The Complete Funeral Service Book: Scripts, Prayers, Readings, and Practical Helps for Every Kind of

The call comes on a Tuesday night. The service is Saturday.You have three days, a family you may never have met, and most of what you will need between now and then, nobody ever taught you.This is the book for that week.The Complete Funeral Service Book is not another collection of funeral sermons. It is the whole event, front to back - every script, prayer, reading, and practical detail a minister needs from the first phone call to the graveside, and for the year of follow-up after.Twenty complete services, printed word for word- Church funeral, funeral home chapel, and graveside-only- Committal, memorial with no body present, and celebration of life- Cremation, scattering of ashes, interment of ashes, and entombment- Military honors, with the honor guard sequence explained- Infant, stillborn, and child- Suicide, and the service for someone whose faith you cannot speak to- The twelve-minute service, for when that is all you are givenMore than one hundred interchangeable elementsOpening words, invocations, prayers of comfort and thanksgiving, fourteen words of committal, benedictions, and transitions - indexed by first line so you can find the one you need in under a minute.Scripture arranged by situation, printed in fullComfort, hope, heaven, resurrection, the death of a child, a long life, an untimely death, and the graveside. Nine complete psalms and ten extended passages, all set out on the page so the reading you need is already in front of you.Seventeen difficult situations, answered in two pages eachSuicide. Overdose. Stillbirth. Homicide. Long decline from dementia. The estranged deceased. The family that wants no religion at all. The funeral for someone you never met. Each one tells you what to say, what to avoid, and what to do afterward.And the practical craft nobody teachesWhere to stand. How to be heard outdoors. What to wear. Working with funeral directors, honor guards, and fraternal orders. What to say when a eulogist will not stop, when the music fails, or when you use the wrong name. How to follow up with a family through the first year - and how to carry four funerals in a month without it costing you everything.Includes reproducible planning worksheets, a service checklist, a family interview form, a Scripture index, and a quick-find index to every prayer and committal in the book.Written forPastors and ministers of every tradition, hospital and hospice chaplains, funeral celebrants and officiants, lay leaders, elders and deacons, and anyone who has been asked to speak and has three days to prepare.Barry L. Davis, D.Min., Ph.D., conducted twenty-six funerals in his first year of full-time ministry. He is the author of more than forty books for preachers, lay leaders, and congregations. This is the book he wishes someone had handed him.337 pages. Complete services, prayers, and readings you can use this week.