Services for People You Barely Know

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Services for People You Barely Know

In Weddings, Funerals, & Special Events : The Personal Memory of Public Occasions

Word Books (January 1, 1987)
Eugene Peterson, Calvin Miller

When I was pastor of FBC El Dorado, Arkansas, a former Wheaton student of mine, Kevin Miller came through town one Sunday and attended an evening service. At the time, he was editor of Leadership magazine, which focused on the life and work of those in ministry. He asked me how it was going and if there was something I might write about. The first thing that came to mind were the funerals I’d conducted in the previous months. There were a good many elderly people in the congregation, and a number of them were passing on. (I don’t think I had anything to do with that.) There were thirty-one my first year, and I recall a two-week period when I conducted services for six. Before long, Kevin and I agreed upon the topic and title, “Services for People You Barely Know.” Several years later, it appeared, along with a dozen others in this tenth volume of THE LEADERSHIP LIBRARY.