By Ken Godevenos, MBA, CCP, CHRP

Coming to North America as a little boy, I felt the tension the topic of Halloween caused — at least, in the more conservative churches I came across. There were so many questions:

Googling the Net for “Halloween,” one finds endless pages on the topic, including several on the controversial issue of where the Church should stand on the matter.

An extremely brief summary: Halloween is directly interpreted as “all hallows eve.” A scan of the electronic pages will show many opinions on how it was started and who started it, and who added what when. Basically, some celebrated All Saints’ Day on Nov. 1 and, later, All Souls’ Day on Nov. 2, praying for those who had died prior to the beginning of Halloween’s celebration.

According to some, Halloween was celebrated by ancient Druids in Britain, the pagan Romans, Greeks, Babylonians and others, thus preceding Christianity. Christians did not pick it up until several decades later. Oct. 31 was the eve of the new year in both Celtic and Anglo-Saxon times, as well as the end of summer for Druids. Also on that day, “fire festivals” were held to frighten away evil spirits (in the form of ghosts, witches, goblins, fairies, black cats and demons) who returned annually to revisit their homes. Some also called on the help of the devil to invoke divinations regarding the future (marriage, luck, health and death) on that day. The souls of the dead who were revisiting their homes could be placated with food to prevent the casting of spells — the foreshadowing of trick-or-treating.

During the Roman Empire, the Church made every attempt to ‘Christianize’ the pagans as quickly as possible. Constantine himself wanted a united empire with one religion, thus one mind. Pagans were forced to become Christians, and their numbers brought significant pagan influence to the early Church, including some of their practices and celebrations.

Two very different and strong perspectives on Halloween exist today. On one hand, there are those groups — such as “In His Steps Ministries” (www.creativefutures.net) — who believe celebrating Halloween is very harmful, especially for the Christian, because it emphasizes violence and death, horror, fear and the occult.

Additionally, they site the problem of sinister people who wish to do physical harm to children by tampering with candies and treats. They believe Halloween honors false gods, demons and Satan. They cite Ephesians 5:11 — And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them — as their reason for being anti-Halloween.

On the other hand, Anderson M. Rearick III, writing in Christianity Today, says he believes Christians should embrace Halloween with gusto and even laughter. He claims we’re not celebrating anything pagan, for Druids celebrate “Samhain,” an older holiday, and Satanists have stolen our holidays and revised them. There would be no Satanists if there were no Christians, he adds.

While admitting Halloween once was very evil, Rearick says he doesn’t believe it is today, arguing that the Yule holiday also had evil roots prior to becoming the celebration of the arrival of the True Light.

Rearick goes on to call for the “reclaiming” of Halloween by Christians, quoting Martin Luther: The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn. He also quotes Thomas More: The devil ... the proud spirit cannot endure to be mocked.

Rearick calls us to reclaim Halloween as a means of scorning and laughing at the devil, having a good time at his expense, and then watching him flee.

Your church might side with one of these two arguments or fall somewhere in between. The decision it makes will be based on your personal history, your church’s tradition, and what it has been recently practicing. But whatever you decide, your staff needs to know exactly where you and your board stand on the issue.

Some key considerations:

1. Extreme views don’t always carry the day. You’ll be placing many of your congregants in a difficult position with their families and the church if you decide on either of the two extremes.

2. The apostle Paul calls for moderation in all things. In fact, doing a New Testament search for the phrase “all things” might well help you decide your policy on Halloween.

3. Realize that your congregation and their children live in a secular society, and they’ll be exposed to the world’s perspective on Halloween. What alternatives can you offer that are more exciting for the children of both Christian and non-Christian families in the community?

4. If you’re focusing on “outreach into the community,” you might wish to consider how Halloween can be used to your church’s advantage. This includes the possibility of inviting trick-or-treaters to your campus on Halloween night, giving them (at minimum) some worthwhile treats and some gospel message materials, or even putting on an appropriate and exciting brief presentation of the gospel, using Halloween as the jump-off point.

5. Involve parents in the process of determining how best to celebrate Halloween (if at all) after you give them some history and some guidelines as to what the main issues are, and what you want to guard against. Parents often have great wisdom and discretion, as well as sensitivity to all parties.

