Mastering Ceremonies.
In today’s secular society, the only personal contact many people have with a pastor is some public occasion: a wedding, funeral, baby dedication or baptism, an awards ceremony.
These settings, where clergy are front and center, offer unique opportunities to minister.
The bubbling joy or the piercing grief of these events waken people, if only for a moment, to pastors and to the divine realities they represent. Birth, death, and human achievement become, in C. S. Lewis’s words, “a megaphone to rouse a deafened world.” And pastors who are called upon to lead, officiate, or pray during these events do well to consider how to speak clearly through them.
This book offers clear, tested counsel on how to prepare for special occasions and how to conduct the events themselves. Each chapter is written by a pastor who has had extensive experience in that area. These church leaders relate honestly their failures and successes—and the lessons learned—as they’ve ministered during weddings, funerals, and special events.
