43 F
Indianapolis
Friday, March 29, 2024

Pastor specializing in grief to visit Indy

More by this author

Have you or someone you know suffered a recent violent loss? If so, you are not alone. Here in Indianapolis, we have experienced a record-breaking number of deaths due to gun violence, the impacts of which are widespread in terms of police/community relations, residentsā€™ overall feelings of well-being and the effect it has on the family of the deceased.

Rev. Oscar Crear, a preacher with nearly 50 years of experience, is on a mission to help those who are grieving. He will be visiting Indianapolis on Feb. 25 to do a book signing and group grief counseling session.Ā 

Crear currently serves as the pastor of New Tiberian Baptist Church in Chicago, a city that has been plagued with gun violence over the years. Since 2010, he has also served as chapel pastor for a funeral home on the cityā€™s west side. ā€œAs chapel pastor my job is to preach the funerals and work with families that donā€™t have pastors,ā€ he said, adding that most of the nearly 35 eulogies he preaches a year are for people who are victims of violent crime.Ā 

ā€œThe Lord has placed a passion in my heart for the recovery of these families. Everybody wants to stop the violence, but I am on the other end … I want to heal the pain that is caused by the violence.ā€

Through his experience in the industry, he deduced that the different professionals that interact with grieving families werenā€™t as helpful as they could be. At the urging of a friend, he wrote his first book in 2013, Lord Thou Hast been Our Dwelling Place: Pastoral Reflections on Life, Traumatic Death, Funerals and Chronic Grief.Ā 

ā€œWe need to rethink how we deal with these families,ā€ said Crear. ā€œAll of these cities are going through the same thing ā€” itā€™s not just Chicago ā€” but nobody is reaching out to say, ā€˜How do we heal these people?ā€™ When a family hurts, the block is hurting, and then the community hurts, then the city hurts ā€¦ and hurting people hurt people.ā€

His second book, On This Journey, features eight meditations that are designed to walk loved ones through the weeklong funeral-planning period. The passages cover what to do when you get the call that a loved one has been killed and how to prepare for the day you take clothes to the mortician and pick the gravesite. ā€œEverything that a family goes through that week, there is a meditation for that day based on real-life stories. I interviewed over 100 people,ā€ he said. In On This Journey, Crear shares the story of a mom who lost a child and couldnā€™t sleep in her own bed for several months. ā€œIn order to get to her bedroom, she had to walk past her sonā€™s room, who died, and she couldnā€™t do it. We have families that two, three, four and five years later are still dealing with these issues and (wonder), how do we get past the pain?ā€Ā 

Crear, who is working on another book titled 7 Spirits that Haunt Our Grief, will be signing copies of his second publication on Feb. 25 from 9 a.m.ā€“1 p.m. at Kountry Kitchen, located at 1831 College Ave. At 4 p.m. that same day, he will lead Conversations for Healing, a grief counseling session with 20 families who have experienced violent loss, at Williams and Bluitt Funeral Home.Ā 

ā€œPeople have to realize that everyoneā€™s grief is individual. Black folks donā€™t go to grief counseling. We just donā€™t go. It is my job, my passion … since Muhammad wonā€™t come to the mountain to take the mountain to Muhammad.ā€Ā 

Crear plans to travel the country hosting similar events throughout the year. For more information, call (773) 991-2615.Ā 

Ā 

- Advertisement -
ads:

Upcoming Online Townhalls

- Advertisement -

Subscribe to our newsletter

To be updated with all the latest local news.

Stay connected

1FansLike
1FollowersFollow
1FollowersFollow
1SubscribersSubscribe

Related articles

Popular articles

EspaƱol + Translate Ā»
Skip to content