Lucky for us, there is still one thing that can stop the stubborn march of Christmas capitalism: a good, old-fashioned argument about the inherit sinfulness of Halloween. So naturally, we decided to see what your churches are up to this Halloween. Here’s what you had to say:
In a landslide, the majority of you are hosting some sort of Halloween-alternative. 61% of folks that responded are a part of a church that offers a fall festival or some sort of other event for families. If that number holds across the population, then my-oh-my is there going to be a lot of trunk-or-treat this year.
28% of you will be spending your evening in prayer. Two-thirds of those will just be praying that small children dressed as werewolves don’t show up to pillage your candy stash, and the other third will be vigilantly praying for the souls of those who dabble in such vile shenanigans.
It was interesting to see that 12% of respondents are part of churches who are partnering with the local community. You’re pointing the little ghouls, ghosts and goblins to a community-wide end-of-October celebration.
And finally, sadly, none of you are participating in a repent-or-perish hayride. Perhaps these aren’t so common, but I grew up with this one in particular. It was really, well, it just was.
But don’t worry, we’re going to visit Halloween once more this week. This time with a little more fun. Take a second to let us know: What Halloween costume do you want your pastor to show up in on Sunday?
Scott Bloyer
November 1, 2010
We had the people of our church and community come to church dressed up. They were in costume on the stage and in the children’s ministry we had people come because they heard they could come to church in costume. We saw new people get involved.
Michael Buckingham
November 1, 2010
Nicely played Scott…we talk a lot about relevance, and that’s showing that you get it and that you’re real people like everyone else.