I do believe there are times that we should shout even when we are preaching and teaching the Word ...
but after this Tuesday ... when I attended the funeral of a friend who passed of heart disease at age 34 and has OP roots ...
I must confess that one of the preachers who eulogized him ... must have yelled for about 7-10 minutes straight ... preaching to the unsaved in the crowd and remarking on the salvation of the deceased ... made me leave my seat ... and walk outside for a break.
Facing death, even someone else's passing, can bring out the best or the worst in a person.
I figure, if you don't have a message that ministers to people in the time of their greatest need then you probably don't really have a message at all.
We had one at our church a while back that was unbelievable. It was NOT handled by my Pastor, the deceased attended our church but had a brother that pastored somewhere back east who did the funeral.
It was bad, it went on for EVER and he had a forced altar call (basically telling everyone they had to come to the altar) and was baptizing other members of the family, (none of whom seem to have made any significant movement toward God since.)
What made it worse is that the mortuary that they used is one that we work with regularly, and have a really good relationship with, and they were FURIOUS. It held up their schedule for almost two hours by the time it was all said and done, and there was a military honor guard waiting at the graveside that finally left because they had to go to another funeral! Sad!
We had one at our church a while back that was unbelievable. It was NOT handled by my Pastor, the deceased attended our church but had a brother that pastored somewhere back east who did the funeral.
It was bad, it went on for EVER and he had a forced altar call (basically telling everyone they had to come to the altar) and was baptizing other members of the family, (none of whom seem to have made any significant movement toward God since.)
What made it worse is that the mortuary that they used is one that we work with regularly, and have a really good relationship with, and they were FURIOUS. It held up their schedule for almost two hours by the time it was all said and done, and there was a military honor guard waiting at the graveside that finally left because they had to go to another funeral! Sad!
My wife's grandfather, Elder Fred Crider, was a one-stepper but he believed baptism should be done in Jesus' name. He belonged to the old Bishop Mark Lawson organization called The Church of Jesus Christ. Many years ago his daughter brought home a young man who was a Church of God preacher and introduced him to her Dad. After her Dad talked to him, the young man, Eugene Shafer, got baptized in Jesus' name. Over the years it is said that Eugene Shafer baptized over a thousand people in Jesus' name. There was a saying that Brother Shafer baptized so many people in the Ohio River that the catfish all knew him by name.
Well, Elder Crider died around the age of 90. He thoroughly loved the Lord and had preached for years in both trinity and oneness churches (he was a one-stepper). At the time of his death he was actually a member of a trinity church. For years he had told people that he did not want his funeral to be a time of sadness but a time of rejoicing. Well, when he died his family followed his wishes even though many of them were not actively living for the Lord. There was congregational singing and hand clapping and people raised their hands. I don't remember if there was any dancing or not. It kinda embarrassed one of my sons who had gone to college with a young man who worked in the funeral home but it was done according to Eld. Crider's wishes. Eld. Eugene Shafer (not Eld. Crider's Church of God pastor) preached the Funeral sermon and it was a strong Jesus' name message.
Now, I'm not saying that should be the pattern for all funerals but there were a lot of people there that were living far below what they knew, and they knew how Fred Crider believed, so maybe in this case it was appropriate.
Attached is a picture of me and Elder Fred Crider taken back in 1959. I was young and thin and had hair and he was already an old man. He lived for another 20 years after that.
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