“I love Halloween.”
“I don’t celebrate Halloween.”
These are two common responses in the Christian community when the topic of Halloween comes up. Each individual or family makes a personal decision on how they will handle the holiday. Because of its origins and associations, the question arises how we as followers of Jesus should navigate the day and the events surrounding it. Should my kids go door to door dressed up, asking for candy? Should I decorate my house? Does doing either of these things mean that I am okay with everything surrounding the holiday? These are questions for each Christian family to work through.
Regardless of where you land as you wrestle with these questions, we at College Park have decided to create a safe place for those in the community to bring their families at Halloween. Trunk or Treat creates an opportunity for us to tangibly love and build relationships with our neighbors through decorated cars, costumes, and candy.
So Why Do We Trunk or Treat?
In Colossians 4:5-6, we see the exhortation to make the best use of our time, walking in wisdom toward outsiders, and to have our conversation be “seasoned with salt.” We can live this out in our individual relationships and corporately as a church community in the ways we intentionally engage the surrounding community.
Just as candy leaves a sweet taste in your mouth, the church should leave a lasting sweetness in the lives of those around us.
Trunk or Treat is a tangible way for us to love our community. Our church building becomes the center of intentional and winsome contact with people who would not otherwise darken the door of a church. It becomes a place of trust-building in a world that has lost sight of why it should ever care about what Christians think. We use Trunk or Treat as an opportunity to leave a sweet taste in the lives of people in the hopes that one day they will come back again to hear more about the amazing love of Jesus.
While some people are ready to pop into church on a Sunday morning, others are not. Just as Jesus’s shepherd’s heart beats for the lost sheep and he leaves the 99 to find the 1, his church should be looking for ways to reach out to the lost so that they might be drawn to take a step closer to Jesus.
There is great biblical precedent for the church to do everything that it can to meet people where they are with the hope of exalting Jesus in the lives of as many people as possible.
- In Acts 17, Paul spoke to the people of Athens in a way that they could understand. He found “unknown gods” who the people worshiped and used them as a way to point people to the one true living God. He also used the culture’s own poets to point them to Jesus.
- In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, Paul says, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.” Here, we see Paul’s urgency to creatively seek ways to remove barriers so that people can encounter Jesus.
The Acts 17 passage, where Paul utilizes cultural symbols and poems to connect with his audience, ends with:
“Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, ‘We will hear you again about this’” (Acts 17:32-34).
Some will attend Trunk or Treat, take some free candy, and leave. Some may even make jokes and mock the church for its efforts. Others may come back on a Sunday morning to hear more . . . and believe. What a sweet opportunity Trunk or Treat is for the church to open its doors to the community to pave the way for inviting them to engage with Jesus.
