Christians and Halloween

Every year in the Fall, there are discussions about what the church’s involvement should be with Halloween. There are the people that say the church should have nothing to do with “the  devil’s holiday” and there are people that try to use Halloween as an outreach opportunity. Then, there are different ways to use it as an outreach opportunity: Fall Festival, Halloween Party, Haunted Houses, and Judgment Houses to name a few. Some people are adamant for one way or the other. Like other disagreements in the church, we need to give and receive grace. This means, we need to explain our view and truly listen to the other side.

As I was growing up, my parents let me go trick-or-treating a couple of times but most of the years, we had a family night. We would go out to eat and then go to a movie. Most years, that was the only movie that my dad would go see in the theater. My parents tended to view Halloween as evil but not as strongly as others. They point to Satanists doing rituals on this night and the origin of the holiday as proof that it is not a harmless day. I know people that hold this view and I respect their decision. They did not come to this decision lightly.

For me and my family, we have taken another approach. If one looks at the origins of Halloween and Christmas, both are very non-Christian. Why do we celebrate Christmas but reject Halloween? I am not saying that Halloween should become the third most holy day for the Christian (after Christmas and Easter but just above Mother’s day). What I am saying is that the church can use Halloween like it uses July 4^th or the Super Bowl. These events are things that our neighbors are talking about and are special to them because they do things differently on these days than every other day of the year. The church can use these days as a way to introduce the church, and ultimately God, to their communities.

At Crestwood, we decided to have a Fall Festival the Saturday before Halloween (Oct 27^th). The purpose for this is to provide a safe environment for families to come and have fun. We want our community to know that we are real people that care about them and want to minister to them. Part of that is having events that families can come to and enjoy together. To stay away from the extremes, we did ask that no one wear scary costumes. Since our event is open to the public, we have no control over what others wear but we try to make sure that our workers do not have weapons or portray scary characters (that is why Cardinals are fine but Wildcats are not).

There are other options, also. One church in town is having a haunted house and Judgment Houses are also popular. I have not been involved with those in the past and I have heard good and bad reports about their effectiveness. Neither of those options are attractive to me because I do not like to be scared. So my objection is purely a personal preference and not a theological one.

My purpose is not to tell you what to think about Halloween but to remind you that whatever we do, it should be as a witness to God about what he has done for us through Jesus. Those who reject Halloween are making a stand for Christ and do get ridiculed by those inside and outside the church. Those that have no problem with Halloween should make sure we are a light in this dark world. Jesus commands us to be “in the world but not of the world.” Consider how you celebrate Halloween.  How much do they reflect the world and how much do they show that you are made different through Christ?

Sports Part 2 - Valuable Lessons

In part 2 of my thoughts on sports, I will tackle (get it? Tackle…football…sports) the life lessons that can be learned from sports. In the book “A Guide to Biblical Manhood”, Dr. Randy Stinson lays out his list of life lessons that he learned from baseball that he has shared with his children. While I would have picked a different sport (soccer or golf), many of these ideas are true in all sports. Here are the ones that I think are the strongest lessons from sports:

 

• Authority – If you ever notice, the umpire or referee always wins the argument. Regardless of the sport, the umpire/referee has the authority to eject anyone he thinks have gotten out of hand. Thus, the life lesson is that you accept the ruling without arguing. Another aspect of this is that you do not blame the outcome of the game on the umpire/referee since they are part of the sport you decided to play. This does not mean that the person doing the officiating is perfect. They will make mistakes and we will be treated unfairly. Guess what? Jesus was treated unfairly and he showed love and forgiveness to those who mistreated him.

 

• Self-sacrifice – When you play a team sport, the individual players need to think as a team. This means that sometimes, certain players need to “take one for the team”. In other words, a player might need to do something that they do not want to do in order to help the team. The life lesson here is that we need to think of others before ourselves. Since the coach has the responsibility to guide the team, this also means that when the coach asks you to do something, you need to obey. Again, there are times where the coach’s ideas will not be the same as yours. In the garden before Jesus was arrested, he pleaded with his “coach” if there was another play that would be run. His “coach” told him no and Jesus then went and was obedient. He ran the play that ended up killing him because he knew that was the best for us.

