The Great Pumpkin and Jesus in the House

Nope, not an oxymoron, though 10 years ago, most thought it was.

I could throw some scripture at you, but that is always suspect, since it's always out of context, so instead, I'll demonstrate how this church threw the Gospel at 600 kids and their parents.

Yep, that's right. Over 600 kids and parents showed up from

the community to High Pointe Church's Harvest Party, which had a pretty dead on Gospel presentation, BEFORE they went trunk or treating.

Let me break down the potential good and bad of it as I have seen it or had it explained to me.

Potential Bad   
                              
1)  Halloween is about boiling babies in pumpkins or any of the the other neo-druid rites that are not Godly.
(Historically, there were no pumpkins in England, so this is false from the beginning, but "Druid" rites are pretty much a mystery thanks to Julius Caesar destroying 100% of the druids, and creating these stories in the process to scare his army into fighting harder.)

2) It is going into the world, doing worldly things, rather than trusting the Gospel.

3) If you act like a demon, you invite demons.

Potential Good

1) Halloween is a religious rite that is generally misunderstood and distrusted by the Protestant church because it is a Catholic tradition.  Exploration of the truth is good, and knowing what the tradition is to begin with is also good.  We are all the Church of Jesus the Christ.

2) You get the opportunity to provide a SAFE and NON-DEMONIC atmosphere for both your own children and families but also for those who don't come to church.

3) You get to Preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

4) You get to Love on people.

5) It's Fun.

The main building only holds 600 so the overflow was in the smaller building which only hold 200ish, I would guess. There, they sang to Lord, with the High School youth group leading them in the words and hand motions.  No kidding. Everyone SHOWING the gospel, not just reading it.

At 6:15pm, in 40 degree weather, with the NE Patriots beating the tar out of the Broncos, 60 plus cars and not a few ministry groups showed up with simple to elaborate decorations just to pass candy out to kids.  Not even,

necessarily their own kids.  Just kids.

What struck me was that this is a conservative bible thumping evangelical, church building, fire and brimstone preaching baptist heritage church, doing Halloween.  

They laid down their hard earned paradigm about Halloween for the chance to have the pastoral team bring the Gospel, the truth, to 100's of people who never would have come into any church, much less a Conservative one.

That's how much they believe ....  sorry here comes the

scripture ...



Wait for it.....



Wait.....



He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. - Mark 16:15

That's Love.

Since I go to this church, I can assure you that Doctrine is preached, though not everyone agrees with doctrine.  We have people who think many things are sin and many who think all things are lawful.  We have many that think women can preach and we have women who preach, though not in the church. The superintendent of church schools is a women. That's a hard job, one that involves preaching even if it's not recognized as such.  I once held that position in another church so I really know the difficulty.  Very demanding. We have dress arguments and giving disagreements.  We have music discussions about to much show and not enough show. Normal church, except....

No one disagrees that We are to Love the Lord our God and

Love his people, and the best way to do that is preach the gospel. Some do it with words and some with actions, but we all agree;

The truth will set you free, and Grace is more powerful than everything in the world.

So, we do the pumpkin thing, and bring the word to 100's that never heard it and 100's who never felt it.

I Invite Your Comments - I really love learning from other's hard earned view points.  I challenge you to speak out.

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Books that will either add to your conviction, explain other's convictions or bring the light of truth and history to the discussion.  Knowledge sharpens the sword, and it is sharpened well indeed if you are seeking it for the Kingdom of God.

The Conservative Christian View on why Halloween is bad:

The historical view on what Halloween is from a scholarly point of view: