For most Protestant pastors the phenomenon of a bride or a groom (or both) requesting the pastor to preach a "little sermon" during their wedding ceremony is perhaps a rare occurrence. Despite the infrequency of such desires in the past, however, I have found in my own ministry this...

Suppose for a moment that someone asked you to rank the most important things you do as a minister. No doubt, nine out of ten pastors would list preaching funerals among their top three most important pastoral tasks. A funerals, or in some cases a memorial service, is the place where...