Church cemetaries

Like many small churches, the church where I served as pastor had a cemetary behind it. Some of the stones marked the remains of persons who had been buried there since the 1800's. There were family plots containing the remains of fathers, mothers, and children. Many of the stones merely contained the names and dates of birth and death while others told stories. Of course, the stories were incomplete, and I never read the more interesting stones without wondering about how interesting the entire story may have been. I occasionally would walk out in the cemetary and read the stones and wonder about the lives of the people who were buried there. I often thought about what it would be like to preach some Sunday using one of the headstones as a pulpit. Talk about an object lesson for a sermon on eternity.


I see some churches where the cemetaries have grown so large that they are no longer behind the church but now surround the church. I'm thinking of one church where you walk among the stones to get to the church's front door. The cemetary is symbolic of the church itself. It is a dying church surrounded by the momuments of those who have died before.


New churches are being built now that will never have a cemetary on its property. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I recently read an interesting comment on that very question that I want to share with my readers at http://www.bpnews.net/BPFirstPerson.asp?ID=27690.