Christian Funeral Program

The usual order of service

Protestant funerals vary from church to church, but nearly all of them follow the same underlying sequence: gather, pray, hear scripture, remember the person, hear the pastor, sing, and be sent out. This is that sequence written the way it appears in a program.

A few notes on the order. The reflections come before the message in most churches, so that the pastor speaks last and the service ends on hope rather than grief. If your church holds an invitation after the message, it is not printed in the program but the pastor will know. The committal and the meal are listed at the foot with a divider, because they are not part of the service in the sanctuary and people need to know where to drive.

For a fuller explanation of each element, how long it takes and what the congregation is doing during it, see the funeral order of service guide.

The program, panel by panel

This is a bi-fold: one sheet of letter paper folded once, giving four panels of 5.5 by 8.5 inches. Copy each panel and replace what is in brackets. Everything named below is invented, including the family, the church and the pastor.

If four panels are not enough, nest a second folded sheet inside the first for an eight-panel booklet. The extra room almost always goes to photographs and a longer life sketch, not to the order of service. The funeral program templates page has the text to start from, and Reposa will set the whole thing, in any of its eight designs, as a print-ready PDF once you have answered a few questions.

What changes by denomination

The differences are smaller than families expect, and they mostly affect what the service is called and how fixed the liturgy is. Ask the church office which name they use on printed material and follow it.

If your church uses a printed liturgy, ask for a copy before you build the program. Matching the headings word for word means the congregation can follow along without flipping between two documents.

Scripture that gets read

These are the passages read at Christian funerals more than any others. They are quoted here in the King James Version, which is free to reprint. If your church uses a different translation, use that one on the program so the printed words match what people hear.

• “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul.”

  Psalm 23:1-3, KJV

  Read at nearly every Christian funeral. Print all six verses if the panel allows.

• “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”

  John 14:1-2, KJV

  The most common New Testament reading. Short enough for a cover verse if you use only the first line.

• “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

  Revelation 21:4, KJV

  Often placed under the photograph rather than read aloud.

• “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”

  2 Timothy 4:7, KJV

  Fits a cover in one line. Chosen most often for someone who lived a long life.

• “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

  Romans 8:38-39, KJV

  A strong closing reading, and a good choice when the death was sudden.

• “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary.”

  Isaiah 40:31, KJV

  Often used for someone who was known for their endurance or their work.

Fifty more, grouped by comfort, hope and resurrection and each short enough to fit a panel, are in Bible verses for funeral programs. If you are printing Psalm 23 in full, the versions side by side are in Psalm 23 for a funeral.

Hymns and music

Two congregational hymns and one solo is the standard shape: one hymn near the beginning, one at the end, and a piece of special music somewhere in the middle. Print titles, not lyrics, unless you have checked the license.

Newer pieces families often choose include How Great Thou Art, Precious Lord Take My Hand, I’ll Fly Away, Because He Lives, On Eagle’s Wings and In Christ Alone. Print the titles only; the words are still in copyright, and reprinting them needs a license your church may already hold. Forty more titles, with first lines so you can identify them without listening to all of them, are in funeral hymns.

Recorded music is fine in most Protestant churches, but check who is running the sound and hand them the file the day before rather than the morning of. If a favorite country or gospel record mattered to the person, it usually works better at the reception, where nobody has to stay quiet for it.

Cover lines and section headings

The cover needs the name, the dates, the church, the day and the time. Everything else is a choice. A single line of scripture under the name is the most common addition and the hardest to get wrong.

For headings inside, keep them plain: Order of Service, Obituary, Reflections, Interment, Acknowledgement. Decorative headings look smaller in print than on screen and are harder for older eyes to read. There are sixty more lines to borrow in funeral program wording.

The back panel

The back panel answers the practical questions and closes the document. Put the interment and the meal first, the thank-you underneath, and the funeral home credit at the very bottom in small type.

The acknowledgement is the hardest paragraph in the program to write, because it is the only part that is the family speaking in its own voice. Three sentences is plenty: thank people for being there, name one specific kindness, and invite them to the meal. Thirty finished versions you can use as they are sit in funeral acknowledgement wording.

If your service is not this one

The order above covers most Protestant funerals in the United States. Several traditions have their own shape, their own names for things, and their own program conventions.

You are allowed to do less than this

Everything on this page is what a Christian funeral program can hold, not what it has to. A folded sheet carrying the name, the dates, the order of service and one photograph is a complete program. It has done its job the moment somebody sitting in the fourth row knows what is happening and when to stand.

If you are running out of time, cut in this order: the second photograph, the honorary pallbearers, the printed obituary, the scripture on the cover. Keep the name, the dates, the order, and where to go afterwards. And if the church office keeps a plain template and offers to run the copies for you, take them up on it. Nobody at that service came for the paper.

One last practical thing. Whatever you write for the program, you will need most of it again for the newspaper notice and the funeral home website, so keep it in one place. Obituary examples has complete versions at the lengths each of those wants.