If you are a young pastor what do you do when you get the call that one of your church members has died? To whom do you turn? In most cases you don’t have the time to spend a few hours with a seasoned pastor for training and review in this area. You need help, right away.
This happened to me recently. After the shock I knew I had work to do, but I certainly was not polished in the care for the grieving nor the conducting of a funeral. A friend had previously ordered Brian Croft and Phil Newton’s helpful little book, Conducting Gospel-Centered Funerals. He gave me the book and simply said, “Here. I think this will help you this week.”
I’m certain Croft and Newton had a pastor like me in mind when they wrote this book. It is short (125 pages) and very straightforward. These pastors pastor the pastor. The provide a plan (chapter 1), help you to prepare for the funeral (chapter 2), provide practical guidance for the sermon (chapter 3) and then tell you how to conduct the funeral (chapter 4). The authors are solid pastoral veterans and serve a wide audience by speaking to many different settings and traditions.
Further, there are helpful appendixes, to include examples of funeral sermons, eulogies, music, and order of service for the funeral. Having only been to about 2 non-Roman Catholic funerals, I found this to be helpful.
If you are a pastor or church leader (or a friend of one) I suggest picking up this resource so that when the time comes (and it will) you will have a trusted resource to turn to.
Conducting Gospel-Centered Funerals is soon to be rereleased by Harper-Collins (June 14). At present, discounted copies are remain available at Amazon via DayOne. But you can pre-order the new version, including Kindle.
*Disclosure: if you make purchases at Amazon or Westminster, consider clicking through the links on this blog. It costs you nothing and quietly helps support this blog by giving me a small commission. Thanks!