Livelier Funerals

Preaching funerals can be deadly, especially when the dearly departed wasn't dear or a believer. Author and preaching professor Scott Gibson offers advice on what pastors can do to keep funeral sermons original and personal.

Q: Preaching funerals is sometimes difficult. Why?

Perhaps the most challenging I've had recently was my own uncle's funeral. My uncle was not a Christian, and most of my family members are not Christians. For most pastors that's one of the most challenging sermons to deal with.

I wanted to bring the hope of the gospel to my family, but also to personalize it in a way that reflected who my uncle was as a person. I wanted to communicate to them through my uncle's career as a hairstylist that God is also interested in hair, and he's interested in us to the extent that he knows the very hairs on our head. And if he knows the very hairs on our head, he cares for us even in times like these.

Q: How do you make a funeral sermon personal?

I ask myself, How can I help my congregation see that this person mattered to us and also mattered to God? I do this by looking at different aspects of a person's life; maybe it's their career, or their name has a certain element to it.

I think about favorite Scripture texts. Once I looked at the person's Bible and there were certain Scriptures he underscored or highlighted.

You want to take notes when you're doing pastoral visitation. I always keep records of my visits, and I note the hobbies somebody was involved in. Whether it was stamp collecting or sports, that may be an angle you can take to help make the funeral sermon personal.

Q: How are funerals changing, and the sermon with them?

We are a lot less "Christian" than we used to be, and people are tending to be less willing to think about death. This gives us even more opportunity to present the gospel, to personalize it, and to provide people a way to see how this love of God connects with the life they live. There's a desire for folks to hear a word of hope in a world that is not Christian and yet in many ways religious.

Scott Gibson is author of Preaching for Special Services and professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts.