Helping Those Who Grieve - Beaulieu, JOFMM Spring 2004

There seems to be a growing number of church-based or spiritually-
oriented grief and trauma related counseling “ministries.”
Increasingly, church members are coming to pastors and leaders in
the church for assessments on them. Some people simply become
involved without knowing much, if anything, about the theological
or philosophical background of these services. “Surely if it is sponsored
by a church and is ‘Christian,’ then it must be biblical and
good!” Sometimes this is the case, but many times it is not.
Recently a parishioner came to me with material from a training
seminar on helping those who grieve. He had attended this seminar
at a sister church in our area where the pastor had wholeheartedly
endorsed the program. Further, the training material was
developed and conducted by representatives from another major
denomination. Yet, with a little research and careful reading of the
material, it became clear that major unbiblical presuppositions
served as supports for the theology and methodologies associated
with this approach for dealing with grief.