Having a Grief Night – Day 339

Having a Grief Night

Day 339

There is great strength in community, the coming together in Christ and building up of one another to love and good deeds.  And there are times when a person needs community more than ever. Dr. Larry Crabb shares how his Sunday school class has responded to this need by implementing a practice called a grief night.

“We’re there basically to pour something of the reality of Christ into one who is bereaved,” says Dr. Crabb.

Here are the steps to holding a grief night for a person who is grieving:

1. Plan a time to meet together as a group.
2. To being the grief night, light a candle to symbolize the one who is not there.
3. Have others ask the grieving person random questions about the loved one who has died to get to know the deceased individual better. “What do you miss the most about your loved one?” “What places or smells bring back special memories?” Also ask tough questions such as, “Did your lost loved one make financial and other preparations for those they would leave behind?” Let the person talk.
4. After about an hour of questions, tears, sharing, take time to respond to the grieving person. This is not a time for platitudes and advice, but for a pouring out of love and connectedness from one heart to another.
5. Next is prayer time. Have the grieving person sit in the center of the group, and people who want to can lay their hands on the bereaved person. Then come before God in worship and in pleading and petition for the bereaved.
6. Last is song time. Sing favorites of the one who died or of the one who is grieving.

“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).

Loving Father, healing is possible in the community of believers. Lead me to meet together regularly with other people who believe in You. Amen.