Today is Halloween! Everybody seems to do something different for this holiday. Many folks take their kids trick-or-treating, all dressed up as Hannah Montana, Batman, Peyton Manning, or Sarah Palin. (That's a joke...)
Anyway, it seems alot of churches have taken the stand of being totally against celebrating Halloween by trick-or-treating, and they are instead having Trunk-or-Treat things at their church parking lots. While I applaud the attempts of churches to do cool stuff for kids and their parents, I wonder if there is a better way to love folks at this time of year?
I guess the big question is, how can God work through our culture's celebration of Halloween? (Yes, I know it is a pagan holiday at heart.) How can we represent Christ in such a way as to make the biggest possible positive impression on our neighbors on this night? How can we best take the Gospel to others and allow Christ to shine through us on Halloween? I think that's the most useful question, with the greatest possible result. I believe it's nice to invite people to your church building. But, I think it's always better to hang out with people in their neighborhoods and invite them right up to your front door!
Ryan Mobley of Delta Church in Springfield, Illinois has written a cool article about Halloween in his blog. Ryan is a fellow Acts29 Network pastor, and shares some good, simple wisdom about how God can use us to engage folks with love as Christ's representatives on Halloween.
You may be seeing more links to trusted pastors' blogs in the near future, as Emily and I hope to have a baby here real soon! She is scheduled for an amniocentesis (don't worry, it's a very safe procedure at 38 weeks) on Monday, with a possible C-section on Tuesday. We'll keep you informed and post pics, but for about a little while I may need the backup of other good bloggers while I figure this whole sleeping thing out!
Have a safe and fun night...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment