Church graveyards are our of fashion for many reasons (the cost of land, etc.), but also for reasons that should give us pause. We live in a culture that idolizes vigor and youth and success. A graveyard is “depressing.”

— Russell Moore (@drmoore) April 20, 2019

A church coffee shop is far more in keeping with the spirit of the age- caffeinate for more energy, more activity, to be more “alive.”

— Russell Moore (@drmoore) April 20, 2019

In a secularizing age, who needs a church for pep and “energy” in an era of neighborhood gyms and social media? Maybe what people need is a church to address what they secretly fear and try to avoid: “I’m going to die. What then?”

— Russell Moore (@drmoore) April 20, 2019

A church with a graveyard, or at least a church deeply reflective on death, is a church that can say to a death-scared culture, “It is appointed to man once to die, and after this comes judgment.”

— Russell Moore (@drmoore) April 20, 2019

And we remind ourselves that what seems so lifeless and inactive now, just a row of plots, will one day be filled with energy, at the sound of a shout and a trumpet sound.

— Russell Moore (@drmoore) April 20, 2019