Should Churches Host Trunk or Treats?

Should churches host Trunk or Treats? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi there. This is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts, and you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. We'll be taking your calls for the next 25 minutes or so, so hop on the phone right now at 833-THE-CORE. Here's a question that came in from one of our listeners earlier this week. Yes, hi. My name is Sandra, and I just purchased a home which they said they told me that the owner had passed away there.

They said he passed away quietly in his bed when he was asleep. And I was just wondering, would there be anything to fear? I know that greater is he that is in me, but sometimes I get afraid of that kind of stuff. Can you please answer my question and give me some peace of mind? Thank you so much. Hi, Sandra.

Thank you for giving us a call. I imagine that it would be troubling if this is something that concerns you, that it causes fear, and you've just purchased this house and you're trying to get comfortable there, but you're wondering, is there something spooky waiting for me around the corner? Well, let me just tell you, no, I don't think that you have anything to fear. You did quote from the words of the Apostle John, and that is a reality. As believers in Jesus Christ, the Spirit of Almighty God lives in us. We don't have anything or anyone to be afraid of.

If God is for us, who can be against us? But then with regard to just, well, somebody had died in that house, is there going to be a ghost or something like that? I don't think you have anything to fear there either. The Bible is pretty clear that after someone dies, in particular for believers, the soul of the believer is immediately in the presence of the Lord. For those who die apart from Christ, I think they go to a place of judgment, and so I don't think that you just have all these disembodied spirits that are floating around, haunting houses and that kind of a thing. I do think that there can be spiritual warfare and demonic activity, but again, I don't think that you particularly have anything to fear because you belong to the Lord Jesus, and so I think you can sleep easy.

Quick question for you. I know some people in certain situations will have a house or a business anointed with oil. They'll have people march around praying.

Do you feel like there can be, in a physical place, there can be anything that we need to be aware of or concerned about when it comes to demonic influence? That's a great question. It's a great follow-up question, Bill. I remember as a newer believer, I was kind of into that sort of thing, and I had a little vial of oil that I would take with me everywhere, and I would just anoint the doorposts. It was just sort of the church tradition that I was in at the time.

That was a big thing. Now, looking back on that, I think, okay, what was I doing? I was doing some spiritual ghostbuster stuff. I don't think I needed to do any of those things, but can there be evil, demonic activity attached to a particular thing or place? I mean, I've heard of that sort of thing before, but again, I would just stress that for the believer, when it comes to spiritual warfare, the evil one, we know that he's been conquered, that we can be bold, not because of anything in us inherently, but because of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ who lives in us. That doesn't mean we don't take those kinds of things seriously.

It just means that we don't have to be in terror, and so we should be comforted by that. What did you anoint with oil? Did you like, when you go into In-N-Out Burger, did you anoint the door or whatever?

Just about everything. If this was then, I probably would have anointed you by now. Did you ever run out of your anointing oil? I think I went through about half of it before I realized, okay, I probably don't need to do this. I don't know if this is doing anything.

Didn't know if you needed to go for refills or what. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sánchez. We'd love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. We also take questions about how our Christian walk intersects with today's culture, what's going on in today's world. So feel free to give us a call on any topic, theology-related Christian doctrine. Here's the phone number.

It's 833-843-2673, which is 833 The Core. Will emailed us this question. Our church that we've been going to for five years before we were converted hosts a Halloween trunk or treat. As a Christian, how should I respond as I don't believe we should celebrate a man-made holiday associated with such an occasion? Yeah.

Well, Will, thank you for that email. For years, I mentioned this church that I was a part of where I was anointing everything. When I was at that church still, every 4th of July, they would have a barbecue. Because there was this great big parade in the town where we were, they would just hand out hot dogs and hamburgers at the barbecues as people were walking by.

They could get some food or a bottle of water. It was kind of a neat way to serve the community. It wasn't the church celebrating this holiday as some sort of act of worship or anything like that. It was just a fun way to come together as God's people and to bless others, to encourage others and to let them know, hey, there's a church right here.

Maybe we'll see you on Sunday morning. I always really like that. I think there's nothing wrong with that kind of a thing.

