Three Ways To Share Your Christian Faith At Halloween
Halloween is tricky time of year for Christians.
We know we are supposed to share our Christian faith at Halloween just like any other time of the year. However, as Christians, we also know we are not to condone things that are not honoring to God.
Honestly, the tension and frustration can cause Christians to swing to either extreme.
Crazy Extremes
Some Christians swing to full involvement and endorsement of the holiday to the point where they are not any different than anyone else in the culture in how they celebrate Halloween. Their houses are lit up with the creepiest, most violent displays. A skimpy suggestive costume to the local crazy Halloween costume party? Yes, please! In fact, some Christians can be crazier about the holiday than their unsaved neighbors!
At the other end of the spectrum, you have Christians who simply disappear come Halloween time. Their houses are dark and quiet. They barely whisper the name Halloween for fear of contamination of their souls. At most, they will celebrate the historical beginning of the Reformation. (If you get this reference, you might fall into this category at least a little bit! ) 🙂 You will most likely find them gloating about their lack of involvement with Halloween to their friends during the church’s social hour.
As a Christian, we want to avoid dangerous extremes that are not based in Scripture. (Don’t hear me incorrectly, there are times when God calls to obey Him in ways that are extremely crazy to those outside of the faith.) Yes, we are to avoid all forms of evilness. Let’s realize to most everyone, this is a day to dress their kids up cute so they can get free candy. Other than a serious cause of cavities, Halloween from this angle takes on a more harmless slant.
I am not here to address the deeper roots of Halloween and the Satanic activities that DO take place on this day. (There are others far more qualified and able to address the big issues than I am!)
What I am here to address are some strategies to share your Christian faith at Halloween when you have cute little kids dressed at pirates, ghosts, and princesses showing up at your door. Let’s avoid swinging to the extremes and seek to find ways to reach the young families who will literally be knocking on your door this year!
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Be The Great House
If you have ever gone trick or treating, you know that there are some houses every kid wants to go to. Why? They are a GREAT house! Why? They have the best candy!
Seriously, who wants to get a single piece of blah candy? Or worse, no candy at all! Maybe you give out raisin boxes and floss in which case you are begging to get your house TPed. No joke.
Think about it, as a kid dressed in a cute costume, all you want is good candy. You are willing to walk a few extra blocks to go back to the same house every year because they are a GREAT house!
To be honest, I had no idea how true this was until last year when we went trick or treating with our oldest child for the first time. We visited several houses, most of them belonging to members of our church and let me tell you, they were GREAT houses!
One dear lady had full sized milk-chocolate Hersey’s bars to hand out. You should have seen the look on our daughter’s face. The candy bar looked bigger than life to her and definitely left a positive impression!
Another GREAT house we visited handed out children’s books along with the candy. Throughout the year, the family buys good quality books from local garage sales and the library book sale, then come Halloween night they let kids pick from huge baskets of books. Best of all, most all the books they hand out tell Bible stories! (And they gave out great candy too which made them a favorite house for several blocks around!)
Other outreach items to hand out could include:
Get creative and think of ways that you can be the great house in your neighborhood! Bonus points for not being the target of getting TPed! 🙂
Create A Safe Environment
As a parent, Halloween is a scary for another reason besides all the creepy decor. We are reminded to try to walk before dark and wear reflective clothes so drivers can see all the small children running around. In addition to watching for traffic, we have to be careful and aware of our surroundings at each door, especially of homes we don’t know. Finally, when we get home, we have to check all our kid’s candy for tampering to make sure that no one did something bad to their candy or slipped them something besides candy.
It really is quite terrifying. Which is why creating a safe environment for kids and their families can be an outreach in and of itself!
At your home, be sure to have the walkways well lit. Make sure that you are only handing out individually wrapped store bought candy that parents can see has not be tampered with! Don’t wear costumes that require masks when answering your door. Parents will appreciate being able to see the face of the person giving their child candy!
On a larger scale, see if local churches are hosting Trunk or Treat events or Hallelujah Nights or some other Halloween alternative that is safe for kids while still letting them dress up for candy.
As a parent, it can be so much easier to take your child to one single place, let them play fun games, win candy and other small prizes, and avoid the craziness of door-to-door trick-or-treating.
If there is such an event in your area, seek to find ways to be involved whether by volunteering to help or by providing supplies to make it happen. If there is not such an event in your area, prayerfully consider if God would like you to be the one to coordinate such an opportunity to reach out to local young families looking for a safe, fun Halloween!
Offer Bite-Sized Truth For Kids
Finally, the most important part of Halloween that will set us apart from how others celebrate is the fact that we will infuse our actions with intentional sharing of God’s love and truth.
You will have to find what works best for you but some suggestions I would like to leave with you include sharing a Gospel tract with each of your Halloween treats. Here are some great options available from Amazon!
Another option is to include a Bible verse on each candy bar you hand out. Hop over to Etsy and grab these quick easy printable Bible verse tags!
Also, consider including a flyer promoting a local church’s Awana or Sunday School times. Let them know that there is a community of believers who would love to have them join. In the moment of receiving the candy, the flyer will probably be ignored but a day or two later when a kid is bored and done with Halloween, you might be surprised how many of them will check out the flyer!
Your Turn
Navigating the tricky waters of Halloween can be challenging but it can also be rewarding! Don’t let this particular season scare you away from reaching out to the lost in your community!
-How are about you? Do you find yourself leaning to extremes of embracing or shunning the Halloween celebrations?
-Have you ever considered letting God use you to share His love to others during this time of year?
If you have some ideas that you and your family have implemented to share your faith, would you please leave a comment sharing about it?
I would love to hear your ideas too! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
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