Preparing for Death with Faith: A Guide for Pastors and Families

Life is not a horizontal line. Instead, it is full of opposites, ups and downs, sorrows and joys. Life is also short, and because of the culture’s deception to and of death, death has become a part of the cycle of life. We experience it with our loved ones, our friends, and our neighbors. Unless Christ returns first, we will all experience death.

Why Preparing for Death Matters

Death can invade our lives in the blink of an eye. We want you to be prepared to talk about death, hopefully before it arrives at your doorstep, but we also want to help you learn how to care for those facing death or who are walking toward it. We’d like to provide you the necessary tools to plan for your own death, burial, and funeral well in advance of it happening.

Christian Perspectives on Death and Burial

People die every day, and many of us are simply ill prepared for death. Not just physically, but without any plans for our family, our loved ones, and our church on how to care for our body after death has taken place, let alone our funeral and burial. Since this conversation hasn’t taken place, those we love are left trying to figure things out while physically numb, dealing with the effects of your death. This should not be the case.

How to Talk to Loved Ones About Death

Take for example the case of a husband who dies unexpectantly. His wife has no idea what kind of funeral or burial he would have wanted because they never discussed it. This is a huge burden to any family, but it also opens the door for funeral homes to “tell you” what your loved one would have wanted. At the weakest point in your life, you are left making huge personal and financial decisions. The best gift anyone can give their family and loved ones is a conversation about death and a burial plan prior to your dying. With this book, we hope you will consider the route of natural burial, which can provide intimate care of your body both before and after death.

A Journey of Faith: Preparing for Death and Resurrection

Discussing death openly does not hasten its arrival, but it does inform you of the wishes of those we love and those we know and care about, and it allows us to discern our own wishes. If you are a Christian, it also provides the church with a guide concerning the what, where, how, and why of your death and burial. This book will take us on a journey, one that starts at our baptism and courses all the way through death when you are in the presence of our Lord Jesus, and into the promise of the resurrection. Just as our lives are a journey, so, too, will this book take you on a sacred journey of preparation for your own death or the death of a loved one.

Steps to Prepare for Death and Funeral Planning

Life is a journey. We might not be able to know how long it will last or how and when we will die, but this short journey will help you prepare for your last journey into eternal life.

Embracing Natural Burial: A Faithful Approach

For those who walk alongside the dying, this journey could take weeks, months, or even years. When we journey with our dead, both before, during, and after, we begin to acknowledge that death will happen. Only in this way can we finally know how to participate in the burying of our dead from a more holistic point of view. But in the end, it’s a journey that speaks God’s truth of Jesus and his resurrection into new life in his new creation.

As we each walk through the valley of death, either with a loved one or on our own, we do it all with the hope that only Jesus can bring. He is the only one who has conquered death. Because Jesus has been raised from the dead, we, too, will one day be raised from the dead to be with him, with our loved ones that have gone before us, and with all the renewed creation. But for now, let us care for, love, nurture, and journey with our dead, holding on tightly to that promise of the resurrection of our bodies. Resurgam! We will rise again!

_____________________________________________________________________________