You're talking about a trunk or treat on Halloween. I would sort of see that just about the same as a way to, hey, this is kind of a cool way to bring the people in the church together, maybe to serve the community, to let people know that there's a church here, to invite them to church even. I think that that's a wonderful thing. I think that there's nothing wrong with that. I think this is in my mind also.

It gets into the bigger question. I know this is right around the corner of just participating in Halloween as a family or even as Christians. Is that something that we can do or should we just steer clear 100 percent because of the ghouls and the goblins? I think that's a matter of personal conscience. I don't think that you can or ought to bind other people's consciences on that issue. Now, if it's this sort of spiritual worship, if people are engaging in pagan rituals, then I would say, well, yeah, there's an issue there.

If you're just taking a walk with your family and getting some candy, I don't think it's that big of a deal. I oftentimes will go to 1 Corinthians 8 in verse 4 where Paul says, Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence, and that there is no God but one. For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God the Father from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things and through whom we exist. However, Paul said, not all possess this knowledge, but some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

And so this is one of those passages of scripture where the apostle Paul talks about loving one another within the body of Christ, not causing each other to stumble by the things that we do. And for some people, participating in Halloween might defile their conscience because they think of the ghouls and the goblins and that kind of a thing. I just don't think I could participate in that. I don't want to. Well, don't. You shouldn't, especially if it goes against your conscience. But we also know that the ghouls and the goblins, just like Paul says with regard to the idols there in 1 Corinthians 8, they're nothing.

They don't have any real power. We worship the one true and living God. And for Christians who are free in their conscience and they're able to do this and it's not some weird thing for them, it's just, as I said, a way of maybe blessing the community or just being out and about in the community, I think that's perfectly fine. And so thank you for that question. Looks like we have some other questions in line with that on the call screen, and so I'm sure we'll hear more.

Let's go to that question right now. Isaiah from St. Louis, Missouri. Isaiah, what's your question for Adriel? Hey, so my question is, so me, I'm not big on celebrating Halloween or anything like that. And I wanted to ask, like, as a believer, when we participate in, like, trunk or treat third fall festivals, is that a way for us to, like, is that like a cop out for us to celebrate, like, Halloween, knowing we really shouldn't be engaged in it? Yeah, like, is it the church's way of just, I don't know, trying to have a gentler, softer, more Christianized form of the trick-or-treating?

Is it a compromise? No, I wouldn't say so, Isaiah. But again, I'm speaking personally here, and I just said, based on 1 Corinthians 8, I think this is something where Christians may differ, and for a believer who says, I just can't participate in this, I don't want to do that, I don't want to dress up and walk around, and it just doesn't make me feel right, I would say, well, don't do it. You know, Paul says, whatever is not from faith is sin. And so, you know, I would never say, you need to do this. Absolutely not, because we're not talking about an issue that's outlined in Scripture, we're talking about this sort of cultural celebration and whether or not it's okay for Christians to participate in it. Now, are there ways in which it would be not okay to participate?

And I would say, yeah, if it leads to debauchery and these other things, then that's wrong, and we avoid that, we flee from that. But if it's, you know, taking a walk in the neighborhood and going with your kids, I have four little kids, and getting candy, I just don't see, we've always thought of it just in terms of getting to know our neighbors a little bit more, also, you know, the hefty candy tax that we put on our children. We leave them with the Tootsie Rolls, and I get the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and the good stuff, and so there's some good things that can come out of this, you know. I get the Twix.

Yeah, oh, man, Twix all the way. But so I would just say this is a conscience issue, and if it's something in your church that's happening that bothers you, I would say have an honest conversation, Isaiah, with your pastor, and I don't think there's anything wrong with churches hosting the harvest festival or the trunk or treat kind of a thing, as a way, as I said, just to be in the community and to even invite people to church. I think that's a good thing, and so, but I know not everyone agrees, and that's where we can be charitable with each other.

Isaiah, thanks for giving us a call. Thanks, Isaiah, great question, and really all holidays can lead to a bridge between the church and the community, whether we're talking about Easter, Mother's Day. I mean, there's lots of opportunities for churches to say, how can we creatively invite people to come to our church, come on our property, and get more comfortable with the idea of church?

Yeah, so check this out, Bill. There's debate about this, right? Like, well, we have, the only quote-unquote holy day that we have as Christians is the Lord's Day, the day when Jesus rose again from the dead, which we celebrate every Sunday when we gather together. You don't have in the New Testament these rules, these laws giving us these days of holy worship for us to celebrate.

