Halloween, Worship, & Mission

“I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world… I do not ask
that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the
truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world,
so I have sent them into the world.” (John 17:11, 15-18)

Two Sides of the Pendulum

I received an email this week from someone wanting to know if The City Church “keeps Halloween.” To be fair, I’m not 100% sure what that phrase means! But it raises a valid question as to why we’re encouraging our church family to “worship by loving our neighbors” well on the weekend of this cultural holiday.

The obvious answer, which must be noted, is that the Great Commission is to love our neighbors, and that obedience to God, and carrying out his mission, is worship. But my answer to the email, and my encouragement to you, City folks, starts with two extremes: on one side of the pendulum, as followers of Jesus, we can reject Halloween, write it off as automatically evil, and create sub-par, Christian alternatives to it, for Christian people to attend. Theologically and philosophically, this approach would be termed “sectarian”: huddling together with others “like us,” ignoring the non-believing co-workers, classmates, neighbors, and friends God puts in our lives, and being more and more “out of the world,” which directly rejects Jesus’ command to be “in it.”

Swinging to the other end, we can fully embrace Halloween, and dive into and support its admittedly-dark overtones, which echo of demons, witchcraft, ancestor worship, and other spiritually-confusing things. The big word for this approach is “syncretism”: for the sake of relevance, being nice, and “non-judgment,” we become less discerning, overly accepting, and in the biblical words, “of the world,” which equally rejects Jesus’ command not to!

Stopping in the Middle

So where does that leave us with Halloween (and for that matter, lots of other areas of life)? The answer is that we seek a balance between pretending Halloween doesn’t exist and embracing it fully; we try to stop the pendulum mid-swing. We accept the fact that it’s a cultural celebration, and if we trust God’s sovereignty and good work in literally “all things” (which God himself claims in Ephesians 1:11), then we understand Halloween to be one of the best opportunities of the year, provided – or at least allowed – by God, to meet, know, love, and bless our neighbors.

Here’s how that plays out: we host Halloween parties, because as followers of Jesus, we have the best reason to celebrate and want others to celebrate too. We take our kids to neighbors houses and meet them (maybe for the first time), and then we can follow up later and invite them into our lives. We buy and give out the best candy on the block, reflecting the generosity Jesus first gave to us. Another article suggests that you go a step further, and grill out in the front yard to provide dinner for those wandering your neighborhood, or that you even invite your neighbors to trick or treat with you and your family.

Bottom Line in our View of Halloween

To conclude, Colossians 1:20 teaches that in Jesus, God is “reconciling to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” All things means all things – even cultural holidays and celebrations! As Jesus’ followers, God “gave us the ministry of reconciliation… entrusting to us the message of reconciliation… Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). So by God’s grace and for his glory, let’s fulfill Jesus’ prayer this Halloween weekend, and be sent into the world and seek the true welfare of the people we live near, just as Jesus was first sent to us, to seek ours.

Thoughts? Responses? How will you combine Halloween, Worship, & Mission this weekend?