Gifts for Ministry:
Truett Gannon offers manuals for weddings and funerals Facing their first wedding or funeral makes most new ministers wish they had asked more questions in their practical ministry classes. Because of this universal reaction, Truett Gannon always gives his classes a gift before their courses end. With a mentor’s affectionate care, he hands out Ministry Manuals for weddings and funerals. What about the ministers who never had the opportunity to take Dr. Gannon’s classes? He now offers his Ministry Manuals online, through the Center for Teaching Churches page on the McAfee website. Dr. Gannon culled his manuals from 49 years of experience as a pastor and fifteen years as a seminary professor. He pastored Smoke Rise Baptist Church, Stone Mountain, GA, First Baptist Church, Eatonton, GA, First Baptist Church, Avondale Estates, GA, and churches in North Carolina and Louisiana. He is now professor emeritus of ministry experience at McAfee School of Theology. As of 2012, Dr. Gannon had performed 1,030 weddings. A unique part of his ministry has been staying in contact with those couples he has married by sending each one a yearly anniversary letter. He continues to mail about 40 anniversary letters to couples each month, a commitment that characterizes his commitment to pastoral care. In his Manual for Funerals, Dr. Gannon writes: “I want you to remember and to believe that funerals are moments through which some of our greatest spiritual ministries can and do take place . . . I want you to become comfortably uncomfortable in this ministry. As grief covered as they are, funerals can give you some of your most memorable ministry moments. Do not be afraid of them. Trust in God; be yourself; give yourself to your people.” The manual gives instruction on all of the details that surround a death and a funeral, from visits to the family to working with a funeral home. It deals primarily “with the minister’s comprehension and apprehension of spiritual responses to grief.” These Ministry Manuals offer encouragement and guidance to new and seasoned ministers. The Center for Teaching Churches is grateful to Truett Gannon for sharing his wisdom. The Center also thanks Katye Parker Snipes who compiled the material in these manuals.
Access Dr. Gannon’s Ministry Manuals here: ctc.mercer.edu/ministry-manuals
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