How to Use Halloween to Quickly Grow Your Church

There is an often-overlooked biblical way to quickly grow your church. Before we look at 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 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 is this babbler trying to say?” (Acts 17:18, NIV). His hearers were so intrigued by what he said that 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: “‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring’” (Acts 17:28, NIV).

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

The second quote came from Aratus, a pantheistic Cilician poet. While some may accuse the apostle Paul 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. 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 Pack, packed with appropriate and attractive tracts to go with your treats.

Another option is to 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 also open your church doors as a safe space for families to come, offering an alternative to trick-or-treating. You could 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 laden that table with goodies for the neighbors.

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

By having a table by the sidewalk on your property that is packed with gifts for their children, you’ll soften parents’ hearts. And, in doing so, you might 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, it will be seen as a lighthouse of kindness in a dark and frightening world. Am I exaggerating? Try it and see.