How often do your lost neighbors come to your house on their own initiative to connect with you? If your experience is anything like mine, the answer is essentially never.
However, there is one exception: Halloween night.
Halloween is the only day of the year when unbelievers will come to you! Why wouldn’t we take advantage of this opportunity?
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In our old church office building, we had a saying on our wall from Steve Timmis that said, “Fruitful gospel ministry is low-key, long-term, and relational.”
We as a church want to use Halloween night as a way to build ordinary, long-term relationships with our lost neighbors and friends that we pray will bring gospel fruit and, ultimately, salvation.
Like any American cultural holiday, Halloween has taken on a life of its own. While Halloween was initially tied to things like ghosts, witchcraft, and superstition, a shift in America happened in the late 1800s to focus more on community get-togethers and neighborly interaction.
While there are clearly elements of Halloween that are out of bounds for us as followers of Jesus (we could probably say the same about how Christmas is typically celebrated in our culture), Halloween in 2024 is a cultural phenomenon focused on candy, silly costumes and interaction with neighbors.
Here are four ways you can maximize Halloween towards fruitful gospel ministry.
1) Pray!
During the month of October, our church has been praying for laborers to go out into the harvest. Jesus said in Luke 10:2, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
In this final week leading up to Halloween, we are praying for the Lord to turn our own eyes to the harvest — our friends, neighbors and family who are far from God.
This week, spend time praying for lost neighbors by name that you already know and for the Lord to help you meet new people and build new relationships with neighbors this Thursday evening.
2) Show hospitality!
What if you were the house known for serving people well on Halloween night? Make your home the place to be. Invite members from your church or small group to join you in creating an inviting space and making the most of opportunities to build new relationships.
Be friendly, kind, and generous. Maybe even give the full-sized candy bars.
Create a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Consider ways you can encourage neighbors to linger at your home rather than only stopping long enough to grab a piece of candy. Have games for kids. Give out hot drinks for cold parents — we will have the Keurig out and apple cider in the crockpot. Grill hot dogs. Make popcorn. Have a family-friendly atmosphere focused on fall décor rather than a scary atmosphere. Have fun. Hospitality attracts and draws people in; there is a reason it is a qualification for pastors (1 Tim. 3:2).
3) Learn names!
What is one of the first things you do when you meet new people? Ask them their names. Relationships deepen based on knowledge of a name.
Remembering people’s names goes a long way in building rapport. God has given each person a unique name (Is. 49:1b). People automatically feel cared for if you learn their name and then call them that name the next time you see them.
If we can work hard to remember names, we can establish an ongoing, long-term relationship that we pray will bring fruit. On the practical side, make a note on your phone to help you remember names and stories they share.
4) Share the hope of the gospel!
If you get into a conversation with a neighbor, make the most of being able to talk about your hope because of Christ (1 Pet. 3:15).
You can take the time to share encouraging Scripture, provide a brief overview of a gospel tract from memory, or talk about something like Reformation Day and what happened on Oct. 31, more than 500 years ago, that reminded people that they are all only justified before God by faith.
Consider reading Ephesians 2:1–10 every day this week and then tell people what God is teaching you through the passage (something like, “I’ve been reading in a book in the Bible this week called Ephesians. It has reminded me that I only have a relationship with Jesus because I am saved by grace through faith and not by works. Do you have any kind of relationship like that with Jesus?”). Utilize questions to help you learn about people and force them to think about what they believe.
My goal in any conversation is to (metaphorically) put a stone in someone’s shoe that will continually “annoy” them and make them think. Apologist Greg Koukl describes it this way, “All I want to do is give him something worth thinking about. I want him to hobble away on a nugget of truth that annoys him in a good way, something he can’t simply ignore because it continues to poke at him.”
Share the hope that you have because of Jesus, and pray that the individual will go away thinking about what you discuss. Even if you do not share the gospel fully, set the goal of sharing an essential biblical truth that your neighbor can think about more.
I pray that the Lord will use these ordinary efforts on Thursday night to bring about long-lasting gospel fruit: the salvation of souls, the transformation of lives, and the establishment of long-term relationships that will create more opportunities to share the gospel.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Aaron Markham and originally published by Baptist Courier.
