What? Halloween? We Don’t Do Halloween. Do We?

On Halloween the pastors and elders from our church went out into the street with our kids and youth. What a great time we had. Some of the kids dressed up. One person had a dog dressed up. Parents dressed up. Even our lead pastor dressed up. He wore an orange Tenness…I’m sorry, he wasn’t dressed up, he’s just a Tennessee fan.

Anyway. We went door to door with our kids in the neighborhood behind our church. We met so many people that don’t go to church anywhere. Amazing, isn’t it, how when you go to where the lost are you find them? Jesus did the same thing. He would go and eat with sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors and a host of others that the church didn’t want to associate with. Well, I believe He did that to show us how to witness to the lost of the world. So I am going to do what He did and share the Gospel with them.

Now I’m not trying to tell you that I am an authority on witnessing. There aren’t millions of people that I have led to the Lord personally. But, I am seeing people come to the Lord every week at Refuge and CFAN. Blows me away. I think it has something to do with just being honest with people about the Lord, being honest with them about church, and being honest about the world.  God loves people. In fact the Word tells us it is His will that NONE perish. People need to know that. They need to know that God’s people are here for them, not here to judge them. The church, if it is full of disciples, loves people. Jesus said they would know we are His disciples by our love for one another. Let’s love them by meeting their needs where they are. The fact of the matter is the world is not coming to church, so the church has to go them. People need to know they are only pawns to the world. They are used for what they have, usually with no concern for what they need.

There has to be a better way than just sitting in our churches waiting for them to come. We have to go out and find them. That’s what the parable of the great feast teaches us. Go into the highways and the by-ways and find all who will come, because those who were invited to the feast decided they had better things to do. I don’t want to find something else to do. I want to go into the world. If that means I have to eat with sinners to get them in the church so be it. Notice I never said partake of what the world has to offer so stop stewing over that. We are going to find the lost. We are going to win the lost. If you want to join us, you may have to take off your church face and put on a happy face.

Christmas is coming, so be ready for more “worldly” adventures. I’ll be ready for more harvest.

Peace <><