WAKE FOREST, NC (ANS) -- After the funeral, people in grief need support and care for weeks and months to come. Pastors are hard-pressed to offer this level of ongoing care alone. That’s why thousands of pastors have turned to GriefShare (http://www.griefshare.org), a tool that makes it easy for church lay people to organize grief support groups.

Jim Witt

Jim Witt, a pastor at First Baptist Church of Garland, TX, has found that offering this lay-led ministry eases his ministry load. “Given the quality of the materials and how easily the lay people are able to use it, my role becomes more supportive than hands-on.”

To run an effective grief program, GriefShare leaders do not need to be counselors or therapists. Their GriefShare kit comes with weekly, 35-minute video seminars featuring respected Christian counselors, pastors and teachers. Local pastors can let Paul Tripp, Jack Hayford, Zig Ziglar, Anne Graham Lotz and over 35 others be the “guest speakers” at their GriefShare groups. After showing the video, the lay leaders facilitate a small group sharing time.

“All I have to do as a facilitator is love the Lord, want to serve Him and want to serve these people who’ve lost a loved one,” explained Elizabeth Rankin of Calvary Chapel San Diego, CA.
 

GriefShare Logo

A news release sent ANS, states, “Pastors don’t need to invest much time starting this ministry or sustaining it. The GriefShare kit comes with easy-to-use training tools for lay leaders. Lay leaders also receive personal ministry help from GriefShare’s full-time consultants. The consultants answer questions and provide guidance via free, daily telephone and email consulting, a moderated online Forum connecting thousands of GriefShare leaders, and live and archived webcasts.”

“So, find two committed lay leaders, and your GriefShare ministry will quickly become a self-sustaining ministry,” explained Steve Grissom, president/founder of Church Initiative, which produced GriefShare.

Pastor Bruce Mawhinney of Wheatland Presbyterian Church, Lancaster, PA, said, “As a pastor, I’ve hardly had to do anything in establishing and operating the ministry.  I’ve just been there as a cheerleader on the sideline.”

About GriefShare

GriefShare, http://www.griefshare.org/startagroup/?pastors, equips over 7,000 churches worldwide with the tools to offer biblically based, grief recovery support groups. GriefShare is a ministry of Church Initiative of Wake Forest, NC.

For further information, contact: Samuel Hodges
Executive Producer, www.churchinitiative.org
1-800-395-5755, x247, shodges@churchinitiative.org

Dan Wooding, 69, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 46 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding also a regular contributor to The Weekend Stand on the Crawford Broadcasting Network, and a host for His Channel Live, which is carried via the Internet to some 192 countries. He is the author of some 43 books. Two of the latest include his autobiography, “From Tabloid to Truth”, which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, press this link. Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, also recently released “God’s Ambassadors in Japan” which is available at amazon.com.