The average church sermon in the United States is 37 minutes long, although the length differs significantly depending on the specific Christian tradition, according to a new Pew Research Center study.
Catholic sermons are the shortest, at an average of 14 minutes, while sermons in historically black Protestant churches are the longest, at an average of 54 minutes. The average sermon length in mainline Protestant congregations (25 minutes) and evangelical Protestant congregations (39 minutes) falls in the middle.
Pew examined the transcribed texts of 49,719 sermons posted online that were preached between April 7 and June 1, 2019. The sermons came from 6,431 churches.
Pew also examined the sermons for words and phrases that were more frequently used by certain traditions than others.
The study found that the following Christian traditions had unique phrases that were distinctive and used more than in other traditions:
- Evangelical: “eternal hell,” “lose … salvation,” “trespass … sin,” “home … heaven” and “absent … body.”
- Catholic: homily, diocese, Eucharist, paschal and parishioner.
- Mainline Protestant: “always … poor,” “house … Thomas,” “gospel … lesson” and “disciple … betray.”
- Historically black Protestant: powerful hand, “hallelujah … come,” “neighbor … tell,” “hand … praise” and “praise … got.”
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