Should I Celebrate Halloween or Not?

I have to admit I’ve been all over the board on this one in the last 40 years. As a youth pastor in the 1970’s our youth groups had haunted houses and some pretty gory ones at that. In the 1980’s I listened to Mike Warnke talk about how it’s all of Satan and so we stopped participating on any level. I’ve wavered a bit from time to time but for the most part I’ve chosen to stay away from the entire thing.

This year we’re going to do something we haven’t done in a long time…we’re going to pass out candy on October 31^st. I know…some of you are shaking your head and moaning about another Christian whose gone done the satanic path of destruction and wondering if I’m also voting Democratic and cross-dressing. No, I’m not voting Democratic! (Smile)

I’m not really sure what changed this year…I still hate a lot of what happens on October 31^st. I don’t like tombstones in people’s yard with family member’s names on them. You may think that’s funny but when you’ve buried as many people as I have and seen the grief and devastation that death brings in a family, I can’t see joking about it…but that’s just me. I don’t like scaring people…never have…especially when it’s me that gets scared. Blood and gore? I get way too much of that on prime-time TV. Mummies, vampires and zombies bore me…so when it comes to the living dead I’m not easily impressed.

My main problem with the whole notion of Halloween is that this is not the wholesome, encouraging and uplifting kind of thing that Scripture says we ought to be keeping our mind focused on. So if we don’t become preoccupied with the macabre, is there a way to redeem October 31^st for good? As a matter of fact that might be a good place to start. I think in the past I was willing to just give up the day, count it as a loss for God’s Kingdom, a win for satan and move on to November 1^st. This season I started thinking, why give up the day. Every day is the day the Lord has made…right? If it is His, then I should do everything I can to redeem it.

I decided this year I didn’t want to be the guy whose lights are out and who’s hiding in the dark because he doesn’t want to be contaminated by the trick-or-treaters and their scary costumes. How can I be the light if I’m hiding in the dark? This year I decided I want to be the guy who’s handing out GOOD candy… chocolate candy…brand-name candy. The guy everybody wants to go to his house. I want to be the guy who’s sitting out waiting for the parents to bring their kids by and meeting the people in my neighborhood because I never know when God will give me an opportunity to be Jesus to them. This year I’m going to stop hiding and start shining. After all, if Halloween is a day of darkness, it’s not going to get better if all of us Christians run and hide. The darkness is the best place for light to show itself…right?

I’m not trying to talk anybody out of or into anything. You have to do what you’re comfortable with. For a long time I just couldn’t get comfortable with the whole idea. To be truthful, I’m still a little apprehensive…a little nervous. But I’m trying to step out, let my little light shine. I’m not going to dress up this year, except as myself. Maybe next year I’ll be a candlestick or maybe a salt shaker. Yep, I think that’s it…next year I’ll be salt and let Jane be pepper. Keep smiling!

Pastor Rick

Has the Church assumed a “Quick Fix” posture?

Has the Church assumed a “Quick Fix” posture?

     In a word…yes!

     Somewhere along the line, (or perhaps lots of “somewheres”) the Church has moved from understanding the process of following Jesus to misunderstanding it as an (solitary) act of following Him. One is about the fact that following Him is a journey, while the other defines it as an event.

     Evangelical Christianity in particular has reduced the whole of experiencing Christ to a single experience with Him. Having been raised in a conservative Christian home, I was raised to believe in an experience that we called, “being saved.” I still hold to this basic theology but see crossing the line of faith as the beginning of an eternal relationship with Christ, the beginning of a process, not the end. Paul seems to agree with this in Philippians 3:12-14. 

     There are many metaphors in Scripture given to help us understand this relationship. One is the metaphor of marriage. Anyone who believes the marriage ceremony and honeymoon to be the end of the marriage process have either not been married or have most probably not been successfully married. The exchange of vows and consummation of marriage is only the beginning. Every day of marriage is another step in the process of knowing one another on a deeper level, responding with love to the desires of the other and discovering the joy that comes by pleasing the other person.

     Another metaphor which describes “the way” is the maturation process of human beings. Jesus talked about the “birth process” and Paul describes “stages” of maturity (babies who drink milk and more mature believers who eat meat, for example). Babies aren’t born as mature adults, for which birth-giving mothers are thankful, and yet all mothers expect their babies to eventually learn to take care of themselves and become independent adults.

     Defining Christianity as an event rather than a process is problematic for several reasons. One, we set expectations unrealistically high for new believers which frustrates both them and the Church. Two, we remove both the new believer’s motivation to spiritually mature and our responsibility to disciple them. Three, the attrition rate is unsatisfactorily high because those who have come to faith are quickly disillusioned because the trouble-free, prosperous life which was advertised cannot be delivered. But perhaps most troublesome is that defining Christianity in a one-stop, quick-fix, easy answers kind of way, robs those who choose to walk with Jesus the beautiful experience of building a lasting, trusting, and progressive relationship with the Savior. What God desires, after all, is to be in meaningful relationship with His creation…us.

     So the next time you are tempted to simplify the adventure of following Jesus to “a formula and a prayer,” remember this: If that’s all your relationship with Christ consists of, it is most likely a shallow relationship at best and perhaps no relationship at all. Don’t cheat others out of the “bigger-than-life” adventure of getting to know Jesus.