Now, you had that under the old covenant, didn't you? These festivals that were celebrated as a part of Israel's worship, but under the new covenant, you don't really see that. So people say, well, then I don't want to, the whole idea of things like celebrating Christmas, let's say, or Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, I just don't see that, so I don't know that we're going to do that.

In my mind, we shouldn't bind people's consciences on these issues. But as you say, it's really interesting because there are so many people in our communities that are open to going to church on those days. And I've found, you know, you invite somebody to your church's Easter service or your church's Christmas service or Christmas Eve service, that sort of a thing. People are open to going, and what a neat opportunity for them to be able to hear about the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I mean, it just seems to me like a neat entryway for people to come and hear these core truths about the gospel that we love. And I just encourage people, like if your church is preaching Christ and preaching the incarnation, the resurrection, hey, and people are more open to potentially coming to church on, you know, we talk about it sometimes sort of jokingly, you know, the people that just go on Christmas and Easter. But hey, if they're going to go in and they're going to hear the gospel, take advantage of that opportunity, I think. I heard some statistic where 75% of people said that if they were invited to a Christmas service by someone they knew they would attend. So, and yet so many people never get invited, right?

Because we're like, oh, gosh, I don't want to offend or wrong thing. Here's another piece of advice. Don't just wait until Christmas or Easter to invite your neighbor. Yeah, maybe that's another thing too. It's just, you know, we gather together every week. So, yeah.

Good point. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez, and we have our phone lines open right now for another 10 minutes or so. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, theology or doctrine, give us a call right now. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE. Make a note of that.

833-THE-CORE. Now, if you look at the calendar, the anniversary of the Reformation, the Protestant Reformation is coming up. And tying in with that, we actually have a great core resource dealing with something that was really key to Martin Luther and the Reformation.

Yeah, absolutely. In fact, Luther, Martin Luther said that as he was studying the Book of Romans, it was as if the gates of paradise were opened to him. And so maybe you'll have that experience as well as you study the Book of Romans.

And we're excited to share this offer with you. It's a study on the Book of Romans, a 10-week study. And it's a great way to deepen your understanding of the Gospel, some of the core teachings about justification that helped to spark the Reformation over 500 years ago. Romans has had a big impact on a lot of people's lives, including my own.

And certainly, as we were just saying there, Martin Luther's life. And so this is a wonderful in-depth study. And it's available as a physical study, or you can get it as a PDF download.

There are leader's guides available for all of our studies as well. So head over to corechristianity.com forward slash offers to get your copy of our Bible study on the Book of Romans for a gift of $20 or more. Just go to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. That's corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Or you can call us for that offer or any one of our offers at 833-843-2673.

833, the core. Let's go to Kim in Marshall, Texas. Kim, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? God bless you, Adriel and Bill.

Thank you so much for your ministry. It's about the topic at hand. The Bible, doesn't the Bible say today is the day that the Lord has made and let us rejoice and be glad in it? So Halloween is a day, that day, October 31st is the day that God has made. So I'm not willing to surrender a single one over to my enemy. And if, as a Christian, if I can give out tracts and be a positive influence, and I don't have a problem with candy, I do have a problem with demonic worship things, but I don't see a problem with trunk or treat in the churches getting involved, because why should we give over anything to the enemy?

We shouldn't give anything to the enemy. And I think that I agree with you as far as that's concerned. And thank you also for your encouragement, Kim.

And so you're right. Every day really belongs to the Lord. And in all that we do, whether it's trunk or treat or not, you know, we should give glory to the Lord. And if we can't give glory to the Lord in whatever it is that we're doing, well, then we just shouldn't do it. I, again, I mentioned Paul's comments in 1 Corinthians chapter 8.

How about Romans chapter 14? He says, As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything while the weak person eats only vegetables.

That's probably why he's weak, I think. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats. For God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?

It is before his own master that he stands or falls, and he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

I think he's speaking to this idea that we're talking about here now. We don't want to yield anything to the evil one. We're not surrendering any days to the evil one. We're saying all days should be devoted to the Lord, and especially the Lord's day, when we gather together to worship God with his people. Kim, may God bless you as you do that, as you devote yourself to the Lord, as you seek to honor him with every day that he's given to you. Thank you.

