"Boooo!..................."

Without trying to sound in the least big “Halloweenish”, the old-time holiness saints were probably turning over in their graves Saturday evening. With the gym occupying one of those huge inflated slides where kids climb the one side before rapidly descending down the other, hot soup and sandwiches being sold from the small cafeteria located there, and gospel music loud enough to be heard a half-mile in any direction permeating the whole area, about forty families were positioned in the rear parking lot for “trunk or treating”. Indeed, it might have been the only place on the property where there was yet any room for an automobile! I’m inclined to think that as many people, or maybe even more, showed up for this event as for any worship service we’ve ever held. The costumes this year seemed less “gruesome” for whatever reason. My own visit was short-lived, purposed to get two or three pictures of the youngest grandchildren; but there was nobody running around with a meat-cleaver stuck in his head, no ghoulish masks of any kind, not even a witch that this old man noticed. Captain Hook and a pirate or two, a few princesses, some assorted television cartoon characters, and a rather large Buzz Lightyear. I’m pretty sure, though, that his wife talked him into that portrayal. In truth, the event was nothing more than a different form of fellowship, folks gathering with other folks in giving the little ones a safe environment for such fun and, at the same time, providing opportunity for others in the community to get to know us. Is it “evangelizing”? Not in the sense of sharing Christ in a doctrinal message; but most certainly another way to allow Christ “in” me to come forth. In fact, sometimes coming out of the sanctuary and abandoning the pew is the best way to see what we look like withOUT the “costume”, who we are “behind the mask”. Ouch! That might have just hit me......