A Layperson's Guide to Conducting Funerals and Celebrations of Life

by John Zehring

Overview

If you have been asked or if you would like to volunteer to conduct a funeral or a celebration of the person’s life, this guide is for you and will help you prepare to meet with the family and prepare and coordinate the service. It is written from the perspective of a Christian pastor but provides guidance for a range of secular and sacred services. Included are sample outlines for a service, guidance for how to prepare your personal remarks, and sample introductions, prayers, readings, poems, scriptures, and benedictions. In the guide you will find tips and suggestions for how to conduct a service which is warm, deeply personal, responsive to the family’s desires, and fitting to the one being remembered and celebrated.

For funerals, you need no permit, license, or permission at all, other than an invitation by someone who would like you to be the one to conduct the ceremony. There are no restrictions for conducting a funeral or celebration of life. So why would a layperson conduct a funeral? Perhaps a clergy leader is not available. Maybe you are church leader or on the staff of a church and know the family well. Or, a person may have no religious affiliation but the family would like to have a service of celebration or remembrance and have asked you to officiate. Perhaps the family situation is complicated and it was felt that you could provide the right leadership for a service. Or, maybe an informal service is desired by the sea, atop a mountain, in the forest, or at some other location, where the family desires you to coordinate the time together. There are many reasons why you have been selected and if that happens, you need this guide to help you to produce a meaningful and fitting service. The book is especially valuable for church leaders, deacons, and church staff who may be invited to conduct funerals or celebrations of a person’s life.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940165106286
Publisher:	John Zehring
Publication date:	12/03/2021
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	766,206
File size:	156 KB

About the Author

John Zehring has served United Church of Christ congregations as Senior Pastor in Massachusetts (Andover), Rhode Island (Kingston), and Maine (Augusta) and as an Interim Pastor in Massachusetts (Arlington, Harvard). Prior to parish ministry, he served in higher education, primarily in development and institutional advancement. He worked as a dean of students, director of career planning and placement, adjunct professor of public speaking and as a vice president at a seminary and at a college. He is the author of more than sixty books and is a regular writer for The Christian Citizen, an American Baptist social justice publication. He has taught Public Speaking, Creative Writing, Educational Psychology and Church Administration. John was the founding editor of the publication Seminary Development News, a publication for seminary presidents, vice presidents and trustees (published by the Association of Theological Schools, funded by a grant from Lilly Endowment). He graduated from Eastern University and holds graduate degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, Rider University, and the Earlham School of Religion. He is listed in Marquis' WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA and is a recipient of their Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. John and his wife Donna live in two places, in central Massachusetts and by the sea in Maine.