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With the aging U.S. population, there are millions who are deciding about where to live and die in later life. Today’s Conversation focuses on how to care for the dying — particularly through the lens of hospice care.

Little Hospice is Minnesota’s longest serving residential hospice, and has served about 4,000 people at the end of their lives. In this podcast, you’ll hear Bob Solheim, director of Little Hospice, and Leith Anderson, NAE president, discuss:

  • What emotions and issues people commonly need to deal with at the end of their lives;
  • What Christians should say — or not say — to non-believing loved ones who will die soon;
  • How Christians should think about pain; and
  • What pastors and churches can do to care for those nearing the end of their earthly lives.

Read a Portion of the Transcript

Leith: What are the unhelpful things? What should family members — or churches or pastors — what should we not do?

Read more

Bob: Well, the first thing is I would never tell my loved one, “I don’t know how we’ll make it without you.” I wouldn’t put that burden on them. And I wouldn’t talk about the cost of their end of life care, and yet we hear this happening. And I wouldn’t tell them that if they don’t accept Christ that they will go to hell. There’s a lot of discussion that can be had around that, but I’ve come to believe that’s up to Christ, not us. Salvation is not in my hands, it’s in Jesus’, and I’m going to leave it to him with prayer. I wouldn’t talk about going to Hawaii next fall or tell them how exhausted you are. These are all some things that we hear. And certainly not to say anything that would make them feel like any kind of a burden in any way. I think that’s really important.

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Today’s Conversation is brought to you by Belhaven University.

 

 

 

Bob Solheim co-founded Little Hospice in 1996 in memory of his friend, Newton C. Little, and currently serves as its director. Prior to Little Hospice, he was a court reporter, manager of a life insurance company, president of several personal injury claims companies and director of Northern Technical School of Business. He holds degrees from the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota School of Business.
Leith Anderson is president emeritus of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor emeritus of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. He served as NAE president from 2007-2019, after twice serving as interim president. He served as senior pastor of Wooddale Church for 35 years before retiring in 2011. He has been published in many periodicals and has written over 20 books. Anderson has a Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary, and is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute, Bradley University and Denver Seminary.