Funerals
For the Care of Souls
TIM PERRY
General Editor
Harold L. Senkbeil
Funerals: For the Care of Souls
Lexham Ministry Guides, edited by Harold L. Senkbeil
Copyright 2021 Tim Perry
Lexham Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225
All rights reserved. You may use brief quotations from this resource in presentations, articles, and books. For all other uses, please write Lexham Press for permission. Email us at permissions@lexhampress.com.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Print ISBN 9781683594734
Digital ISBN 9781683594741
Library of Congress Control Number 2020950424
Lexham Editorial: Todd Hains, David Bomar, Karen Engle, Kelsey Matthews, Abigail Salinger
Cover Design: Joshua Hunt
For Gerry Lougheed Jr. and Geoffrey Lougheed
with deep thanks.
What’s old is new again.
The church in ages past has focused her mission through every changing era on one unchanging, Spirit-given task: the care of souls in Jesus’ name. Christian clergy in every generation have devoted themselves to bringing Christ’s gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation to people by first bringing them to faith and then keeping them in the faith all life long.
These people—these blood-bought souls—are cared for just as a doctor cares for bodies. The first step is carefully observing the symptoms of distress, then diagnosing the ailment behind these symptoms. Only after careful observation and informed diagnosis can a physician of souls proceed—treating not the symptoms, but the underlying disease.
Attention and intention are essential for quality pastoral care. Pastors first attentively listen with Christ’s ears and then intentionally speak with Christ’s mouth. Soul care is a ministry of the Word; it is rooted in the conviction that God’s word is efficacious—it does what it says (Isa 55:10–11).
This careful, care-filled pastoral work is more art than science. It’s the practical wisdom of theology, rooted in focused study of God’s word and informed by the example of generations past. It’s an aptitude more than a skillset, developed through years of ministry experience and ongoing conversation with colleagues.
The challenges of our turbulent era are driving conscientious evangelists and pastors to return to the soul care tradition to find effective tools for contemporary ministry. (I describe this in depth in my book The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor’s Heart.) It’s this collegial conversation that each author in this series engages—speaking from their own knowledge and experience. We want to ...
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About Funerals: For the Care of SoulsDeath will strike your congregation. Are you ready? Are they? Death has become a four-letter word. Whereas in previous generations, the practice of memento mori (“remember death”) was embedded in family life, people today have found ways to distance themselves from death. As Western culture becomes increasingly more secular, the Christian understanding of death and the funeral appear more and more strange. Fear of death affects us all, and so pastors have significant hurdles to overcome. What Christians need today is a renewed vision of the traditional Christian funeral liturgy. In Funerals, Tim Perry recovers the rich theology inherent to the Christian funeral: communion with the saints in death, peace in forgiveness, hope in the resurrection, and joy in life eternal. Perry guides pastors through the practice of funerals, from planning the service to preaching the eulogy, and offers wisdom for the hard cases. Perry’s Funerals will help pastors disciple their people to see through the valley of the shadow of death and into the hope beyond. |
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