A Pastor's Practical Guide to Funerals: Offering Help, Assurance, and Hope

by Lee Franklin

Publisher:

Abingdon Press

, 2013

Overview

This straight-forward book integrates the pragmatic “how to” of the funeral process--especially in dealing with “difficult” funerals--with the art of being a caring and healing presence before, during, and after the funeral. While conducting a funeral is one the great privileges of ministry, pastors must be skilled and ready to guide grieving family and friends through the process of saying goodbye and burying a loved one. With sample services, prayers, sermon themes, and Bible readings, this book will help pastors hear, name, and integrate relevant illustration into a respectful story of the deceased’s life--a story that is appropriate to the particular circumstances of each situation.

Contents include: Preparing for Death; Caring through Anticipated Death; Caring through Sudden Death; Meeting with Family before the Funeral Service; Creating the Funeral Service; Creating the Funeral Sermon; and Following up with Grievers

Key Features

Time-sequence organization. The book is organized sequentially through the funeral story - this happens and you do this; next happens, and you do this. The chapters walk the pastor through all aspects of funeral preparation beginning with their own person. Six stand-alone chapters. Yet while the chapters form a coherent story of the funeral process, they are simultaneously stand-alone chapters. They can be accessed individually or combined with others. Reader Friendly with open space, and enough information to be helpful but not so much that it is overwhelming. The book aims to help a beginning and/or struggling pastor become familiar and comfortable with the funeral process, and to see the possibilities of creating a hopeful funeral story from its various parts and participants. Equipping Tools, including copy-able forms and templates, checklists, themes for sermons, prayers for different circumstances, best-practice suggestions from other pastors, bulleted summary lists of

Readers can integrate sound grief work principles with practical pastoral helps presented in an accessible, convenient format. Readers will have confidence that they can not only do funerals well, but that they are making a positive difference in the lives of those who are facing death and their families.

Product Details

• Title : A Pastor's Practical Guide to Funerals: Offering Help, Assurance, and Hope
• Author: Franklin, Lee
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Publication Date: 2013
• ISBN: 9781426758201