Skip to main content

A Necessary Grief





A Necessary Grief: Essential Tools for Leadership in Bereavement Ministry by Larry J. Michael

What are the necessary tools in bereavement ministry and how do we minister well to others dealing with the downtrodden?  These questions are at the heart of Larry J. Michael’s new book called A Necessary Grief: Essential Tools for Leadership in Bereavement Ministry.  

The best part of the book is Larry’s insistence on making clear distinctions between various terminology and offering a holistic view of ministry to those going through loss.
In the beginning of the book, Larry helps the reader by differentiating between grief and mourning.  Larry writes, “Grief is the inward process that involves our thoughts and feelings after experiencing loss.  Mourning is the outward process that involves the expression of our grief.  It is often referred to as “grief that has gone public (24).”  Mourning is the sign that we see all around us with morose faces, gloomy expression, and looking like a person is not fully alive.  Grief is the inward process, the questioning, the deep wellspring of loss that we feel as we know that person is no longer with us. 

Secondly, Larry carefully brings up some fallacies of grief that we often come across in daily life.  One of them, “Grief is something to Get Over,” was one I hear often.  Larry writes, “Grief is not an illness from which someone must recover.  It is a process to which a person experiences change and transformation over a period of time (55).”  Larry points to King David as one who grieved dearly after the death of his son Absalom, never fully recovering from his grief but enduring it till his death.  I would add that many people don’t know what to say to someone grieving deeply and so words are better left unsaid.  Larry also brings up the vital truth that faith doesn’t make grieving easy.  The comments that someone is in a better place don’t take away the fact that they are gone from a person’s life. 

Overall, I think this is a very good book and one that I will go back to when ministering to those in grieving situations.  There are also good sections on children dealing with grief. 

Thanks to Kregel Ministry for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saving Casper

Saving Casper: A Christian and an Atheist Talk about Why We Need to Change the Conversion Conversation by Jim Henderson and Matt Casper http://www.amazon.com/Saving-Casper-Christian-Conversion-Conversation/dp/1414364881 Many readers will quickly know the authors of this book from their previous release Jim and Casper Go to Church.  Jim and Matt’s new book entitled Saving Casper focuses on the way we talk about conversion in the church and the devastating ways we have pushed away atheists and other non-believers by our posture.  Both Jim and Matt traversed the national landscape, meeting in churches and asking hard questions about faith, conversion, and life. The basic premise of the book and travel is laid out here in their words, “Part of what Casper and I are trying to achieve when we speak to a group of Christians is to help people move a little bit on their “judgment meter.”  This capacity, while intellectually and often theologically uncomfortable,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Essential Christian Doctrine

  Essential Christian Doctrine , General Editor John MacArthur Pastor John MacArthur has for years been teaching the Word of God in both pulpit ministry, books, and conferences with an aim to displaying God’s revelation to his listeners in a winsome and foundational manner.  This new book, Essential Christian Doctrine takes an entire life of teaching and preaching and encapsulates the main contours of the Christian faith for its readers.  John in a systematic way highlights the most necessary teachings from Scripture including God’s Word, the Trinity, while also including sections on Man and the Future. One of the most helpful ways the authors bring to light biblical truth and theology is the way in which they group together particular themes.  In the section on the Holy Spirit, instead of a complex discussion of personhood, word pictures of the Holy Spirit are introduced in a discernible and profitable manner.  The metaphors for the Holy Spirit include fir...
Post a Comment
Read more

God's Grace for All of Life

The Romance of Grace by Jim McNeely III To be honest, when I received this book in the mail I had visions of what it might be like with a title like, ‘The Romance of Grace.’  The emotional rollercoaster and one-sided perspective on how our emotions fuel our faith was my presumption about the book, but this was the furthest thing from the truth as I started reading.  The Romance of Grace by Pastor Jim McNeely III is a careful look at the movements of grace in the way God pursues us with his love and his desire to get us to love him back.  McNeely writes, “We are entering a cosmic romance with a passionate lover, and He is interested in our heart’s truest desire.  His deepest objective isn’t to make us more moral; it is to get us to love Him back.  Virtue is the fruit, not the root” (18).  Why is this helpful?  For one thing, beginning with God’s initiating grace frees us from starting out on the wrong foot in the way we tell the story and...
2 comments
Read more