Churches Help People in Grief during the Holiday Season and Discover It’s an
Effective Outreach Strategy
Churches are offering GriefShare Surviving the Holidays seminars to help the bereaved in their
communities find practical help to face the tough emotions of the holidays. The total participation
from non-churched people has exceeded expectations.
Wake Forest, NC (PRWEB) November 18, 2009 -- Churches across the nation are hosting GriefShare Surviving
the Holidays. They’re finding it consistently draws people from throughout the community into their churches.
Chevelle Lewis, who led an event at Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Knoxville, TN, said, “Our hope was to
have 20 attend. God blessed us with 78!”
Why are these programs so effective? Dr. Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University who specializes in
religion and culture, says, “In times of death or divorce, people are most likely to reengage in a church.” With a
Surviving the Holidays seminar, churches act as an oasis, providing on-target help when people are hurting the
most. A one-session seminar is a low-risk, low-commitment way for newcomers to step into a church
environment for help. “We had 48 people registered,” said Rev. Jim Bates of Faith Reformed Presbyterian Church
in Quarryville, PA. “A few came from our church congregation. Most of them were from outside in the
community.”
Churches typically hold the lay-led, two-hour, biblically-based seminars in November or December. They begin
with a 40-minute video presentation. The video features short interviews with Christian counselors, authors,
speakers and other people who have faced the holidays after a loved one’s death. Experts interviewed include H.
Norman Wright, Paul Tripp, Sabrina Black, Robert DeVries and Susan Zonnebelt-Smeenge.
After viewing the video, seminar attendees participate in lay-led, small group discussion focused on information
presented in the video and personal grieving experiences. Topics discussed include:
• Is it normal to feel so depressed during the ho