How many Sermons are you preaching per week?

[Luke Sheldrake 88]

Hey everyone hope you are all doing well. Was struck recently when reading about Spurgeon, that he was said to preach between 4-10 times a week. Murray's biography of Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones suggested that he preached on average 4-5 sermons a week, and it was said of Calvin that he preached twice on the Sabbath and once every weekday to his people.

Could it be that we have lost something that those who went before us had? Is our knowledge of the scriptures much weaker, are we overpreparing or relying on our preparation too much?

For those in Ministry or licenced, how many sermons (30 mins plus) do you preach per week on average? Not asking by way of sinful comparison or competition but just out of curiosity.

I'm currently preaching twice on the Lords Day and also in the open air once a week, and sometimes that can feel a full portion! What are your thoughts and experience with the frequency of preaching?

 

[Stephen L Smith]

Dallimore's biography of Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones

Dallimore wrote a biography on George Whitefield. Iain Murray wrote a biography on Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

 

[Luke Sheldrake 88]

Thanks brother, thats right. I've read the Whitfield one and got confused. Both excellent books.

 

[Rom]

Midweek service, two on the Lord’s Day, and once a month open air is the schedule I presently aim for. So 3-4 times a week.

 

[No Other Name]

Calvin that he preached twice on the Sabbath and once every weekday to his people.

If any local church did this, I would be there as often as I could, and even if not, would prayerfully give more to support the pastoral leadership's efforts in this cause.

 

[itsreed]

Formal sermons: 2x/wk
Exegetical based teaching times: 2+x/wk
Occasional exegetical requests fulfilled (each at least 15 min, unprepared, street preaching/impromptu conversations): btw a few to dozen+/mth.

Pretty sure Calvin’s week-day sermons were more like what we’d describe as exegetical explanations of Bible texts! Like SS lessons or seminary lectures.

Still, I’d put this broadly in the same general category as “preaching”.

 

[davejonescue]

Possibly we might also think about the contrast in times. Presently, any day of the week, any time day or night, we can be at home and flip to Youtube, and put not only our local Pastors on our 50 inch TV's if our church has sermon archives, but almost any Pastor in the US and beyond; and this is not considering Sermon Audio with many more sermons that we can listen to on our phones on the go. In the time of former generations; there were no TV's with such capabilities, or no radios or TV's at all. So there doesnt really seem as much of a need for a Pastor to try and exert himself to those extremes as in former times. This leaves him open for more opportunities to serve his flock in other ways. I see nothing wrong with a Pastor or church who chooses to do Sunday and Mid-week and thats it; given the sheer amount of alternative sources. And possibly, it may be better to have fewer sermons more fully studied, than many sermons only heard once.

 

[Blood-Bought Pilgrim]

I wonder if the level of "polish" which congregations have come to expect changes things as well. My impression (please someone correct me if it is wrong!) as someone noted above, is that a lot more preaching in the past was more akin to a running commentary on the text, with far less preparation going into the homiletical side of things than what congregations have come to expect today.

 

[Joshua]

0

 

[Jonathco]

I work full time outside the church. Thus, I preach once ever 6 weeks or so on a Sunday morning, but also teach most Wednesday and Sunday nights expositionally. Our vocational elder handles the majority of Sunday morning preaching.

We've found this to be a sustainable model for a lay elder, and also gives our vocational elder the opportunity to sit under the Word and with his family on a regular basis.