A Baptist pastor in Mississippi has reportedly broken an unofficial world record by preaching from the Bible for a continuous 96 hours, according to his church. Pastor Matt Olson, senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Sharon, shared with Fox News Digital his experience of preaching from Genesis to Revelation over four days. He adhered to the guidelines of the Guinness World Records, taking five-minute breaks every hour or banking time for longer breaks to shower and nap.
Olson’s sermon outlasted the previous record of marathon speaking held by Ananta Ram KC of Nepal, who spoke for 90 hours and 2 minutes. Olson expressed that the experience highlighted the power of Scripture. He remarked, “The Word of God is truth… and it’s sufficient. It sustained me for 96 hours when, physically, I should not have continued… no one should be able to do that.”
The pastor felt inspired to attempt this feat after undergoing an intense 10-day missionary training, where he spent 96 hours in a simulated hostage scenario without access to his Bible. This led him to recognize how much more Scripture he needed to learn and sparked his decision to preach for 96 hours.
When Olson proposed the idea to church leaders, they thought he was crazy but offered unwavering support. The congregation actively supported him, providing a medical team to monitor his health, a technical crew to film the event, and prayer teams to pray and manage logistics round-the-clock. The marathon sermon was livestreamed on the church’s website, with archived videos still available.
Though the church followed Guinness World Record guidelines, they chose not to submit for official verification due to the expensive adjudicator fee under Guinness’s non-profit tier and a desire to avoid using the Bible for publicity. Olson emphasized the importance of good stewardship, stating any funds would be better spent on mission work.
“This has never been about a world record,” Olson said. “It was only about proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ because it saves and just being faithful to what God called us to do.” He wished to maintain the focus on Jesus, asserting, “Jesus is Lord. He is worthy of every sentence I preached, every sacrifice that was made, and every step of obedience taken.”