! There is nothing worse than sitting there realizing that you are only on point #2.

John Ross Lightfoot's story about the priest that timed his sermons with a mint.
It worked well, until he put in a button.

Stand up- - - - -be seen
Speak up- - - - -be heard
Shut up- - - - -be appreciated!

It depends on the speaker. Doctor Drury spoke about The Reformation, you could have heard a pin drop.

12.5 min and I'm out mentally. If you can't get your point across in 9 min, with a few anecdotes, find a new gig.

When I was a kid, my Dad liked to go to the 11am mass on Sunday because the Pastor was a devout Packer fan.

It was a large church so at communion time he had two of the junior priests on the far right and far left of the church each giving communion to a single file line of parishioners, each time saying fully "The body of Christ, The body of Christ."

The old pastor served a double line of parishioners saying "Christ, Christ, Christ" while he rapidly served to his right and to his left.

His usual 11am sermon went along the lines of,
"I know everyone is anxious to get home, so until next week keep God in your thoughts and try to do the Lords work."

He could usually wrap things up by 1145am, and we could be home for a Noon kickoff.