Friday, June 8, 2012

ABBREVIATE


I am told at least once a month by someone or another that speakers (like me) should hold it to a quick-and-easy twenty minutes when we're up in front of our churches sermonizing.
Maybe.
Conventional wisdom has been that American attention spans have decreased over the past several decades.  Sixty-second TV ads have been cut to thirty seconds.  I see ads all the time on the Internet -- fifteen seconds long.
We abbreviate all kinds of words in our e-mail messages just to get thru them quicker:
LOL ... ASAP ... FYI ... TTYL ... IDK ... L8R ... BRB ... etc, etc, etc.
But wait just a moment.  For every short story, there are ten 'War and Peace' extrava-novels.  For every 15-second Internet ad, there are 10 thirty-minute infomercials on TV.  For every 50-yard dash, there are thousands of people training for marathons and triathlons.  For every 45-minute round of mini golf, there are scores of folks playing three and four hour rounds of country club golf.  
The biggest worldwide grossing movie ever was Titanic -- more than 3 hours long.
Sure - President Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address in under 300 words and in less than 3 minutes, but President Bill Clinton gave a 9,000-word State of the Address during his presidency.  It took him 75 minutes to complete and by many accounts, was one of the most memorable and powerful speeches ever given by a President of the United States.  Most of my weekend messages are right around 4,000 words.  Just sayin.'
So I'm not really convinced that people can't sit thru something that is longer rather than briefer.  I'm not yet sold that attention spans are shorter than ever before or that Americans can't concentrate on something for prolonged periods or remember what they listened to.
This blog has been 327 words long and has taken less than three minutes to read.  It will self-destruct in five seconds.

And be blessed.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I come to church, I like hearing a reasonably long message. Normally, I would come to the 10:45 service and I like the fact that it usually goes till 12:00. I do admit, if it goes too much longer than that, I get antsy. Often times I have things to do afterwards. On the other hand, I love keeping up with the blog, so there is more message in that. I'm a little surprised that you hear this often. If the message was only 20 minutes long I might think it wasn't worth coming at all...esp when I can listen on the podcasts. And I love the bulletins with notes. I have been known to keep them for months and re-read them. That helps me to recall the things that are said.

Toby Mueller said...

Great post PK. It is true that our collective attention span has decreased. I am on the other side of the aisle however. I could listen to longer teaching times.

Dave Wright said...

I look forward to your sermons. When it comes to hearing truth about God's word the longer the better in my opinion. Like you said, people watch countless hours of TV. What a waist of time that is. Shouldn't we as christians be hungry to hear about the Creator of the Universe?

Fred Hardtke said...

The content and spirit of the message hold the interest of those in attendance. Kevin, continue to be lead of the spirit and take the time needed to share what God has given you for the day. The fruit of your past labors is evident.