When a death comes to the church family—be there. The ministry of your presence is one of the chief means of comforting them. In the early days of my ministry, I thought I was there to say a lot of things—pious phrases and religious cliches—to defend God for why this tragedy had occurred. I quickly learned that God did not need defending and that I did not have all the answers.. Even more, their broken hearts were not ready to process theological truths. There were questions for which I did not have all the answers. I believe that God is omniscient, but I am not. A hug, a prayer, reading the Scripture, planning the funeral, mingling my tears with theirs. That is what people needed from me that I could give them. Job’s friends sat with him in silence after he experienced heartbreak after heartbreak. Then they began to talk and that is when they became “miserable comforters,” (Job 16:2).
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