The median length of a sermon given in US churches runs for 37 minutes, according to a new analysis of almost 50,000 online sermons.
The Pew Research Centre study found that historically black Protestant churches had the longest sermons – a median of 54 minutes – while Catholic churches had the shortest with a median of 14 minutes. Evangelical churches had a median of 39 minutes and mainline Protestant churches, 25 minutes.
The analysis drew on a database of the transcribed texts of 49,719 sermons shared online by 6,431 churches and delivered between 7th April to 1st June, a period that included Easter.
The study also analysed the words and phrases used in the sermons and found that phrases such as “powerful hand” and “hallelujah…come” were among those most distinctive of sermons in historically black Protestant churches while “eternal hell” and “lose…salvation” were among those most distinctive of sermons in evangelical churches.
“Homily”, “Eucharist” and “parisioner” were among most distinctive words in Catholic churches and “always…poor” and “gospel…lesson” in mainline Protestant churches.
Drawing on the same sermons, an analysis of which books of the Bible are cited by name suggests that preachers across the nation are more likely to refer to books from the New Testament (90 per cent of analysed online sermons did so) than the Old Testament (61 per cent of sermons did so).
“This may reflect the fact that most ministers in the mainline Protestant and Catholic traditions preach on the day’s Gospel reading, which is always from the New Testament,” Pew reported.
References to the Bible were also found to vary over time with the share of sermons mentioning a book of the Old Testament declining on Easter Sunday, for example – from 62 per cent the previous week to 49 per cent.
A Pew report on the findings notes that the churches involved in the study “are not representative of all houses of worship or even of all Christian churches in the US; they make up just a small percentage of the estimated 350,000-plus religious congregations nationwide”.
The analysis also stated that churches with sermons included in the study were more likely to be located in urban areas and tended to have larger than average congregations.
