Thom Ranier recently conducted an unscientific Twitter poll related to sermon preparation time. According to this article he tabulated the following results.
1 to 3 hours — 1%
4 to 6 hours — 9%
7 to 9 hours — 15%
10 to 12 hours — 22%
13 to 15 hours — 24%
16 to 18 hours — 23%
19 to 21 hours — 2%
22 to 24 hours — 0%
25 to 27 hours — 1%
28 to 30 hours — 2%
31 to 33 hours — 1%
Ranier also offered the following eight observations
1. Most pastors responded with a range of hours. I took the midpoint of each range for my data.
2. Seventy percent of pastors' sermon preparation time is the narrow range of 10 to 18 hours per sermon.
3. Keep in mind that these numbers represent sermon preparation time for just one sermon. Many pastors spend 30 or more hours in preparing messages each week.
4. The median time for sermon preparation in this study is 13 hours. That means that half of the respondents gave a number under 13 hours; the other half gave a number greater than 13 hours.
5. Most of the respondents who gave a response under 12 hours indicated they were bivocational pastors.
6. If the sermon was part of a series, the pastors indicated they spent even more upfront time to develop the theme and preliminary issues for the sermons to be preached.
7. Many of the pastors are frustrated that they don't have more time for sermon preparation.
8. A number of the pastors indicated that finding consistent and uninterrupted sermon preparation time was difficult.
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