Tis the season for fall festivals, Neewollah celebrations, and blatant, in-your-face efforts to Christianize a Halloween party. I like to party. I like going to fall festivals hosted by the different churches in my association. I like seeing the various costumes that parents can force their children to wear, even convincing some kids they really like what they are doing, regardless of how hot they get.
The question is are our churches just creating another opportunity for their members to escape the drudgery of their daily existence. If that is the case, then someone needs to do an evaluation of how much work is involved in pulling off a high quality fall festival. It takes a lot of work and time and often money. Is that what our churches are all about?
If we are using these festivals to reach out into our communities and say, "Hey, guys, Christians know how to have fun too, and we don't have to celebrate the demonic and all the bloodletting to do it either", then that might be a good reason. It should be a description, however, of how we Christians live our lives every day. I say we can still find a better reason.
If the reason we have fall festivals or whatever we call them is to create a context in which we can meet the unchurched of our communities in what is a safe environment for them, then we need to look at what we do and see if that is accomplishing our goal. Giving their kids a calorie rush and sending them on their way may not be the most effective way we can impact our community families. I suggest we examine how we intend to impact these families beyond encouraging them to visit the dentist on a regular basis.
Fall festivals and others such events can and should be safe places for the community to meet the church family. Physical and relational safety are paramount priorities. Feel-good environments are hard to find and creating one for the community is always appreciated especially when the focus is on children. The church with its emphasis upon love-based relationships is the ideal group to produce this sort of context.
The enduring impact, however, is where congregations too often miss their golden opportunity. By focusing upon the feel-good event, the chance to offer a meeting with the gospel of Jesus Christ is often skipped. By avoiding the appearance of being confrontational, we avoid a gospel conversation altogether. This need not be regardless of the physical set-up of the event.
As a minimum every church that hosts a fall festival style event needs to discover a way to register everyone who attends no matter what their current relationship with the church might be. Follow-up on non church members needs to be immediate and by people who will be visible when these guests decide to explore your church family. Greeters, Sunday School teachers, and other class workers are ideal people to be involved in this follow-up.
The church needs to make available information about its own ministry opportunities for anyone who might be unfamiliar with the work of this particular congregation. Offer free copies of the Bible, New Testament, or the Gospel of John, whatever is possible. Offer free issues of Christian life magazines and devotional guides especially if they have the plan of salvation laid out somewhere in their pages.
Open the door for community members to ask questions. Have church members wear a button that tells they are a local church member or may simply have the words "Ask Me!" They can carry around church brochures or the previous Sunday's order of service to hand out to guests who are not familiar with the ministries of the church. With our multicultural context, have information available in languages most common in the community other than English.
A high quality fall festival event requires a lot of work, planning, and people power. Don't let it pass with nothing more than a sigh of relief. Make it count for the Kingdom of God!
