Redeeming Halloween?
Halloween has come and gone in the blink of an eye and the world has begun preparations for the holiday season.
Photo by: Matt Stevenson
While we are excited to celebrate the birth our Lord and Savior, let’s not forget the fun we had on Hallows Eve.
Yesterday, people celebrated Halloween by dressing up as a favorite character from a fairy tale, their favorite super hero, or something just plain spooky.
Personally, I attended a Halloween House Party involved with my church, which I previously mentioned here on the blog.
Like any good Baptist function, there was food, and lots of it. Our family group decided to have a chili cook-off and what a good decision that turned out to be.
We had a total of seven varieties of chili ranging from white chicken chili, spicy chili, classic chili with a twist and even BBQ chili.
To go along with the chili there were chips, little smokies, cheese balls, corn bread and all the sweets you could eat.
As we ate and fellowshipped inside, we simultaneously passed out candy to the children of the neighborhood, who’s costumes were quite impressive, I might add.
Moore, First Halloween House Party family group costumes. Photo by: Emily Howsden
Of course there were many Star Wars characters from galaxies far, far away on our doorstep. We saw Rey, Chewbacca and even BB8.
There was another impressive robot built completely out of cardboard boxes and some of our favorite Pixar characters as well. The creativity was plentiful!
But what did I enjoy most about this fun-filled evening? Sitting around the table with people I know well and some that I am still getting to know, enjoying the community in which the Lord has placed me.
The Lord tells us to love our neighbors. Sometimes, I agree, it can be a bit of a task. But when we let the Lord into how we love others, the joy that follows is more than rewarding.
At Idabel, Trinity 400 hot dogs and over 350 Gospel tracts were handed out to children at their Trunk or Treat celebration. Photo by: Andrew Riddle
How did other churches celebrate the evening?
Trunk or Treat is a wonderful way to reach the community by simply opening the trunk of your car (usually decorated or following the theme of your costume of choice) and passing out candy.
Several Trunk or Treats across the city had abundantly more families than expected visit their events and for that outreach opportunity we can only thank the Lord.
Jimmy and Karen Kinnaird of OKC, Village shared the gospel with families at Trunk or Treat with their “3 things God cannot do” themed trunk. Photo by: Karen Kinnaird
A colleague of mine celebrated with her husband by decorating their trunk with the theme “Three things God can’t do.”
In their trunk they wrote about what the Lord can do for us as his children, sharing these three truths: God cannot lie, change or let sin into Heaven.
Most people assumed there was nothing God couldn’t do! One child answered, “God can’t give out candy!” I say, it depends on who you ask!
There were many opportunities to explain what sin is and families received a Connect 1 gospel tract.
Whether you did good, old fashioned trick or treating, were able to fellowship with friends and family or got to share the Lord’s love with someone new, I hope you enjoyed yourself as much as I did.
Now…brace yourselves. The holidays are among us.