Cheryl Bacon and Eddie Sharp, “Churches in Grief: Help for Leaders When Churches Face Loss”

Churches are grieving. Beyond the ever-present sorrows of lost loved ones, lost jobs and family struggles, churches are grieving new losses brought about by a pandemic and by seismic cultural and demographic shifts that have polarized family and fellowship: loss of members, loss of loved traditions and places. Drawing on their 2018 book, Comfort when the Shadow Falls, and on Cheryl’s recent series for The Christian Chronicle, “Where Have All the Churches Gone?” the pair will examine strategies of grief response for church leaders, giving particular attention to the function of anxiety in church and family systems.