What is Going on this Halloween

Since I have been part of the church, I have watched a variety of reactions to Halloween. For that matter, I have taken a variety of stances on Halloween. It's that one time of year that so many believers struggle with, and on so many levels. I am intentionally writing this while Halloween is still several weeks away, and in my last blog I posted from Tim Challies on Halloween - I believe he discusses accurately and practically how we should stand. I know that much of this is a conviction issue, but I want to take a moment in this blog to simply share what we are doing at Trinity. Growing up in church, I experienced everything from going out knocking on doors for candy during Halloween, to staying at home and giving out candy, to “Fall Festivals” (which is the Christian way to celebrate it and still get lots of candy). In the past, we at Trinity have had a Fall Festival that has been widely attended, our parking lots filled up and a great time was had by all. But the question we have been asking as leadership is, does our Fall Festival really do anything as far reaching out to our community? I know it gives kids and families a safe place to go, but so do about 40 other churches in our area. I know it gives out safe candy, but in truth, I never met the kid who got the razor blade put in the apple and, for that matter, who in the world gives a kid an apple in the first place?! Hand them one of those wonderful miniature snickers bars! I digress…our desire is for us as a body of Christ not to just offer our community events, but we want to penetrate our community with the gospel of Christ. We feel like this will be best accomplished by having block parties in our neighborhoods. The budget we normally have to spend on everything dealing with our Fall Festival, will be divided for inflatables and other items for each block party. We will still be joining together as a church to bring candy to help each host family, and to train families as they are meeting and reaching people where they live. Why should we waste one of the only times of the year that people are out in their neighborhoods with their family, walking around meeting others. If we are not reaching the people we live around, we are hardly carrying out the Great Commission. So, in short, we are still taking up candy, we are still letting our children have fun, but we are multiplying our efforts to reach more people with gospel. Please be in prayer about this, and find out the closest “party” near you so you and your family can drop by. May God use this in a great way!