Officiating My First Funeral...

Hello, friends! 

I often get asked if I ever think I'll become a pastor. I'm pretty sure that comes from the fact that I have been preaching at church more often, and the role of pastor and preacher are often intertwined. I always tell folk the same thing, "I already have a job." =0). 

The truth is that being a pastor doesn't really appeal to me all that much. I love preaching and I believe that I have a gift of preaching but I know that being a pastor is more than just preaching on Sundays. There's the day to day care for the congregation and the constant need to show care and compassion that sounds super exhausting. I've seen it up close with our wonderful pastors, especially this past year or so as Megan and I have served as elders. 

However, I did get to fill a pastoral role this week: officiating a funeral. Here's what happened. 

A man from our church's father died just this past week. Our head pastor is out of the country and our associate pastor was out of town, so, as one of the Elders for our church, I got the call. 

Friends, can I tell you how stressful an experience it is preparing for a funeral? I didn't have to worry about any of the funeral preparations themselves, and all I had to do was a few prayers and a quick eulogy, but the weight of the moment is certainly significant. Compounding the situation was that I didn't know the deceased. It was a high stress situation. 

Praise the LORD, things ended up just fine. I was able to have a few quick conversations with family members, enough to give me a sense of who this man was (BTW, he seemed like a spectacular man!), which allowed me to put together a eulogy that worked well. The most important thing is that the family was blessed, which is all I can hope to do. I was honored to be a part of the service and glad that the family felt blessed by my presence. 

Fun eulogy story: I had made a mental note that I wanted everyone to silence their phones before the service started but forgot to write it in my notes, and subsequently forgot to say it. While I was giving the eulogy, there was a line where I was going to be talking about the deceased watching basketball. Right before I said the words "watching basketball," someone's phone went off with the ESPN SportsCenter notification noise "Da-da-Da, Da-da-Da!" The timing was absolutely perfect and we all got a kick out of that. 

So, I've now done a funeral. I have a whole new respect for this aspect of the job for pastors and while it was definitely a fulfilling and worthwhile experience, I'll be OK if I don't need to do one for a while. After all, I already have a job, and it ain't pastor. 

Have an excellent day!

~Adam