No more funerals in church?

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Apryl

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I was talking to a woman yesterday that said her pastor doesn’t allow them to have funerals in the church any more. They use the ‘old’ church and then have the meal afterwards (repass) in a social hall or a banquet hall.

She went on to say that there were many other pastors (Protestant) that did the same. There is one fairly popular one in the area for whom she claims that he has never had a funeral in his church.

The reasoning is that ‘you ain’t supposed to have funerals in the sanctuary’, and her justification is Luke 20 where it says that Jesus is the God of the living, and not the dead.

I pointed out that according to John 3:16, that he who believes is not dead. So, her comments made no sense to me.

“We just got that from the Catholics, but now that we know better, we should do better. We never should have had the funerals in the sanctuary”

She was not one that was very capable of articulating the point, and I was curious if others had heard the same.

I think that the direction to bury our dead (either implicit or explicit) tells us to bury our deceased. The ‘deceased’ are not dead as we believe (or at least hope and pray) that they believed in Christ, and have done what they need to do in order to have life everlasting. We are directed to bury our dead. The funerals are not for the deceased, but the families and loved ones they have left behind.

I couldn’t imagine not having funerals in the church because of something like this.

Does any one else know of this practice, and the reasoning behind it?😊
 
This is so patently absurd that it serves as yet another example of how private interpretation by individuals can so often misfire.
 
I can go one better–my mother’s protestant church will not even allow the building to be used to perform a wedding. Go figure there 🤷
 
I just went to a funeral mass at our parish, the coffin is at the center of the church. 🙂
 
I"m a member of the Church, not a funeral home, ,and I wish to be buried FROM THE CHURCH.
 
water said:
I just went to a funeral mass at our parish, the coffin is at the center of the church. 🙂
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Yes. Catholics have funerals in the church. We don’t change. We don’t waiver

But what about the idea of non-Catholic Christians not using their churches for funerals, because Christ is the God of the living, and not the dead?
 
bpbasilphx said:
I"m a member of the Church, not a funeral home, ,and I wish to be buried FROM THE CHURCH.
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I love this post!! I do not see how having a service in a church is problematic. If the protestant view on the church as just the building where the Body of Christ meets is accurate, then it is a great place for one. After all, could it not be a celebration of one member of the Body going home?
 
I must say that I have never heard such a suggestion made. I know our church regularly has funerals.
 
Apryl said:
I was talking to a woman yesterday that said her pastor doesn’t allow them to have funerals in the church any more. They use the ‘old’ church and then have the meal afterwards (repass) in a social hall or a banquet hall.

She went on to say that there were many other pastors (Protestant) that did the same. There is one fairly popular one in the area for whom she claims that he has never had a funeral in his church.

The reasoning is that ‘you ain’t supposed to have funerals in the sanctuary’, and her justification is Luke 20 where it says that Jesus is the God of the living, and not the dead.

I pointed out that according to John 3:16, that he who believes is not dead. So, her comments made no sense to me.

“We just got that from the Catholics, but now that we know better, we should do better. We never should have had the funerals in the sanctuary”

She was not one that was very capable of articulating the point, and I was curious if others had heard the same.

I think that the direction to bury our dead (either implicit or explicit) tells us to bury our deceased. The ‘deceased’ are not dead as we believe (or at least hope and pray) that they believed in Christ, and have done what they need to do in order to have life everlasting. We are directed to bury our dead. The funerals are not for the deceased, but the families and loved ones they have left behind.

I couldn’t imagine not having funerals in the church because of something like this.

Does any one else know of this practice, and the reasoning behind it?😊
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That is bizarre, and I have never heard of it. However, I can see the reasoning. Funerals are very awkward for fundamentalists, because from their perspective if the dead person did not show signs of being a “true Christian” as they define it, the person is in hell. To a fundamentalist, the only legitimate approach to a funeral is to “preach the Gospel,” which in their definition means to urge those present to accept Jesus before it’s too late, sometimes with the implication that the dead person is in hell and the people present should try to avoid such an awful fate. Naturally, this does not sit well with relatives of the deceased–either to be told that they need to repent in order to join the dear departed, or that the dear departed didn’t make it. Of course, the church could refuse to hold funerals for anyone except someone they believed to be a true believer, but that would raise problems of its own, and would still leave them with the responsibility of preaching to unconverted relatives of the deceased believer.

Weddings present other problems, and not just for fundamentalists–people often want to be married in Church without taking on the responsibilities of being a Christian.

So I can see where a fundamentalist church might get this idea, even though I think it’s the wrong approach, and the theological argument cited in the OP is just plain appalling.

Edwin
 
I know a number of Protestant churches don’t hold funerals in the sanctuary, but I’ve never heard their reasons. It was very interesting to hear her reasoning, but her reasoning is very flawed, nonetheless.
 
