Halloween: Problem or Possibility?

Wow, it’s Friday all ready!  This week seems to have flown by for me.  Say, with Halloween coming up on Monday I thought I’d share a few thoughts with you…

Over the years we always had a big carnival type event for the kids, their families and the congregation at our church on Halloween.  We called it Hallelujah Night and made it the biggest all church event of the year.  It didn’t really matter if you had kids, grandkids or not.  Everybody wanted to be a part of the excitement and I always made sure that we had a large enough variety of events that would keep all the age spans interested and involved. 

One year, similar to the current holiday, Halloween fell on a Monday, so I decided to try something different.  Taking into account the helpers time restraints in consideration with all the work that it took to prepare the multipurpose room, and with a secret desire to spend one Halloween at home to enjoy with our kids and our neighborhood, I scheduled the party for Sunday instead of on Halloween itself.  Once the advertising came out I immediately received some opposition from a small but vocal contingent of parents in the church.  The bottom line of their concerns was that they didn’t want to be at home on Halloween night and have to deal with the secular celebration of the event.

After a meeting with the Senior Pastor and the parents, we decided to keep the event on the scheduled Sunday. Well, that year’s extravaganza was a big success and the chosen day actually worked out as a benefit because more families and individual friends invited by church members were able to attend, since the date did not conflict with school or neighborhood events.  We followed this schedule for a few years following the initial change.

The minor conflict that came up with the scheduling of this event caused me to take a good look at what I thought about the whole celebration of Halloween.  Through the years I think I have experienced the full range of sides concerning the celebration of this holiday.  From utterly despising the event due to it’s blatant celebration of the dark, evil occult and demonic activities, to seeing it as another opportunity to demonstrate the truth and the love of God to the children and their families in our neighborhood.

With the changing of demographics in our church congregation, we have not had a Hallelujah Night for a few years now, and my wife and I have been able to stay at home and reach out to our neighborhood.  I have to admit, that I have actually enjoyed being a light in the midst of a dark holiday. (see: Philippians 2:15)  To me it is better to be present and available to minister the love of God to those who unknowingly celebrate without really knowing the truth, instead of condemning the people by my absence.  I don’t want the kids and their parents in my neighborhood to think that I disapprove of them because my home is always the one with the lights out because we don’t celebrate the event with them.  I desire those around me to see that Christians live a full, joyful and meaningful life.

Am I saying that I believe in the celebration of the darkness of the Holiday?  No, I am saying that I believe in people and will use whatever means available to introduce them to the truth of Jesus Christ.  Did my kids dress up on Halloween?  Yes they did, but not as scary characters.  They always wore costumes that were uplifting and happy.  You have to remember that we always had the neighborhood kids playing at and around our house during the week.  To shut them off on Halloween would have sent the wrong message.  Besides, all of these kids knew that we were Christians as well as Children’s Pastors and had come to our church via my wife’s transportation a time or two, so they expected a Christian bent to our celebrations… and enjoyed them as such!  They knew that they were always loved at our home.

What are your thoughts about Halloween?  Do you see it as a problem night or as a night filled with evangelistic possibilities?  I tend to see each piece of candy dropped into the kid’s sacks as a seed for their salvation.  How about you?  Ah… go ahead and buy a couple of bags of candy this weekend and get ready to plant some seeds of love for the kids who knock at your door on Halloween.  Have a great weekend, stay tuned and keep asking yourself… “What seeds am I expecting to plant today?”