Ask ten pastors how long a sermon should last, and you will likely get ten different answers. New research from Lifeway Research now puts real numbers behind one of church life's most good-natured debates — and the findings may surprise both the pulpit and the pews.

In an age trained on 60-second videos, Protestant pastors are preaching slightly longer sermons than they did a few years ago. And according to the research, the people in the pews are mostly happy about it.

The survey of 1,003 Protestant senior pastors found that most sermons in the United States run between 20 and 40 minutes, with 30 to 40 minutes the most common length (28 percent). Just over half of pastors (52 percent) said they usually finish in under 30 minutes, and 80 percent wrap up before the 40-minute mark.

At the long end, sermons are growing. The share of pastors who preach an hour or more has tripled since Lifeway's 2019 study, rising from 2 percent to 6 percent. Over the same period, the share whose typical sermon runs under 40 minutes slipped from 85 percent to 80 percent.

Churchgoers are not pushing back. The portion of churchgoers who wish their pastor would preach longer has risen from 13 percent in 2019 to 17 percent today. Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, noted that while much of the video people watch now lasts under a minute, most churchgoers still prefer a sermon of at least 30 minutes.

Length varies widely by tradition. Mainline pastors are far more likely to preach under 20 minutes (49 percent, compared with 15 percent of evangelical pastors), while evangelical pastors are more likely to land between 30 and 50 minutes (53 percent, compared with 24 percent of mainline pastors). Lutheran pastors lead the shortest-sermon group, with 27 percent typically preaching under 15 minutes. Half of Baptist pastors preach 30 to 40 minutes, while nondenominational (28 percent) and Pentecostal (22 percent) pastors are among the most likely to preach 40 to 50 minutes. Black (16 percent) and Hispanic (14 percent) pastors are far more likely than white pastors (4 percent) to preach beyond an hour.

Interestingly, pastors and churchgoers do not quite agree on the clock. Two-thirds of Protestant churchgoers say their pastor's sermons run under 40 minutes, yet listeners generally estimate sermon length higher than pastors report. McConnell suggested that people may remember the Sundays a sermon ran long, or they may be estimating how long the message felt rather than how long it lasted.

Preferences vary by age. Churchgoers 65 and older are the most content, with 68 percent happy with their current sermon length. Young adults 18 to 29 are the most divided: they are the most likely to want sermons of 50 minutes or more (30 percent) and also the most likely to say they want a shorter sermon than they currently get (42 percent).

Long preaching is hardly a modern invention. As the article notes, Ezra read the Law aloud from early morning until midday while the crowd listened closely (Nehemiah 8:3), and Paul once taught in Troas until midnight — long enough that the young man Eutychus drifted off and fell from a third-story window (Acts 20:7-12).

The research suggests a simple bottom line: a clear message that stays faithful to the text earns the attention people give it. A focused 45-minute sermon can feel shorter than a scattered 20-minute one.