Contarini said:
Weddings present other problems, and not just for fundamentalists–people often want to be married in Church without taking on the responsibilities of being a Christian.

So I can see where a fundamentalist church might get this idea, even though I think it’s the wrong approach, and the theological argument cited in the OP is just plain appalling.
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You got a good point there: Weddings! Esp when the Bride and Groom have been Romantic Roommates, and probably even have children present!! I don’t know what we should do in those situations. I haven’t been exposed to many like that. Still, it’s a delimna, and I think just as tragic as the funeral for the unrepentent lapsed Catholic.

I was just stunned. This woman’s argument against church funerals seemed to be steeped in ‘Catholics taught us that, so we shouldn’t do it’. Again, this woman had a hard time explaining anything she said, and there was no one in the room that seemed to have heard of her points, even if they were from the same type of church.
 
There might not be much demand to have them there. Some protestant churches I’ve been in recently either look like they’re set up for a rock concert, or they are featureless empty halls. Some of them only have praise bands now as well and wouldn’t really be able to “do” solemn. Most people probably would rather have them at a tastefully decorated funeral home that can at least play canned music suitable to the occasion.

I imagine weddings have similar problems. People want their wedding to look beautiful. They’d rather have it outside or rent out one of the liturgical churches than hold it in an empty hall.
 
Apryl said:
I was just stunned. This woman’s argument against church funerals seemed to be steeped in ‘Catholics taught us that, so we shouldn’t do it’.
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Thomas Howard said, “If we do not kneel simply because our enemy Christians kneel, then we have taken protesting to a rather dismal end.” Or something to that effect. If anyone has the exact quote, please post it.

But yeah, that argument can lead to trouble. By that argument, Protestants shouldn’t read the Bible in church, because Catholics do that!
 
SE Georgia here.
I have never heard of a church refusing to hold a funeral in the sanctuary. But then, seems like, around here, most funerals are held at the funeral home.
This seems to be the new accepted norm.
Probably to save time and money, as the funeral home charges for the transport. So, the memorial service at the funeral home chapel, and then on to the cemetary, with closing prayers.
But to refuse? Craziness, and I grew up in a southern baptist church.
The refusal of weddings? Hold on while TC2 picks herself up off the floor, where she has fallen in shock. Madness, plain and simple. (of course, most of these folks make everything anything but plain and simple)
 
Intrigued by this question, I posted the same query on an anti-Catholic evangelical forum. These are the responses I’ve received. I’m kinda sad now. 😦
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Ric:
A body is nothing but an empty shell, so I don’t understand your question.
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and
Bob Carabbio:
Never personally ran into one of these personally. All the Assembly of God churches I’ve been part of over the last 46 years have held funeral services in the sanctuary WHEN the family wanted it.

It’s totally unimportant to me one way or another. The typical funeral home is set up to process 'em, box 'em, and plant 'em effeciently and will all due pagentry, and they have to process 'em and Box 'em anyway - so nothing gained by hauling the Body to an intermediate destination on the way to the graveyard.

It’s the people who ATTEND the funeral (if they’re Christians) that ARE “the church” - so why shouldn’t the church go to the funeral home, and thence to the gravesite.

The church building is only the church when the people are there. any other time it’s just an empty building.
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Processed, Boxed and Planted? eek. 🤷
 
Practically every funeral I have ever been to has been in church with the coffin in the middle, in front of the altar. Sometimes, though, I’ve been to protestant ones where a slight ceremony is given at the funeral home before the coffin is taken to the cemetary without a stop-over to a church.

In very rural parishes, after taking the coffin to the cemetary, people will come back to the church for a luncheon. Most of the time, however, they will go to the relation’s home for this.

The Church teaches that burying the dead is one of the corporal works of mercy, and that the body is to be approached with dignity as befits its role in one’s life. Having a Mass with the body present is the Church’s acknowledgement of “Well done, good and faithful servant!”
 
valient_Lucy said:
Thomas Howard said, “If we do not kneel simply because our enemy Christians kneel, then we have taken protesting to a rather dismal end.” Or something to that effect. If anyone has the exact quote, please post it.

But yeah, that argument can lead to trouble. By that argument, Protestants shouldn’t read the Bible in church, because Catholics do that!
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“If in any church the sitting position exists only as a protest against kneeling because enemy Christians kneel, then what we have is protest carried to its most dismal and barren end.”
 
Originally Posted by :

*It’s the people who ATTEND the funeral (if they’re Christians) that ARE “the church” - so why shouldn’t the church go to the funeral home, and thence to the gravesite.

The church building is only the church when the people are there. any other time it’s just an empty building.*

So, those who have died in Christ are no longer members of “the church”. Yeah, right.🤷
 
To say that the Body is just an “empty shell” is close enough to gnosticism as to make no difference.

At any rate, such a view is unchristian since we confess the resurrection of the body; the actual body, the same body that was laid in the grave is raised up glorified.
 
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