What To Do About Church On Halloween

Mike Leake

This year the devil’s holiday (I say that tongue-in-cheek) falls on church night. So what are we to do? If we continue with church “as-is” we know that we’ll only have a few of our children and most of our helpers with children will either be sad that their kid has to miss out on trick or treating or we’ll be massively short-staffed. But it doesn’t really feel right to cancel church for Halloween. So what do we do?

Here is what we are going to do at FBC Marionville. But first a bit of context. We have a pretty eventful Wednesday night here at FBC Marionville. To put it in perspective we have about 120-130 on Sunday mornings and anywhere from 175-200 on Wednesday nights, with most of them being children. (We do a few things differently these days, but this is what the program looked like when we launched: Our Wednesdays).

What we’ve decided to do is create an event called First Stop. We want FBC Marionville to be the first stop our community makes. We’ve made and purchased tote bags with our logo on them to give folks as they enter our building. And at the exit we will be giving a free coffee mug to every family, though maybe a toothbrush would have been a better idea.

We are creating a cardboard box maze in our basement and then moving our guests throughout almost every room in our church building. We’ll have a costume contest, a carnival room, a crafts room, a video game room, a creative cat room, a Star Wars room, a room promoting our bus ministry, and much more. Each room will have candy and some sort of activity. Our guests will eventually move into our gym where they’ll be given walking tacos and then sent on their way with a free coffee mug.

We want to make our church the First Stop for families. Our goal is to bless our community, to help them know they are loved, and honestly we just want to have a good time and enjoy the fun of dressing up like favorite characters. Ultimately we hope this leads to gospel conversations. I know lots of churches and Christians shy away from Halloween. Personally, I think it’s a great opportunity for building bridges into our community for the sake of Christ.

So what is your church doing for Halloween?

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Photo source: here

Victimhood is a Fig Leaf

Mike Leake 6 Comments

This is an incredibly insightful tweet by Dan Phillips:

I beg you not to get lost in the politics of this thing. I’m not commenting on Elizabeth Warren or her claims to being a Native American. That’s beside the point. And I’m not using Dan’s tweet to make any kind of partisan point. I think what Dan says could be applied across parties. There is something unique going on in our culture and I think he’s hit the nail on the head. He’s absolutely correct that for many within our society the most sought-after-status is that of victim.

I know that sounds crazy and everything within us would like to deny that. And it sounds so mean and cruel to point a thing like this out—after all how dare we pile guilt on top of whatever atrocity someone has endured.  But that’s precisely the appeal of being a victim. And I believe it’s why this holds such an appeal for the gospel-rejecting climate in which we find ourselves. When you reject the gospel you also forsake your only covering. And in order to live with the shame which comes from such rebellion, those who actually can still blush will do one of two things: look for something to cover ourselves up or divert the other persons eyes from our nakedness.

The Covering of Victimhood

Consider this gem from Zack Eswine. He’s talking here about a woman who for years was the victim of his anger. But when he actually repents she isn’t sure what to do emotionally. God has answered her prayers about changing her husband but it’s also creating an unexpected and unwanted call for change in her own heart. I’ll let Eswine pick up here:

But she doesn’t like this. He has poorly expressed his anger for years. She should be allowed to for once! Instantly she is tempted to remove the welcome mat from the answered prayer. It makes sense why. After all, she can no longer talk about her husband in the way she always has. Her prayer requests for her husband at women’s group have to change. She no longer has a reason to avoid attention to her own issues. All this time he was the defensive and impatient one. Now she finds that she is defensive and impatient—not because he is mean but because he is gracious. Sometimes going to a new place of gospel freedom together is lovely to dream about and frightening to take hold of. (Eswine, 203)

Maybe I’m the only one who this relates to. Perhaps I’m the only one who was convicted when reading this from Eswine, but I’d venture to say that I’m not. Victimhood is appealing because it has a way of keeping us from having to deal with our own sin and our problems. It’s a way of diverting attention to our nakedness and diverting the eyes to another naked sinner.

Please don’t hear me saying something like the person raped is as bad as the rapist. That’s not the point, I’m making. I’m really talking about what happens in the time when we’re picking up the pieces of figuring out what it is that just happened to us. Nobody does that perfectly. Being a victim doesn’t automatically sanctify us. And so we’re going to sin against others even as we’ve been radically sinned against. Our culture of victimhood gives us a pass. But being a victim doesn’t change the nature of sin—it still aims to destroy us and dethrone God. And worse yet it has the ability to separate us from our only hope—God Himself.

Being a victim is a fig leaf.

It’s heart-breaking, soul-sucking, damaging, sorrowful, painful, life-taking, fill in the nasty adjective, that you’ve had this thing happen to you. It’s tragic how your identity has been swallowed up by this thing that happened to you. It’s powerful. It’s shaping. It’s confusing. But it’s not atoning.

