Simon Cox Blog: Three Reasons You Should Go Trick or Treating

Monday, 30 October 2017

Three Reasons You Should Go Trick or Treating

Halloween can be a time to be on mission and build relationships that will deepen throughout the year.

Maybe you’ve been too distracted by the excitement surrounding this year’s 500th anniversary of the Reformation to even notice but newsflash: Halloween is tomorrow.

This holiday has sparked quite a bit of controversy in Christian circles over the years. Halloween, as most know, has a mix of origin stories, some of them Christian, some pagan, and some occult. Its dark history certainly should concern us as believers and factor into our decision regarding how we and our families plan to engage in the festivities on the night of October 31st.

And it’s just that—your family’s decision. My family does not promote holiday myths (as in, our kids did not believe in Santa Claus), but we do participate in trick or treating.

Let me explain why.

To Trick or Not

Many believers feel that they can faithfully don their creative costumes and pumpkin-shaped candy buckets without violating the tenants of their Christian beliefs. Others feel that this holiday’s emphasis on all things spooky and scary, coupled with its complex past, should motivate us to steer clear of any Halloween related events.

For me, the question we really have to answer here is this: As Christians, what does it look like to engage culture in a Christ-like manner?

Paul tells us in Romans 12:2 to never conform to the pattern of this world, because we serve a God who frees us from all its burdens and baggage. But, interestingly enough, Jesus—during a prayer to his Heavenly Father in John 17—acknowledges that “they” (the disciples) are “not of the world” but also adds that he isn’t asking the Father to “take them out of the world.”

So, it looks like even amidst this earth’s real dangers ...