Pastors cannot take it for granted that they will be able to provide good funerals. A host of factors stand in the way of making a funeral “good.” People are presented with an overabundance of choices as they plan ahead for their own funeral or for that of a deceased loved one; emotions run high, causing decision-making to be difficult for loved ones and clergy alike; particularly in our current culture, many have a desire to sterilize death by avoiding certain terms, viewing death as something natural or even beautiful, or turning funerals into “cheerful” occasions. Such matters can tempt pastors to “become more controlled by psychological rather than theological categories and, therefore, [offer funerals that are] shallower in meaning” (xv). 

This is chiefly what compelled Thomas Long to write Accompany Them with Singing: The Christian Funeral. He states his purpose: “to provide a reliable guide for pastors and priests who preside at funerals today [and], in doing so, to describe the Christian funeral, its history, theology, structure, content, and practical feature; and to explore the tensions and possibilities of the Christian understanding of funerals in a contemporary culture that often holds radically opposed ideas about the meaning of death” (xiii). Long wants to identify what a good funeral looks like. 

What Long does not do to accomplish his goal is make sweeping claims that how one church body conducts funerals is the only right way of doing things. Instead, he appeals to a wide variety of practices throughout Christendom and history to suggest practices which he deems to be wise, all while understanding that each church, community, and clergy will need to choose whatever is best for the specific circumstances of each funeral in which they participate. Above all else, Long wants funerals to be done well so that the gospel will be proclaimed as fully and clearly as possible through the funeral’s words, actions, and surroundings. 

Long establishes that a funeral is nothing more than another milestone along the baptismal journey of a saint—a term Long uses in the biblical sense—who is moving from “here” to “there” (16). In fact, Long often refers to the funeral as “essentially a piece of religious drama. It has a script, a plot, actors, and a stage on which it is performed” (77). He also encourages movement—carrying the deceased from home to church to tomb—over stationary sitting. One could even argue that there are certain costumes that the actors—all participants, including the deceased—are expected to wear. While this might sound like a crude way to refer to a worship service, the idea tracks well with common liturgical practice. Long later explains, “When we recognize that all funerals are, in one way or another, a form of ritual drama, the significant question becomes…does the drama tell the gospel truth, or does it convey some other version of reality?” (84). If the gospel is at the center of each facet, then everything else ought to fall into place. “Good funerals, in fact, do all these things—console the grief-stricken, remember and honor the deceased, display community care, and give thanks for all the joys and graces experienced in the life of the one who has died. But these are some of the consequences of a good funeral, not its central meaning or purpose” (78).  

He uses this gospel framework to fill in the details of the funeral service, assessing whether certain well-meaning practices have aided in the proclamation of the good news. For instance, how a deceased body is treated—including whether or not it is present at the funeral—communicates something about the gospel (32); a church provides a place to have a funeral, as opposed to the space provided by a funeral home (130); the actors, no matter how familiar they are with a church’s worship practices, have a meaningful role to play in the dramatic reenactment of the gospel (134). Long’s writing provokes a slew of other pastoral practical questions, along with a list of potential paths forward. 

While just about every reader will find places to disagree with Long’s theology, no one will be able to question his concern for the proclamation of the gospel. Long also displays a compassionate heart for those who are grieving, as well as for pastors who are on the front lines and working with those who are grieving. In concern for the gospel, he urges pastors to take on a firmer role in planning the particulars of the funeral. “No pastor, out of a well-intentioned but ill-advised desire just to serve people where they are, should assume the posture, ‘Whatever you’d like at the funeral, whatever would be meaningful to you, will be fine.’ Pastors have a responsibility to help people in a season of loss receive not merely those things that they, in a terrible crush of mourning, most think they need, but the very best gifts and the most grace-filled vision the gospel has to offer” (145). 

To that end, he provides a refreshingly familiar outline for what he views as a good funeral, complete with eight key purposes which that funeral—and its accompanying sermon, should there be one—ought to achieve (kerygmatic, oblational, ecclesial, therapeutic, eucharistic, missional, commemorative, and educational). Those outlines alone provide plenty of material for meaningful analysis of one’s own customs and preaching at funerals. His specific encouragement for funeral sermons is a good reminder for any preacher at any stage of ministry: “They are proclamations of what the gospel has to say about these people walking along this path carrying the body of this brother or sister in sorrow over this loss and in joyful hope of the resurrection” (emphasis original, 187).  

Thomas Long is not Lutheran, but his passion for the gospel is both familiar and refreshing. I recommend Accompany Them with Singing to any pastor who wants to view the Christian funeral from a different perspective, which will help him think more clearly and carefully about practical issues: how he conducts a funeral, works with the grieving, and proclaims the gospel in general. Though this is not the main purpose of the book, Long also provides a thorough historical overview of funeral practices around the world and in various current church bodies. Should a pastor be interested in learning more about the formation of the modern funeral service, this book would fit the bill.