Giving a Life Meaning: How to Lead Funerals, Memorial Services, and Celebrations of Life (Resources on Faith, Sickness, Grief and Doubt)

I’m sorry you are here.

No one buys a book on how to do a funeral service or a memorial service unless someone else died.You are stepping in front of a group of people who are two days after the hardest moment of their life and are having the saddest day of their lives. You have to summarize someone’s life, give it meaning, and help people take their next step.

If you are in a church tradition that gives you all the words, use those words. But if you are reading this book, all the words weren’t enough.

Many books tell us how to do things with great authority. They say, “This is THE way.”But you aren’t looking for THE way. You are looking for help to figure out YOUR way to do a service to honor someone. This book gives you that help. 

Based on more than thirty years of helping people communicate, of helping people think, of helping people sort through hard situations, this book offers frameworks, options, and samples. It covers the service itself, starting fifteen minutes before and ending at the cemetery. We’ll talk about how to start, how to decide what goes in the middle, how to build a message, and how to finish the service.

There is an extensive chapter on services for infants and several samples of messages, a few checklists, and as much encouragement as can fit in a small book for a tough time.