Only Christ can truly take away our shame. He is able to swallow up the wrath that our guilt incurs as well as take the blows and the sting off the things that have happened to us. His role as Redeemer means far more than just his buying us off the auction block in the sin market. It means he takes us for all that we are and all that’s happened to us and is going to happen to us. He’s the One who replaces ashes with beauty. And he doesn’t do this because he’s a victim of injustice, though he is far more than any human ever. He does this because he is a conqueror.

Don’t make victim your sought after status. If you are in Christ you have a far more exalted status. Redeemed. Heir to the Kingdom. Possessor of Every Heavenly Gift. Friend of God. United to Jesus. Dig deeper into His wounds than you do into your own. That’s were it’s at.

Read This! 10.18.18

Mike Leake

I’ve been crazy busy and so I’ve gotten a bit behind on these, so they are a bit dated but still some great articles I want to draw your attention to.

12 Questions to Ask Ourselves in Conflict

Conflict is inevitable. These questions help us navigate through these tough times.

Your Body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit

Or is it wrong to get a ‘MOM’ tattoo?

Why a Tennis Ball Goes Flying When Bounced on a Basketball

This is one of the reasons I love reading Challies’ blog, I don’t think I’d ever read articles like this without his A La Carte feature.

4 Strategies to Escape a Bible Reading Rut

I think if you’ve tried to be a regular Bible reader for anytime you’ve likely experienced this.

For the Church 2018 Sessions

I was sad to miss FTC this year, thankfully all their sessions are online.

Does the Bible Teach an Age of Accountability

Dr. Wellum tackles a common question.

Not Many of You Should Become Writers, Readers, Publishers or Editors

This is good.

Six Ordinary Lessons for Mental Health Issues

Simple but helpful tips.

We claim the gospels are inerrant, so why do they contain discrepancies?

The Gospel Is Ithuriel’s Spear

Mike Leake

If you have no idea who or what Ithuriel’s spear is, don’t fret, I didn’t either. I’ve shared in the past my fondness for reading through the old minutes of the Eclectic Society of London. (It’s a John Newton thing). In a discussion on discovering the “enmity of the human heart against God, in amiable moral characters” John Newton had this to say:

“The Gospel is Ithuriel’s spear.”

I’ll confess I had no idea what Ithuriel’s spear was a reference too, but thankfully the book I was reading had a footnote that it was from Milton’s Paradise Lost. But I still didn’t understand the reference so I did what any good millennial would do and Googled the phrase. It’s not an incredibly common phrase but it was one that was used more frequently in the 18th and 19th centuries (when Milton was more widely read). In fact Spurgeon even made use of this in a sermon, and he helpfully explains what is meant by the phrase:

Now, according to Milton, Ithuriel was an angel, who on finding Satan, in a toad-like form, tempting Eve, touched him with his spear and transformed him into his proper likeness, into his true colors.  (Spurgeon from At the End of Your Life)

So what Newton meant is that the gospel has a way of displaying us as we actually are. He doesn’t only mean that the gospel rightly tells us that we are sinners against a holy God, what I believe he is saying is that when we proclaim the gospel to a “good ol’ boy” his true colors will quickly be shown. We will soon discern the pride, or anger, or self-righteousness, or scorn such a one has for the things of God. Or we’ll see one who truly does treasure Christ. The gospel exposes who we really are.

There is one other time when Spurgeon used that phrase Ithuriel’s spear and it’s helpful to us. After a long season of depression suddenly he turned to his wife and she could tell that Charles was back. Light seemed to return to his eyes. This is how Spurgeon would later explain it:

Like a flash of lightning from the sky, my soul returned unto me. The burning lava of my brain cooled in an instant. The throbbings of my brow were still; the cool wind of comfort fanned my cheek, which had been scorched in the furnace. I was free, the iron fetter was broken in pieces, my prison door was open, and I leaped for joy of heart. On wings of a dove, my spirit mounted to the stars—yea, beyond them. Whither did it wing its flight, and where did it sing its song of gratitude? It was at the feet of Jesus, whose Name had charmed its fears, and placed an end to its mourning. The Name—the precious Name of Jesus, was like Ithuriel’s spear, bringing back my soul to its own right and happy state. I was a man again, and what is more, a believer… (Quoted from Drummond’s Prince of Preachers)

“The gospel is Ithuriel’s spear.” What a terrific phrase that I think we should bring back…but maybe we should actually read Paradise Lost first.

Him there they found
Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve,
Assaying by his devilish art to reach
The organs of her fancy, and with them to forge
Illusions as he list, phantasms and dreams.

Him thus intent Ithuriel with his spear
Touched lightly; for no falsehood can endure
Touch of celestial temper, but returns
Of force to its own likeness. Up he starts,
Discovered and surprised.

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Photo source: here  (I’m really not sure why the angel is posed like a ballerina)