Is there a more polarizing holiday among Christians than Halloween? I doubt it. The variance of views and opinions are all over the road. Then there are those that really aren’t sure what to think about or do with Halloween. With that in mind, I’ve collected a number of posts over the past couple of days that have been helpful to me in how I think about, teach about, and engage in the second highest-grossing commercial holiday after Christmas.
What Christians Should Know about Halloween by Justin Holcomb
Among all the festivals which we celebrate today, few have histories stranger than that of Halloween. It is the eve of All Hallows—or Hallowmas or All Saints’ Day—and as such it is one of the most solemn festivals of the church. At the same time, it commemorates beings and rites with which the church has always been at war. It is the night when ghosts walk and fairies and goblins are abroad… We cannot understand this curious mixture unless we go back into history and unravel the threads from which the present holiday pattern has been woven.
On Mission this Halloween by Jeff Vanderstelt
Monday offers a great opportunity for many to engage in new relationships with those around us or to revisit some old relationships with new missional intentionality. Regardless of what you think of the holiday and it’s roots, the culture we have been sent by Jesus to reach is going to celebrate Halloween this Monday. We all have in front of us a wide open door for missionary engagement in our neighborhoods.
Sent into the Harvest: Halloween on Mission by David Mathis
What if thinking evangelistically about Halloween didn’t mean just dropping tracts into children’s bags, but the good candy—and seeing the evening as an opportunity to cultivate relationships with the unbelieving as part of an ongoing process in which we plainly identify with Jesus, get to know them well, and personally speak the good news of our Savior into their lives?
