a couple weeks ago at my church, a lady told us about our church's halloween event while she was giving announcements. and then she said this... "halloween is on a monday this year, so we are going to do our event on sunday so you can be in your communities on monday. we think that's important." i wanted to stand up and clap or something. i've never heard that from the pulpit. usually the church events are meant to be in place of other halloween activities and to purposely get you away from them, for the people who feel uncomfortable by them (and maybe to get new people to come to church). i guess i don't have a super big problem with that, it's fine. but i don't know, i think it's missing a big opportunity.
yesterday i asked an older lady who i work with about what she is doing for halloween and she said very seriously, "i don't participate. i think it's an evil holiday and i bring my grandkids to church. there's always a fun church event for us to do there." i bet she's a fan of harry potter, too.
i've heard that so many times. here's the thing. i've never actually seen people worshiping satan on halloween. maybe they did it at home and then came out to trick-or-treat, i could be wrong here. but PEOPLE. come on! hand out candy to the cute five-year-olds dressed as elsa, for heaven's sake. don't be that one house that's dark in protest, and don't be that person who hands out tracts or toothbrushes. meet a new neighbor you wouldn't otherwise see or tell that little toddler that you love her bumble bee costume (oh my gosh, i love that). i think halloween is a big opportunity to be in your community and engage with people. to be the incarnational presence of Jesus in your neighborhood, instead of at church where all the other christians are.
don't get me wrong, halloween itself is kind of dumb and i'm not like a huge fanatic of the holiday. and i'm sure somewhere there are people out there who do terrible things on halloween or maybe even worship satan. but isn't that kind of true every day? and we don't run to church because people might be doing bad things every day, do we? i just think this could be a really cool opportunity for us, as followers of Jesus.
you can disagree with me! i love learning different perspectives. what do you guys think?
yesterday i asked an older lady who i work with about what she is doing for halloween and she said very seriously, "i don't participate. i think it's an evil holiday and i bring my grandkids to church. there's always a fun church event for us to do there." i bet she's a fan of harry potter, too.
i've heard that so many times. here's the thing. i've never actually seen people worshiping satan on halloween. maybe they did it at home and then came out to trick-or-treat, i could be wrong here. but PEOPLE. come on! hand out candy to the cute five-year-olds dressed as elsa, for heaven's sake. don't be that one house that's dark in protest, and don't be that person who hands out tracts or toothbrushes. meet a new neighbor you wouldn't otherwise see or tell that little toddler that you love her bumble bee costume (oh my gosh, i love that). i think halloween is a big opportunity to be in your community and engage with people. to be the incarnational presence of Jesus in your neighborhood, instead of at church where all the other christians are.
don't get me wrong, halloween itself is kind of dumb and i'm not like a huge fanatic of the holiday. and i'm sure somewhere there are people out there who do terrible things on halloween or maybe even worship satan. but isn't that kind of true every day? and we don't run to church because people might be doing bad things every day, do we? i just think this could be a really cool opportunity for us, as followers of Jesus.
you can disagree with me! i love learning different perspectives. what do you guys think?
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