After the Funeral, Who Stays?
Five Christian ministries helping grieving families find support, community, and hope long after a loved one dies.
When someone dies, churches and communities often respond with meals, flowers, prayers and visits. But eventually the meals stop arriving, friends return to their routines, and grieving families face a different challenge: learning to live with an absence that never goes away.
This week’s Ministries Making a Difference looks at five Christian ministries providing support beyond the immediate aftermath of loss — through practical assistance, grief support groups, peer relationships and ongoing community.
At MinistryWatch, we spend much of our time examining transparency, accountability, stewardship, waste, fraud and abuse. Ministries Making a Difference highlights another part of the picture: ministries doing notable work in their communities and around the world.
photo, ansleysrainbows.org
Ansley’s Rainbows of Hope
When Nancy and Robert Gearhart lost their 4-month-old daughter, Ansley, in 2001, grief disrupted nearly every part of their lives. Nancy, a labor and delivery nurse, struggled to make simple decisions and returned to work months later because her family needed the income. But she could no longer focus on the fetal monitors. She eventually left the job. “I felt like I lived in a black and white world,” she told MinistryWatch. It took six years, she said, before she began to see color again.
In 2014, the Gearharts founded Ansley’s Rainbows of Hope to support families facing pediatric medical crises. The ministry provides practical assistance, prayer, and encouragement, often building relationships that continue long after hospitalization. Initially, the ministry provided financial and practical assistance to families caring for hospitalized children. Now, it plans to expand that support to bereaved families, giving parents time to grieve before facing the pressures of returning to work and managing daily responsibilities.
Gearhart also wants churches to pay closer attention to surviving siblings, whose grief can go unnoticed. Her own sons were 6 and 8 when Ansley died. In her book, “Searching for Rainbows: A Legacy of Hope From a Grieving Mother and Her Family,” Gearhart recounts her family’s loss and the faith that sustained them. For those walking alongside grieving families, her advice is to just be present, without expectations or easy answers. “I would not call you to come over,” she said. “But I wanted you to be with me.”
photo, GriefShare/Facebook
GriefShare
For churches seeking to provide ongoing bereavement care, GriefShare offers a structured, 13-week support program that combines video teaching, small-group discussions and personal reflection. Developed by Church Initiative, a North Carolina-based nonprofit, GriefShare equips local congregations to support people grieving the death of a loved one.
Sessions address loneliness, guilt, anger, anxiety and questions about God that often accompany bereavement. Participants can join a group at any point during the 13-week cycle.
Church Initiative says it serves more than 20,000 churches worldwide through its various programs, which also include DivorceCare and other resources for people experiencing major life crises. Rather than leaving grief care solely to pastors, the program equips lay leaders to help grieving people build relationships and process loss within a Christian community.
Church Initiative has a 2-Star Financial Efficiency Rating, a D Transparency Grade, and a Donor Confidence Score of 51 in the MinistryWatch Database (Exercise Caution).
photo, whilewerewaiting.org
While We’re Waiting
Parents who lose a child often find that even close friends struggle to understand their grief. While We’re Waiting addresses that isolation through free, Bible-based retreats led by parents who have experienced child loss themselves. The ministry offers weekend gatherings for bereaved parents, retreats for parents touched by suicide and separate one-day retreats for grieving mothers and fathers.
Participants share stories about their children, discuss their struggles with faith and connect with others facing similar questions. The ministry acknowledges that well-intended advice and familiar Christian expressions can sometimes deepen a grieving parent’s isolation rather than relieve it. Its retreats encourage parents to consider how they can continue living faithfully while honoring their children and carrying their grief. Gatherings are held across the country at no charge.
photo, thestillrememberedproject.org
The Still Remembered Project
Not every family experiences a funeral or has memories of a child’s life outside the womb. For parents who experience miscarriage, stillbirth or early infant death, grief may be compounded by the difficulty of finding others who recognize their loss. Based near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, The Still Remembered Project provides Christian support through remembrance keepsakes, hospital partnerships, awareness events and peer groups.
Its volunteers assemble memory boxes containing items such as picture frames, journals, ornaments and small keepsakes. The boxes are distributed through hospitals and other care providers. The organization also hosts monthly support meetings for bereaved mothers and events that give families opportunities to remember their children. The ministry says it has served more than 10,000 families in the greater Pittsburgh area over the past decade.
photo, neveralonewidows.com
Never Alone Widows
After losing her husband, a widow may face not only grief but also changes in finances, parenting, friendships and daily responsibilities. Rachel Faulkner Brown was widowed twice by age 31, leaving her with two young children. Her experiences eventually led her to establish Never Alone Widows, an Atlanta-area ministry offering Christian community to women who have lost their spouses.
Founded in 2018, the ministry provides retreats, national gatherings, online resources and local chapters where widows can connect with women who understand their experiences. Some women who previously participated in the ministry’s retreats and programs now lead the groups. Never Alone Widows is an accredited member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, which it joined in 2024.
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