Funerals: For the Care of Souls

by Tim Perry, Harold L. Senkbeil (Editor)

Death 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 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.

Genres: Death, Christian

288 pages, Hardcover

Published August 4, 2021

Reviews

[Jonah Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book that not only provides great insights into the logistics of funerals for pastors, but also speaks to all people in modern society concerning the topics of death, judgment, hell, and heaven. It fights against the norms in our society that seek to deny, minimize, negate, or otherwise transform death into something other than what it truly is: an enemy that impinges upon our world in powerful ways, yet will not have the final say. I will return to this book, not only for its direction and helpful recommendations for conducting funerals but also for its incisive comments about how we view death--and, most importantly, how the gospel sheds light upon death in our world.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book in the "For the Care of Souls" series, named after Senkbeil's good book on what it means to be a pastor "The Care of Souls." This is the only one from the series that I have read, but I suppose that all of them are written by pastors whom Senkbeil respects and thinks they have something to say about a particular area of ministry. This one has to do with funerals, if this wasn't obvious by the title. It is written by Tim Perry who is an Anglican priest (of the Anglo-Catholic variety.) Which largely doesn't matter too much, because he makes his advice very applicable in different contexts. You just have to put up with some Pope worship (not actual just metaphorical) and hem-hawing about how the Reformation hasn't been resolved yet and how we haven't crossed the Tiber. Certainly an important part of ministry and something that I have done more than a few times. I found this book to be helpful and to have good food for thought, but lacked some practical advice I really wanted and didn't go deep enough, or nuanced enough, in certain areas.

The book is broken up into two sections. The first is on theology, the second is on the practicalities and they are essentially of equal length. The first part on the theology surrounding the funeral, like judgement, how society views death, and heaven and hell was pretty good and I found myself nodding along quite a bit, though I found his discussion on heaven and hell to be fairly weak. I was hoping that justice would be tackled with greater fervor and that hell would be given a full discussion, but most of the chapter on hell was dedicated to how to view it, rather than explaining God's purpose in it or how to understand that within the context of the funeral. This rears its head again when it comes to practicalities.

When it came to the practical side of things the book had lots of helpful advice. Rather than have particular sections devoted to topics Perry breaks this part down by the roles that the pastor will take. Catechist, Liturgist, Evangelist, and Pastor. Each of these sections was helpful and I definitely found Perry's advice in some areas to be helpful and even really challenging! However, I do have to knock the book, because as a young pastor there was one piece of practical advice that I was really looking for which is: how to deal with unbelievers who died. Now, he does talk about that, but he just uses the same formula for a funeral as he would for others. Which is fine, but I wanted practical advice on how to talk about the deceased unbeliever or even what scripture to use. Since we are those important things to people throughout the process of a funeral, I think it would be a disservice to those who are left in the funeral of an unbeliever to give them the same treatment that we would one of our own. I'm not talking about speculating about where they are going (hell), because I would never say that in a funeral unless I really thought it was necessary, but rather just how to discuss it and how to point people to the gospel even in that situation. I was bummed it wasn't there.

Despite my unique misgivings I was glad that I read this book and would recommend it to anyone in ministry who wants a different look at how to do a funeral and wants some good practical advice.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It should be noted that this book is actually 222 pages, not 120. I want full credit, Goodreads!

This book is such a great resource. Lots of stuff to think through on what a funeral is, and what our roles are as pastors. The first half gives the theology of a funeral, and the second half is more practical.

It's not a perfect book. His chapters on Heaven and Hell are lacking, the chapter on Hell being particularly strange. Those chapters forget their point of being included in the book in the first place, and slip into academic theology, arguing for or against certain views. The biggest issue is that he never ties what he says back to the theology of a funeral. But everything was gold. Good enough for me to pardon him for those two strange chapters and still give it a 5 star!

[Gabe Bruner · Rating 4 out of 5]

My grandma asked me to do her funeral when the time comes so, having little to no exposure with funeral planning and death in general, this book seemed to be a good starting place. This was a great introduction to a Christian theology of death and what it means to pastor in the valley of the shadow of death. My one quibble is that Perry seemed to hold back in certain areas, such as the typical order of the funeral service, that I thought needed more spelling out. This could be because he anticipated more of his readers already having some experience in doing funerals, however it left me wanting more practical tips. Nevertheless, I feel much more prepared to do what my grandma has asked of me, and that alone made it a worthy read.

[Sam Reinhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good and short book about how many in our society today have lost touch with the reality and theology of death and funerals. I was expecting a "how-to" manual but got a book on who and what the pastor represents at a funeral and how to care for the bereaved.
Also, GoodReads says this book is 120 pages, but my copy had 220+ so not sure what that's about.

[Theologia14 · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times sublimely insightful at other times awful. Great material can be found though throughout. Very well written.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up as young pastor looking for a basic “how to manual” for funerals, and was pleasantly surprised by the depth of theological insight, cultural analysis, and pastoral sensitivity. This is a book for pastor conducting funerals in a post-Christian and Secular Age. I couldn’t recommend this highly enough.