Halloween: 3 Controversial Things to Celebrate, Avoid, and Redeem

The Battle of Halloween

is second only to the War on Christmas, at least in terms of passionate tweets and boycotts. It seems that Christians get a bad rap for being "against" a lot of things surrounding this holiday. I've already lost count of the number of "Fall Festivals" and "Halloween Alternatives" at local churches on Halloween night. There are certainly negative and dangerous traditions that go along with Halloween, but it's also the single greatest evangelism holiday in America. When else will your neighbors, friends, and total strangers willingly walk up to your door to talk with you? Halloween night is opportunity unlike any other night to share the Gospel and show others what Jesus is like. 

     Assuming that you're not boycotting Halloween altogether (again, think of the Kingdom impact your could have!), you've probably wrestled with how to participate without getting sucked into all the negativity. Here are a few common questions about Halloween, and how you can Celebrate the good, Avoid the bad, and Redeem the traditions in light of the Gospel.

How Can I Help My Kids Pick An Appropriate Costume?

• Celebrate Creativity. Halloween costumes are a prime opportunity to help our kids think outside the box and get creative. We can encourage our kids to make their own costumes instead of buying one off the rack.
• Avoid Halloween Stores. These stores are bad news for a few reasons. 1) They are incredibly expensive and overpriced. Halloween stores are only around for 1-2 months a year, and therefore they mark up their products to astronomical levels in order to make it worthwhile. 2) They celebrate and normalize violence, occultic practices, and sexualization of adults and kids. The vast majority of the products at these pop-up Halloween stores are either explicitly inappropriate or send the wrong message about what is acceptable. ProtectYoungMinds.org has an insightful and helpful article on how sexualized Halloween costumes affect young girls and boys.
• Redeem Costumes of Postive Role Models. A lot of Halloween costumes represent negative (or at least neutral) role models. Kids and adults dress up as villains, specters, and otherwise bad people. We can encourage our kids to dress up as someone they admire and reinforce their positive influence. A role model can be real or fictional, but it should be someone who stands for justice and morality.

Should My Family Go Trick-or-Treating?

• Celebrate Community. Trick-or-Treating is more fun with friends and family. Instead of going alone, ask your kids to invite a friend from school (maybe you could even invite their whole family along too!). Welcome trick-or-treaters to your door with a smile and a compliment on their costume. You can't change how other people celebrate on Halloween night, but you can make your home inviting!
• Avoid Gluttony & Greed. ALL. OF. THE. CANDY. When the kids burst through the door with a bag full of sweets, we can teach them a valuable lesson about self-control by limiting their indulgence. It's ok to enjoy the loot, but we shouldn't get carried away into gluttony and greedy attitudes. Let's teach our kids to share what they have and enjoy it with others.
• Redeem Your Neighborhood Relationships. Like I said before, there is no other night of the year when everyone in your neighborhood willingly walks up to your door to talk with you. We need to find a way to meaningfully connect with the people that come to our door - have the best candy on the block, set up a photo booth for families, or invite the neighbors over for a Halloween party. We can start a conversation on Halloween that will turn into a chance to share the Gospel later.

Are Scary Movies OK for My Kids?

• Celebrate Empathy and Good Defeating Evil. Every channel on TV runs a Halloween special at some point around the 31st. Some of these are outright bad choices (read more below), but some movies give us a chance to teach our kids positive lessons. 1) Feeling empathy for a character who is scared is a good thing. We should encourage our kids to identify how they feel after being frightened and how they can recognize fear in others. Empathy helps us to show compassion to those who are hurt, scared, or alone. 2) When Good defeats Evil, the Gospel is on display. Every human story ultimately reflects the story of God. Sometimes you have to dig, but art almost always portrays a longing for God. When the bad guy is defeated and the hero triumphs, we are reminded in some small way that Jesus has defeated death and evil for good.
• Avoid Glorifying Slasher Violence & Occultic Practices. Violence and evil are a part of our broken world. There's no sense in completely sheltering our kids from negativity. If we're able to guide them through negative experiences with a firm faith and a critical mind, we can prepare our kids to face whatever life throws at them. However, there's not a lot of redemptive qualities in celebrating serial killers, summoning the dead, and glorifying sin. We should avoid these things altogether.
• Redeem Acts of True Bravery. Fear reveals character. Some run from fear and cower. Others face fear head on. During a holiday that celebrates fear, we should celebrate true bravery. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch explains bravery to his son like this: "I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what." We can share stories of when we were afraid and the decisions we made. Whether we acted courageously or cowardly, we can still point to Christ. Jesus knew he was licked before he began, but he climbed up the hill, took the nails, and died in our place. That's true bravery.

Let's take advantage of this amazing chance to live like Jesus and turn Halloween into a Gospel-centered experience.

How We Share the Good News With Your Kids (and others!)

    One of the things we do at COCUSA is partner with parents just like you to help your kids grown spiritually. We love to help parents teach their kids about God through Bible stories, prayer, and devotions. Every Wednesday morning at Camp, we share the Gospel message - the ultimate story of how Jesus rescued us from sin and death. If you've ever wanted to teach your kids about God, but didn't know where to start, here's the 3 short and simple methods we use at Camp for sharing the Good News.

The Wordless Book

     The Wordless Book from Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) uses 5 different colored pages to tell the Gospel story. As you probably guessed, the book doesn't have any words, which makes the Wordless Book a great tool for every age. The first page is Gold which reminds us of heaven and God's glory. Even though we were created to be with God, we are separated from him by our sin. The Dark page reminds us of our sin that keeps us from enjoying happy, eternal life with God. The Red page reminds us of Jesus' blood, which paid the price for our sin. The Clean page reminds us that we are washed clean of our sin through Jesus' death and resurrection. The Green page reminds us that since God has made us new, we are to grow to become more like him. Check out each of the links to see a full explanation of each page along with related Scripture references.

The Bridge to Life

     The Bridge to Life is an evangelism tool developed by the Navigators. This Gospel sharing method is great for sharing the Good News concisely and visually - anyone can draw the picture on a napkin and tell the story in just a couple minutes. We all find ourselves on one side of a canyon. On the other side of the canyone is God, who has peace, forgiveness, and abundant life. We are separated from God because of our sin and rebellion with no hope to ever cross over to God on our own. Jesus death on the cross in our place and his resurrection from the dead serve as a bridge from us to God. Jesus stands in the gap to let us cross over from death to life. Check out the link for a full explanation and illustration of the Bridge.

The Gospel Journey (or Life in 6 Words)

     The Gospel Journey (aka "Life in 6 Words") tells the whole story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. This method uses the word "G.O.S.P.E.L." as an acronym to share the Good News. "G" - God created us to be with him. "O" - our sin separates us from God. "S" - sin cannot be removed by good deeds. "P" - paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. "E" - everone who trusts in Jesus alone has eternal life. "L" - Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever. Lifein6words.com has a great video from hip-hop artists Propoganda that creatively tells the story of the Gospel Journey.

     You can use any of these methods to share the Good News with your kids. You can also adapt each of these Gospel presentations to any age, so use them at the office, with your neighbors, and with anyone you meet.