Halloween and the Church? Ray Comfort Shares a Special Message

My good friend Ray Comfort from Living Waters (a ministry that specializes in evangelism) wrote a special message about Halloween I wanted to share with you all. You might be wondering what Halloween and an evangelism ministry have to do with each other, but there’s a wonderful connection.

Here’s Ray’s message:

The Easy Way to See Explosive Growth of Your Church

There is an often-overlooked biblical way to quickly grow your church. Before we consider this exciting principle, let’s look to the Apostle Paul for a moment.

When Paul was in Athens, he was greatly disturbed because the whole city was full of idols. It seems that that was his reason for going to the synagogues and reasoning with the Jews. But his reasoning didn’t stay with the Jews. Another door opened. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him, asking, “What does this babbler wish to say?” (Acts 17:18). His hearers were so intrigued by what he said, they took him to the Areopagus (a place that thrived on trending news items) and let him speak.

Paul then gave us a lesson on how to reach our hearers with the gospel. In his message, he dropped in two strange quotes:

“‘In him we live and move and have our being.’ As even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring’” (verse 28).

The first quote was from Epimenides the Cretan. Scripture gives the Cretans an interesting character reference: “One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons’” (Titus 1:12).

And the second quote came from Aratus, a pantheistic Cilician poet. While some may accuse the apostle of giving credibility to evil men, he was actually using their own familiar heroes to build a bridge for the gospel.

We can do a similar thing by using the darkest night of the year (Halloween) as a way to shine the brightest of all lights—the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. We can turn the tables on the enemy.

This is the one night of the year that the unsaved come knocking on your door. Don’t leave them standing in the dark.

This is the one night of the year that the unsaved come knocking on your door. Don’t leave them standing in the dark. Welcome them by having your porch light on. Put some balloons at your doorstep. Put up a sign, saying, “Welcome! We have a special treat for you.” Or you could set up a table on your front lawn, laid out with gospel tracts for the soul and treats for the tastebuds. If you’re not sure which tracts you should use, we have a special treat for you. It’s a Halloween Box, packed with appropriate and attractive tracts to go with your treats.

Or you could have a similar outreach in your church parking lot. Think about this unique opportunity. We live in dark times, so parents now accompany their kids as they walk the streets. They actually come out of their houses. If you are a local church and you want to meet your neighbors, you normally have to go into their homes, and that’s a little awkward. But on this night, there’s no awkwardness. You can use it to build connections with families in your community. They are going to approach you, and it’s not going to be awkward because you have treats waiting for them.

You could, of course, open your church doors as a safe space for families to come, offering an alternative to trick-or-treating—where you have games, crafts, and treats, all the while sharing the message of the gospel either verbally or with tracts. You could also offer hot drinks, snacks, or even free meals.

But here is that special way to melt their hearts toward you. Put a couple of tables on your property, close to the sidewalk so that they don’t have to come onto your church property. Then lade that table with goodies for the neighbors. Look at Scripture:

“For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people” (1 Peter 2:15).

By having a table by the sidewalk that is packed with gifts for their children, you’ll soften parents’ hearts and in doing so, stop any prejudicial thoughts toward your church. Again, this is the one night of the year that parents are walking the neighborhood with their children. So take the opportunity to lavish them with gifts. Turn the tables on the enemy. Put their ignorance to silence. Instead of them seeing your church as a money-making blight on the neighborhood, they will see it as a lighthouse of kindness in a dark and frightening world. Am I exaggerating? Try it and see.

Thanks, Ray.

I love it when Christian organizations can support each other to help equip us to be effective in the spiritual battle raging around us. I encourage you to order a Halloween Outreach Box for your home or church from Living Waters (or check out our Halloween outreach kit).

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.