How long was your sermon on Sunday? Do you know? If you’re guessing, I bet you will estimate it to be shorter than it actually was.
TED talks are limited to 18 minutes.
A local TV news station advertises its first news block to be a whole 13 minutes without commercials.
You have about 20 seconds (or less) to capture someone’s attention watching your YouTube video.
We could argue all day about the length of attention spans. And I am not telling you how long your sermons should be. But I am convinced that attention these days must be earned and not presumed. Maybe it’s always been that way.
Here’s your call to action this week: Find someone to time your sermons, so you know exactly how long they are.
If you’re up for a bonus round, tell this person ahead of time when you will use a key word or gesture to indicate to them when you’ve noticed a significant number of people “check out.” Have them write that time down too.