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This was from Bill Bradshaw’s essay in the aforementioned “Why I Stay” collection of essays. He writes of a time when he was seemingly bored enough to do Fast & Testimony stats. He’s a biology prof, so loves data. I thought these stats were very interesting! I suspect we might all have similar findings if we wanted to time things out. – Average adult testimony is 4-5 mins long
– 2% of the congregation (the 5 people who regularly get up) occupy 45% of the time.
– Children’s testimonies average 22 seconds, including transit time.
– He found (mostly) that the testimonies of 14-20 year olds that were 2 mins long were the most moving to him because they were the most heartfelt and unrehearsed and reminded him of investigators when he was a missionary who were first finding their way.
That last comment made me laugh because my 14 year old son who is in my SS class was asked to give the opening prayer yesterday in class; he stammered a lot, there were pauses, and eventually laughed a little when he said something that sounded different than he meant it. After he finished, one of the other boys said, “Dude, don’t you rehearse your prayers?” He said no, obviously. I said, “He was praying from the heart, and . . . that’s just what was in there.” They all thought that was pretty funny.
hawkgrrrl wrote:He found (mostly) that the testimonies of 14-20 year olds that were 2 mins long were the most moving to him because they were the most heartfelt and unrehearsed and reminded him of investigators when he was a missionary who were first finding their way.
I’ve noticed the same thing, especially the Sunday after EFY or girl’s camp. Sometimes it lasts but not always. Conversion is pretty exciting but it has to be replaced by something and often isn’t.
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