LAUREL, Miss. (BP) – Last August, a Mississippi pastor’s suggestion that he preach for 96 straight hours brought the most honest reaction one could get from his friend and administrative pastor.
“You are nuts,” Jonathan Strickler told Matt Olson, pastor of First Baptist Church of Sharon.
Olson had just returned from a spiritual training that included going days without his Bible, the purpose of which was to test the individual’s reliability for Scripture memorization. The experience revealed to Olson just how much Scripture he remembered, and perhaps just as important, how much he didn’t.
“He missed his Bible, craved it,” said Strickler. “He was thankful for passages he could remember, and disappointed in what he couldn’t.”
It left Olson, 39, with an idea grounded in sharing God’s Word. He wanted to preach for 96 hours – four consecutive days. He completed the feat on June 3, giving him an unofficial world record for the longest speech marathon.
“I said, ‘That’s literally the stupidest thing you’ve ever said,’” remembered Strickler on first hearing the idea. “I was saying that as a friend. Then I put on my administrative pastor hat and said that if God had called him to it, we needed to process it out. But I thought we could do it.”
That led to gathering a team consisting of both prayer and medical support. A system of breaks was worked in for medical check-ins, eating, bathroom visits, showers and a brief nap. This was accomplished through a pattern where each hour that Olson preached would earn him a five-minute rest that he could also “bank” into longer stretches of time.
The feat was not filed through Guinness as an attempt at a new world record, though Olson’s team utilized the format and safety structure, including the five-minute break rule. Guinness recognizes the longest speech marathon at 90 hours, two minutes, set by Nepal’s Anata Ram KC in 2018, which broke the 53-hour, 18-minute mark set by Florida pastor Zach Zehnder in 2014.
“Guinness was a format for a revival,” said Strickler. “The declaration of the Gospel was the purpose.”
The plan at First Baptist Sharon took effect when Olson began preaching at 6 p.m. on May 30. Videos were posted to the church’s Facebook page in the following days, with the final one coming on Wednesday evening, June 3.
A schedule allowed Olson to preach longer stretches early on. Five hours produced 25 total minutes of a break, for instance. Olson would take five of those minutes and bank the remaining 20. Those banked minutes built up to hour-long breaks in the later portions of the preaching marathon.
In the meantime, Strickler and others monitored Olson’s physical and mental state as sleep deprivation began taking its toll. All parties had agreed beforehand to stop if Olson, who lives with Crohn’s disease, showed signs of physical distress or if a cloudy mind led to saying things that may be heretical.
They began with two five-hour preaching sessions, then a four-hour session.
“It banked him enough time that we tapered it down every night,” said Strickler. “The goal was to get him at least an hour of rest and recovery for our medical team to assess his hydration, mental acuity and what he needed for nourishment. He also could take a quick shower and a nap.”
Strickler estimates that Olson banked between seven and eight hours of rest. For the naysayers who would point out that he really didn’t preach the amount of time advertised, consider that it still means Olson delivered the Word of God for about 88 hours between Saturday and Wednesday evening.
A worship service that included other churches took place each evening. Olson would preach from the choir room during their preparation time, then go to a converted classroom for his hour-long evaluation and recovery during the service.
Olson had the option to sit as he preached, but just 23 hours in, his voice was gone.
“The head of our medical team sent a message to the discipleship pastor and myself,” said Strickler. “She said we needed to find someone with oil to anoint his throat and pray for it, because if his voice came back, it will be the Lord’s doing.”
The pastor of a mission partner church in Maine had his own vial of oil used for such purposes. He applied the oil and prayed as another local pastor led a prayer among those in the sanctuary for Olson’s voice.
When Olson woke up from his nap and took a shower, his voice had returned.
A strict 48-hour recovery period followed Olson’s final message in Revelation, with an extended rest that made him unavailable for comments in this article. Strickler filled the pulpit on Sunday, June 7.
The preparation before Olson took the stage included a lot of prayer. Specifically, he challenged his church to determine three things for which to pray.
“My first one was for Matt’s health to hold out; I was confident he could make it,” said Strickler. “My second prayer for the hearts of our people. We have an amazing church, and I wanted the messages to catch traction. The third prayer was for people to tune in online and hear the Gospel.”
A viewer named Brad Smith, not a member of the church, was among those reached.
“[I was] only a participant experiencing a powerful spirit-filled revival,” he told Baptist Press in an email signed “One Changed Heart.”
First Baptist’s pastor, for those who may be wondering, is an Atlanta Braves fan. And, yes, sharing the same name as the team’s slugging first baseman has led to jokes and at least one confused convention worker when Olson showed up to receive his materials.
“My Matt Olson isn’t the baseball player, but anyone who meets him will not be disappointed,” said Strickler. “They will meet a man who loves God and will share the Gospel. I’m thankful I get to serve with him.”
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