You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. A lot of calls about the Halloween issue today. Devo's on the line from Bodette, Minnesota.

Devo, what's your question? Hi. So we've got a new pastor at our church, and because Halloween falls on Sunday, she's actually kind of encouraging us to dress up in costume for church. And I'm all about Halloween.

My kids all went, and that's all fun. But I just wonder if that's kind of overstepping the boundaries of, that's kind of God's sanctuary, you know? So I just kind of wanted your opinion on what you think.

Be happy to share with you my personal opinion, sister. Usually when people talk about what to wear to church, how to dress to church, it's typically, you know... Do I wear a tie or not? Yeah, do I wear a tie or not? But this is different.

This is, do I wear the monkey suit or the dress up as, you know, my favorite character from a cartoon, that kind of a thing. Personally, and I'm the pastor of a local church, we're not doing any, I mean, this is the Lord's day. We're gathering together to worship Jesus Christ.

In my sermon, I plan to reflect a little bit on the Protestant Reformation, which many people believe was kicked off in 1517 on October 31st, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the church in Wittenberg, Germany, on the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany. And so I think there's a lot of other things that we could focus on. Frankly, the reason I would just think, just say no to that, like we would never do that, is because, I mean, I think that would be a huge distraction. And we're gathering together as believers not to play games and to focus on ourselves and to draw attention to ourselves, which I feel like that's precisely what a Halloween costume in a church service would do. We're gathering together to fix our eyes on the true and the living God, through the gifts that he's given to us, through his word, through the ordinances that Jesus left for us. That should be our focus. And so that's how I see this. We wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do that in the church that I pastor. And so thank you for calling, and God bless you.

Happy medium. Could you have your elders dress up like the martyrs? Yeah, like figures from church history?

Yes. No, I wouldn't do that, Bill. This is Bob, he's Justin Martyr.

Oh, gosh. This is Court Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Tony in Auburn, Nebraska. Tony, what's your question?

Hey, thanks for taking my call, guys. My question is, I work on Sundays. Is it okay to worship other days? Hey, well, I mean, in one sense, you know, you think about what the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 12, beginning in verse 1, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. So in one sense, we could say, on the basis of what we find in the New Testament, that every day you're offering yourself to the Lord, seeking to draw near to him, presenting your body, that is, your whole person, to God as a living sacrifice. And Paul says, this is your spiritual worship. And so I would want to say, you know, you ask, can I worship other days of the week? I would say, well, yeah, insofar as every day we're presenting ourselves to the Lord, and this is, in one sense, an act of worship, then yes. But is there something significant and distinct, Tony, about church on Sunday? And to that I would also say, yes, that the Lord's day, the first day of the week, was the day on which Jesus Christ rose from the grave.

And since the earliest days of the apostles, Christians have been gathering on that day to commemorate his victory over sin and death. And we are called, in places like Hebrews chapter 10, not to forsake that assembly, to gather with believers to be under the ministry of the word, to hear the gospel proclaimed, not just for those reasons, but also because we need Christian community. We need brothers and sisters in our lives who can encourage us in our walk with the Lord. We live in a world, right, that's trying to feed us all sorts of information through media, through social media. We're being trained, if you will, by these things.

We need to retrain ourselves, our minds and our hearts, through being under the word and with believers. And so I think that that's really important. Now, you said you work on Sundays. And I know that you're not the only one.

I think a lot of people, this is a big challenge. Now, I know that there are some churches that gather together on Saturday evenings. I was part of a church plant for some time that they met on Saturday evenings.

So I would say trying to get into fellowship somehow. But I would even go as far as to say that there's nothing wrong with talking to your work, if it's possible, and saying, hey, one thing about me is I'm a Christian, and we really value getting together on Sundays. In fact, God commands us to gather with his people. And so I would like to see if it's possible for me to get this time off so that I can get together with my church family, with the family of God. And, Tony, let me just pray for you right now to that. And, Lord, would you please be with Tony, give him wisdom. I pray that you would open the doors for him to be able to worship you on Sunday with other believers and that his work would be gracious. Would you be with him? Would you bless him?

And would you be with us all, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar. Or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833, the CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.