Over the past two Saturdays we held two Trunk or Treat events. Both events were well attended and gave the families of our communities wonderful, safe, family-friendly opportunities to dress up and have some fun.
I was excited about these Trunk or Treat events for several reasons. First, I have to acknowledge that I struggle with Halloween. More and more it seems to celebrate, and glorify, things of a dark nature spiritually; witchcraft, the occult, the devil and more. I fear that the more our children are exposed to these things, the more desensitized they become the spiritual forces that contradict our faith. But Trunk or Treat allows us to give families an opportunity to enjoy the fun aspects of trick-or-treating (costumes, candy and community gatherings) without having to expose their children to the darker things.
I love that these events help us connect unchurch families. Between these two events we were able to reached hundreds of families. Anytime we can have families visit one of our campuses, it helps them to feel more at ease with our space. As they meet volunteers from the church it allows us to begin to build relationships through which we can extend an invitation. And it sends a message to the whole community that Rock Church is a place that cares about kids and wants to offer a positive, safe, fun place of connection.
The other reason I'm glad we offered these events is because, as the families come through the line, it helps us to put a face to the many unchurched children and parents in our community. I know the statistics. I know how many hundreds of children live in our towns, the overwhelming majority of which have no church home. But when we see those beautiful, precious children come through the line, I'm reminded in a much more powerful way how important our work is, and how far we have to go. In Sandown alone, we had 280 children (not counting babies or adults) come to trunk or treat. Only a handful of those children are involved in our kids ministry or attend worship with their families. To quote Jesus, “the fields are ripe for the harvest.”
Saturday, seeing the seemingly endless flow of children come through, I was reminded anew how important it is that we give our best effort to children and family ministries. The world would lead our children in a very different direction. It is up to us to reach out to them in every way we can to offer them Christ. The hearts, minds and souls of an entire generation are at stake. Thank you to everyone who helped make these outreach events possible!
This Sunday we will continue our new series “God is . . .” We are only a week into it, but I have already had SO much great feedback. I know you won’t want to miss this Sunday.
God Bless,
Pastor Steve