“The Gospel Truth in 20 Seconds”

Shrinking Attention Spans

That night I read 20 verses. But they acted as if I’d read 20 chapters.

It was our church’s preschool Christmas program. Some of the families did not attend a church, so I used the evangelistic opportunity to read Luke 2:1-20. The crowd wasn't opposed to the content, but they sure struggled with the length.

A third of the way into the passage, the audience began to cough and fidget. Two-thirds of the way through, the squirming increased a couple more levels. By the time the shepherds returned from the manger glorifying and praising God, I nearly had to shout into the microphone to be heard over the collective restlessness in the sanctuary.

Luke 2:1-20 can’t be read reverently in less than 20 seconds.

The richness of Luke’s Christmas story can’t be reduced to an Instagram pic, a sound bite, or a Twitter post.

Because of information overload, we scan headlines and glean the top stories. There isn’t time to absorb everything in the news.

So I will try to help you out.