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It may come as a surprise to some, but it should be welcome and encouraging news to pastors and priests: Sermons are appreciated!

A survey from Durham University reveals that almost all of Britain’s 3.6 million regular churchgoers feel a sense of expectation for the Sunday sermon. “Fully 96.6 per cent of those surveyed “look forward” to the sermon, with 60 per cent saying it gave them a sense of God’s love.”

But it is interesting to note what kind of sermon people hoped for and preferred:

• Roman Catholics were most keen on sermons that educated rather than challenged them.
• Baptists wanted sermons to convert them.
• Anglicans wanted to be entertained.
• Members of the new, independent evangelical churches wanted to be challenged and encouraged.

Baptists and Catholics were also more enthusiastic about the Bible being mentioned in sermons than were Anglicans and Methodists.

There were also different expectations as to the length of the sermon: Many Anglicans wanted less than ten minutes, some Baptists wanted to sit through at least an hour and a quarter. Catholics, by contrast, wanted their homilies to be completed within ten minutes.

From The Times, 19 January 2010