Two weeks ago, Peace held its first “Plan Your Funeral” workshop. Despite the nature of the topic… we had a lot of fun! I presented the worship part of a funeral, Funeral Director Matt Baskerville spoke on the specifics of the funeral, and Regional Gift Planner for the ELCA Tim Urness spoke on leaving gifts for the church when we die. Matt brought up a good point… none of us are going to escape death. It’s going to happen at some point so why not be ready? Well, I practiced what I preached last week and filled out a form that had me list my preferences for my funeral. Then I shared my choices with Jim and encouraged him to do the same thing.
Something I didn’t know but learned from Tim. He said he has three children and asked the question how do you divide things three ways… 33.3%? He solved that for himself by leaving 30% to each child and 10% to the church. He explained that the church has always been there for him and been the “giver” throughout his life. Now he wanted to be the “giver” back to the church. Jim and I have three kids as well. His daughter Megan, my son Shawn, and my daughter Colleen. After we got married five years ago, we planned our estate and wills giving each of them a third… 33.3%. Tim’s suggestion really made sense, so we followed his lead and now have left 10% to the church and 30% to each child. Now we can be the “givers” too!
The choices you make personal but no matter what age you are, it’s not too soon to start thinking about these things. I’d be glad to help in anyway I can.
See you Sunday!