Faded Flowers: Preaching in the Aftermath of Suicide

Faded Flowers navigates the intersection between suicide and the response of the church

Preparing for the Lenten season in 2009, pastor Jason Coker carefully crafted a sermon series on the Christian response to pain. When a beloved young man from his congregation died by suicide shortly after Lent began, Coker, his church, and their community were suddenly sharing a very real journey through overwhelming pain and grief. Using the lens of Coker's 2009 Lenten sermon series, Faded Flowers navigates the intersection of their church-wide trauma and the theology surrounding such pain. Coker also pairs the sermons with current reflections informed by a decade of recovery and growth, and the result is a moving story of how a pastor and a church loved, suffered, and moved toward healing.

The Rev. Dr. K. Jason Coker is the national director of Together for Hope, the rural development coalition of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. He is also the Field Coordinator for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Mississippi. After nearly two decades of life and ministry in Connecticut, Coker returned to his home state of Mississippi to work for peace and justice in areas of persistent rural poverty. The lessons of human compassion and equality he learned as a minister guide his work in poverty relief.

Praise for Faded Flowers:

"In the pages of Faded Flowers, we getto watch a community of faith absorb, together, the grief of an unbearable sorrow, and, in the process, learn better how to be such a community ourselves." -Chuck Poole, Senior Pastor, Northminster Baptist Church, Jackson, Mississippi

"Borne out of his own pain over a friend who took his life, Jason Coker offers hard-won pastoral wisdom for those who must walk through this particular valley. These reflective sermons are far from theoretical abstractions about pain and suffering; rather, they are deeply theological as he contemplates both the divine and human agency that interplay in every such event. Naming the brutal reality of suicide in church offers a way forward, even redemption." -Molly Marshall, Retired President, Central Seminary

"In the face of suffering, silence comes first in the healing. But whenwe have to speak into pain, good words are the tools ministers use to shape souls. Jason Coker offers us good words-literally, eulogies or benedictions-that put the heart back into the hurting. Faded Flowers should be on the desk of every pastor as a ready resource for our work." -George A. Mason, Senior Pastor, Wilshire Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas

"There are no easy answers to the kinds of pain Jason Coker confronts in Faded Flowers. While his honest and heartbreaking account is rooted in the experiences of a particular community, his words are relevant for just about anyone facing unimaginable suffering. This is highly recommended reading for clergy and laypeople alike." -Kenneth Townsend, Scholar-in-Residence, Wake Forest University School of Law

"Faded Flowers is a much-needed resource for clergy working with teens and young adults, particularly on the college campus where suicide is the second-most cause of death. Jason Coker's personal account of his experience of a young man's suicide and its impact on the church community is authentic and compelling. Anyone who finds themselves responding to the tragic loss of a young person through suicide will benefit from Coker's insightful sermons and reflections. Furthermore, he offers us a means to face the complexities of the existence of pain through his scholarly work with the Gospel stories of how Jesus embraced pain during his earthly ministry. Faded Flowers is a timely and an important addition to any pastor's library." -Mary Grace Williams, Chaplain of the College/Dean of Community Life, Bard College