6. In the case of older children, suggest that your youth staff involves teenagers in the process. Again, do this after the youth pastor provides a context. Research indicates that today’s postmodern youth would prefer to arrive at their own decisions on such issues — and these are often more conservative than we would think if they’re properly guided in the analysis.

7. Do your homework. Find out what other solid churches in the community are doing. You neither want to be left out in the cold, nor in left field. Additionally, depending on your position and theirs, you might wish to do something on a bigger scale, with a number of other churches in the area, for some of your youth.

9. Once the decision is made, make sure it’s clearly communicated to all staff. Also make sure they’ve bought in and will fully support it.

10. Effectively communicate the rationale of your position in a sermon, explaining why you do (or don’t) do certain things as a church when it comes to Halloween. Keep in mind that parents need communication help with their children on this topic.

When Halloween falls on a Sunday, you should know long in advance what you’ll be doing with your evening service if you have one. Use the creativity of your staff and others to build a program for that evening that meets all your objectives and integrates what the community is celebrating in a way that presents Christ as our true Deliverer and Protector from all demons, witches and Satan. Then, go all-out and invite the community to a celebration that can compete with — and top — anything they could put together!

For me, the secret to a solid Christian position on Halloween isn’t that we be all for it, but rather that we accept it for what it is: an influence of former pagan practices that modern society has adopted for its pleasure.

We capitalize on it in the most creative ways possible to both train our children on how they should think of and partake in any such activity associated with Halloween, and also as a means by which we can expose the saving grace of Christ and the God of Glory to those that don’t know Him.

Ken Godevenos, MBA, CCP, CHRP has served on and/or chaired several church boards. He’s a human resources and church consultant, mediator, executive director of SCA International (www.scainternational.org), and co-leader of the Take3 ministry (www.take3.org). Call 905.853.6228 or log on to www.accordconsulting.com for more information.

Dear Reader,
This is a question I often field from church boards. Some feel that, having gone through the process of strategic planning once, they’ll never have to do it again — but nothing could be farther from the truth.

Some elements of strategic planning require an annual tune-up. Perhaps I can best explain it if I share with you what I consider the 11 key elements of a complete strategic planning process:

1. Committed leadership — the availability and identification of strong, spirit-minded Christians committed to the work of your specific local church as a priority in their lives, and to the strategic planning process.

2. Effective communication and modeling — a willingness of the church leadership to first model the desired behavior necessary to achieve the identified goals and objectives, and then to communicate these and motivate others to contribute to their achievement.

3. Vision statement — why your church exists. This vision might actually be similar to the vision statement of another Christian body of believers since it’s drawn from the instructions given to us in the Scriptures.

4. Mission — clarifies the unique role your local church has as it fulfils its vision.

5. Core values — represent the uncompromisable “givens” of your local church and are espoused by all leaders and regular participants of the assembly.

6. Motto (optional) — a short maxim or concisely expressed rule of conduct adopted as an overall principle of behavior, usually attempting to encompass the vision, mission and core values to the extent possible. It’s very effective in communicating or expressing the key character of the body.

7. Key results areas — specific areas or functions of a church and/or its ministry that will be impacted by the vision, mission and values of the church. In turn, they will be indicators of how well the values are embraced, the mission fulfilled, and the vision realized.

8. Goals or objectives — measurable targets established under each key result area to pursue the mission and vision of the church. They might be short, intermediate or long-range.

9. Action plans — more detailed descriptions of how each goal or objective will be achieved by the church. These involve timelines and specific accountabilities assigned to individuals who will be responsible for making them happen.

10. Progress reporting, assessing and reviewing mechanisms — a means whereby church leaders can determine at any time where they stand with respect to the church’s goals and objectives, and make any necessary adjustments.

11. Celebration — a willingness to celebrate the blessings within the whole community!

With the exception of elements 3 to 6 inclusively (vision, mission, core values and motto, respectively), all elements need to be annually considered. The four exceptions should be reviewed less often: core values when major change has occurred in the congregation; mission when your church has relocated or the community you’re trying to reach has drastically changed; motto when you’re embarking on a brand-new mission; and vision, as it should be broad and far-reaching enough to last for years, if not decades.

In my opinion, strategic planning should be part of the church’s operational annual cycle and undertaken very seriously prior to the establishment of both an annual revenue and expenditures budget.

Send your questions to Ken Godevenos at kgod@accordconsulting.com. Comments or questions will be answered either directly or through this column, always honoring requests for confidentiality.