My world view of Halloween was turned upside down

Colourful paper treat bags with the words “I am not afraid because”.

By Angela McDonald

My world view of Halloween was turned upside down this year because of an Evangelism training day at my church, St Mary’s Maidenhead, run by Ian Miller.

I do like Halloween as an opportunity to be welcoming to my local community by being kind as children knock at the door and give them their choice of sweet treat, but oddly I never saw it as an opportunity to declare the light of Christ.

Until I met Naomi Dawson who created Passion for Evangelism to give woman an opportunity to expand their evangelistic creativity and Matthew and Anna Price who run a church in Gorleston.

I was taken by Nay’s straightforward thinking, how to ‘do evangelism where you are with the people you already hang out with’. As a natural introvert I’m not involved in many ‘group’ activities particularly outside the Church however I was really struck by her testimony about using Halloween as an opportunity to engage with her neighbours, for Nay this meant running a whole street event!

Anna and Matthew then spoke about how as a church they wanted the dark exterior of their church to express the light of Christ, so they came out of the church and created a wonderful line of gazebo escape room themed spooky areas to eventually lead to the light of Christ at the end.

I was really struck by how obvious it is to bring the light of Christ out of our churches and into the streets where everyone else is meeting but I had been limited by the view of ‘Halloween isn’t for Christians’.

My imagination was immediately sparked, and I thought I can’t do a whole street thing, but I can start with my house. I can turn my house into an opportunity for my community to learn something of Christ’s love.

I took my theme from the Halloween outreach leaflet I had bought from 10ofthose speaking of what we are afraid of and how Jesus being the light takes away our fear because he is greater than the darkness.

I created some treat bags one side said ‘I’m not afraid because….’ On the other said ‘Jesus is the light’. I budgeted £2 per child with some sweets, a gift, outreach leaflet. I also got in touch with the local church and asked if they would like to include their church leaflet. This was a great blessing, and they prayed for the event too which linked to their mission outreach focus. As with many of us I attend the town centre church but live on the outskirts of the town so I wanted my local community to have local access to any help they would need in understanding who Jesus is.

Then came the dilemma of how do I pass on these bags? Wait for the knock at the door? Stand at the driveway and hand out the bags or create an activity to engage with my neighbours?

I decided I loved the last idea, so I created a ‘Spider Web Challenge’ on my driveway. The children would need to step through the low-level spider field (elastic ‘force’ field) and go under the giant spider web to collect their treat bags hanging on the fence.

I also put up a sign across the driveway with an opening time of 5:30pm which I think added to the suspense.

It took 1 hour for all 60 bags to be collected, the neighbours, most of whom I didn’t know, loved having an activity for the children to do, many parents and grandparents joined in too. The children and families were surprised by the generosity of the gift the fact it was a bag of treats rather than just a sweet. But they were more thrilled with being able to do something with their children rather than just knocking at the door. They had never seen anything else like it. I met some wonderful people, including a lovely couple who brought their 10-month-old son out for his first ‘halloween’.

I didn’t see this as the time to speak to them about Jesus but to give them the opportunity to learn about the difference he can make to their lives. I was wearing a t-shirt with Jesus is the light on the back so every time I helped the children through the web all the parents saw was a message about Jesus.

It was enough to reflect the love and goodness of Jesus as a first step to engaging with my community. They certainly knew where I lived if they wanted to know more and hopefully as I see them during the remainder of this year, I’m praying for opportunities to talk to them as they recognise me as ‘that lady with the spiders web’.

I dismantled the low level ‘force’ field and for the next hour another 60 children came to my door. Thankfully I had another 60 glow-in-the-dark bouncy balls left over which I was able to offer these instead of sweets which they were thrilled with.

What I love is that my local community come out as families, ordinary working-class parents who at times are struggling to make ends meet, who on 31 st October have prioritised dressing up as a family to make positive memories with their children.

I am thankful to Nay for demonstrating to me how one person can make a huge difference with who they are living out Jesus where they’re at.

Looking forward to next year’s adventure!

Passion for Evangelism ran an online training event “Making the most of Halloween” catch up here.