Young Texas pastor remembered for emphasis on grace, joy amid suffering: 'Grown-up theology'
Family and friends gathered Wednesday to pay their respects and mourn the loss of a Texas pastor who died in his sleep last week at age 44.
Pastor Bryan Dunagan, who served nine years as senior pastor of Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, died of natural causes last Thursday during the early morning hours, according to a public statement from the church, which first informed the congregation via email.
"I want to give you permission to cry," Executive Pastor Jay Lee opened the service by saying. "It's OK for the streams of tears to come down because that's how the Lord brings about healing and wholeness to us."
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"But I also want to remind us that whenever we gather in a place like this, a place of worship, our sadness takes on a whole different meaning because, as a Christian, we gather in the midst of hope, hope that comes from the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus."
Dunagan's wife, Ali, eulogized her husband by noting his emphasis on the grace of God in all areas of his life.
"More than anyone I've ever known, Bryan understood this beautiful tension between grace and truth, but grace always came first," she said.
"Grace says, 'You are loved no matter what you do.' Grace says, 'Stop striving and rest in my love for you.' Grace says, 'I am running after you, as a good father runs after his lost child.' Grace says, 'Come to me all you who are weary, who are questioning, who are angry, who are sad, who are confused. Come sit with me, let me hold you. Let me take this burden from you.'"
She played a clip from one of her husband's sermons in which he taught that while God often does not answer the question of why good people suffer or why there is so much evil and pain in the world, He offers to suffer with them.
"We ask God 'Why?" and His answer is 'With,'" Dunagan preached. "He gives us a new word: with. 'I am with you in this storm, in your pain. I will never leave you, never forsake you. I will be with you.'"
Dunagan said that even Jesus on the cross asked God, "Why?"
"Do you see that God takes our suffering so seriously that He was willing to take it on himself so that we can say with Karl Barth, that 'God would rather be the suffering God of a suffering people than the blessed God of an unblessed people?' And this is good news for those of us who face the storm," he said.
Friends from Dunagan's school days also eulogized him, noting his fun-loving but God-fearing personality, as well as his profound love for his wife and three children.
Pastor Mark Davis, who serves as senior pastor at neighboring Park Cities Presbyterian Church, delivered the sermon based on a passage from the Book of Revelation.
Shortly before his death, Davis said he recorded a podcast with Dunagan about the painful limitations God places even on those who endeavor to serve him.
"One of the things that made him a great pastor is that he allowed you to ask hard questions, like the ones you must be asking now," Davis told the congregation. "He taught you to have permission to ask the 'why.' But as you've already heard, he always kept you anchored in the 'who' with Him."
Despite his relative youth, Davis said Dunagan understood the "grown-up theology" of maintaining joy and resting in God's grace even amid grief and suffering.
"In Revelation 5, the two primary and loudest sounds are weeping and worship," Davis said. "Today, we come to weep with you, we come to worship, and our weeping even is worship."
Davis added that Dunagan and all pastors are tempted to carry "burdens they were never meant to carry," which causes them to "weep often," but he noted that Dunagan "is weeping no more."
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
