Being Missional on Halloween

For those of us who live in the ever isolated suburbs, this story from Mike Hubbard's blog post dealing with Halloween was moving to me.

He writes:

On Halloween, we pulled our grill and our fire pit out to the end of our driveway (we lived in Ballwin at the time). We bought hot dogs, had s’mores, and bought the best candy in the neighborhood. We just lit the fires when the rain started, and for about a half hour, we thought nobody was coming. We pulled the fires up to the edge of our garage and set up tables in our garage. Then the rain slowed down, and people started showing up. We offered hot dogs, hot chocolate, etc., Some of the people just dropped by, got their candy and maybe a hot chocolate, and kept going. But most of the people who came to our house stopped and spent a few minutes in our garage. That night I met multiple people who lived in our neighborhood, of whom I did not know. I had lived in the neighborhood for 13 years and didn’t know these people (that is sad). We actually shared Jesus with two parents who dropped by and wondered why we were doing this. At the end of the evening I was pretty amazed at what happened, knowing God had spoken into my life clearly.

Last year we did this again, this time inviting our Community Group to join us. We served hot dogs, s’mores, hot chocolate, and the best candy in the neighborhood. We were the best house to visit on the block, and we have a street that loves this holiday. As people stopped, we had the chance to visit with parents for a few minutes, and time to get to know the kids.

Next Wednesday night every family in your neighborhood is coming to your house. I want to encourage you to see this as a chance to live the mission of God in your neighborhood, or that of your Community Group.

(HT: Relevintage)