Table of contents
Weddings, Funerals, and Special Events
These books, originally published by Leadership Journal, offer deep dives on pressing issues of ministry and leadership from veteran ministry experts like Eugene Peterson, Fred Smith, Marshall Shelley, and others.
- Introduction
- 1 The Ministry of Ceremony and Celebration
- 2 Creating a Climate for Lasting Marriages
- 3 Should We Marry the Unchurched?
- 4 Premarital Pastoring
- 5 The Rehearsal and Ceremony
- 6 Preparing the Congregation for Death
- 7 Pastoral Care for Grieving Families
- 8 Funeral and Graveside Services
- 9 Services for People You Barely Know
- 10 Handling the Hard Cases
- 11 Infant Baptisms and Dedications
- 12 Adult Baptisms
- 13 Confirmation
- 14 Speaking Before the Community
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.
