From Fall Festivals to Harvest Festivals, to All Saints Celebrations (where kids dress up as Bible Characters) to Hallow Him, to Trunk or Treat, to Hell Houses (where actors show insights into Hell [supposedly] and the consequences of a sin filled life), churches across America will be offering “alternatives” to Halloween this October 31st.
Two Questions:
1. Is yours intended to give the Christian families of your church something “non-worldly/non-satanic” to do, or is it intended to reach out to the lost who don’t know better?
2. How do you do it?
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cb scott
on Oct 30th, 2008
@ 6:52 am:
Reaching the lost is to be a continual effort which is not to be suspended even on holidays.
What I do on Halloween is go outside and steal little kid’s candy and eat it right front of them. They cry and call me a monster. I say, “Yeah, that’s right kid. And I got yo’ candy.”
That has been my Halloween tradition for years. Works for me.
cb
cb scotts last blog post..IT IS UNWISE TO USE BEVERAGE ALCOHOL
Gary Snowden
on Oct 30th, 2008
@ 7:00 am:
For several years we have been offering “Trunk or Treat” as a safe Halloween alternative and also an outreach into the community. Many of our members will decorate the trunks of their automobiles and pass out candy from these. In addition, our Family Life Center (gymnasium format) is set up with things to amuse the kids (a bounce house, mechanical rides like a hobby horse and a rocket ship, and many booths where the children can compete in simple, age-level appropriate activities to win prizes and candy. The street between our church and the adjoining Methodist church which offers a similar event is blocked off for safety so the kids can pass between the two without risk. Last year we had a world-class artist who is a member offer to take digital photos of the children in their costumes and send these to them. It’s a fun reminder of the evening and also provides us with information for follow-up contacts. We typically have somewhere around 600-700 kids participate in our church which averages close to 600 in total attendance in Sunday School.
Gary Snowdens last blog post..Another Rite of Passage in the Family
Kevin Bussey
on Oct 30th, 2008
@ 10:31 am:
we did Trunk or Treats and Fall Festivals at every church I’ve been too until last year. Then we did a Fall Festival on the Sunday night before Halloween and encouraged our people to give out “Light The Night” tracts with their candy on Halloween. One of our neighbors was excited that I hung out with the neighborhood hayride. We need to be in the world and stop forming our own little clubs. Make Halloween an opportunity to share Jesus.
Kevin Busseys last blog post..I’d laugh if it weren’t so sad…
Kevin Bussey
on Oct 30th, 2008
@ 10:45 am:
BTW,
I took a lot of heat and resigned less than a month later. :)
Kevin Busseys last blog post..I’d laugh if it weren’t so sad…
Michael
on Oct 30th, 2008
@ 10:45 am:
This will be first “Children’s Carnival” at my new church and it has been led by the same lady for several years. I feel like kind of an observer/helper this year and don’t know exactly what will go on. It is actually kind of refreshing. Kind of like the joke about the pastor that cheers for trains. Anyway…
I led my last church to begin a “Fall Festival” and I tried to always emphasize that it was for the community. Yes, it gave us a fun time together as a church family and yes it provided an event for our kids which was safer and less focused on the occult but our primary focus was for the unchurched. We provided an event that was sorely lacking in our extrememly rural community where door to door trick-or-treating was difficult to say the least. This event brought many folks in that were unchurched and we then had an opportunity to share the gospel with them via tracts and casual conversation. We actually added a couple of families whose first contact with the church was through our festival. We publicized heavily in the community, had numerous games, the EXTEREMELY popular cake walk with 60-80 fresh baked “prizes”, photos and door prizes to capture names for follow-up, a non-scary hay ride through the backroads, free food, inflatable kids jump, etc. Our church ran 40-60 in Sunday School but we always had over 220 come to our festivals.
My wife and I usually organized the event and we are no longer there but I am proud that they are still doing some outward focused minstry. I was just told that they are doing a reverse trick-or-treating. Our Wednesday night Children In Action have made up goody bags and are TAKING them to folks in the community door to door. The bags will also contain a tract. The kids will then go to the church for a hot dog roast outside and a few games just for them.