 

• Failure and Humility – In my one year of HS baseball, my batting average was .000, in other words, I did not get a hit all year (I was on the team for my fielding). While I failed all the time, even the best hitters fail 2 out of 3 times at bat. Whether it is a batter that is in a slump or a pitcher that cannot throw a strike, sports makes us face our failure. How will we react? Will you get mad? Will you blame others? Will you work hard so it doesn’t happen again? Peter failed Jesus when he denied that he knew Jesus and he left crying. Did he give up? No, he learned from his mistakes and was the leader of the church after Jesus went to heaven.

 

• Grace, Mercy, and Honor – Your opponent is someone that God loves and is made in God’s image. When they are cheating or playing in a way that you do not like, it is hard to see that. Regardless of our opinion of them, we are called to honor and respect them. Sportsmanship is a lost art these days. Too many times, the trash talking and taunting are accepted as normal but they show a lack of respect for the other players. You never know what opportunities may come up. Maybe that other player may visit your church. Did you show them respect and honor in the game? Please hear me: this does not mean you do not play hard! This means that you play hard but you do not insult them, humiliate them, run up the score, or get “chippy” when they are winning. Bottom line is that the people on the other side are more important to God than winning. There is no problem with playing to win but what is more important?

 

Stinson outlines more in the book and I do recommend it to you to read. This section is pages 90-96 in the book. The book has sections on how to be a Godly Father, a Godly Husband and a Godly Leader. One lesson that this book makes clear is that in all that we do, we are to become more and more like Christ. What would Jesus do…in our families? In our marriages? In our jobs? In our fun times? And in our sports?

Sports Part 1 - Dangers of Sports

Sports have been a large part of my life for as far back as I can remember. From being a lifelong Minnesota Vikings and Twins fan, to scorekeeping for the church softball team when I was 12 years old, playing softball and broomball (think Field Hockey on ice with no skates - best sport ever!) with my brother and his friends, to coaching Bryce and Tyler, and many more. I enjoy sports. 

As with anything, there are good things and bad things about sports and competition in general. This week, I want to talk about some of the dangers of sports/competitions and next week, I will be talking about the Godly lessons that can be learned through sports. 

1. Win at all cost – The first danger is when winning the game is all that matters. There are many examples of this: a coach telling his team to play dirty, a player getting mad at his teammates when they make a mistake, a fan whose day is ruined when his team loses, and others.

As a Christian, we can play to win the game but the way we play is more important than the outcome. If we look at the competition, does it really matter? Is it worth losing your Christian witness over? This also applies to parents. Here is a test to see if your behavior is appropriate: If your son or daughter was sitting next to you doing what you do, would you stop them? Would you act that way if your pastor/teacher/boss/mother was sitting by you? Remember, it light of eternity, it is just a game. Let’s treat it that way.

2. Revenge – many times when someone does something to a player on the other team, either that player or others on the team will try to get back at them. In Baseball, the pitcher is “supposed to” hit the batter with a pitch in certain situations. In Hockey, they have “goons” that are on the team for their ability to fight. If any of the star players get hit hard, these goons go after the other team as pay back. You hear about games getting “chippy”. This means that teams are taking turns doing something to the other team and each play is getting worse and worse.

As a Christian, the Bible says that vengeance belongs to God. Also, Jesus commands us to “turn the other cheek”. But the best verse for this is Romans 14:12 “So then each one of us shall give an account of himself to God.” How silly does it sound for a little child to say: “He started it!” If that does not work for kids, it will not work for us before the Almighty Creator God.

3. Disrespecting other team, coaches, and/or referees – This is the one that I see most often. Parent’s and the some fans feel that it is acceptable to insult, call names, and be rude to anybody that disagrees with them. “Idiot”, “retarded”, “buffoon”, and “cheater” are all things that I have heard this year said to referees and the other teams. At one game this year, I saw one team’s fans stand up and turn around when the other team was introduced. To some extent, trash talking and /or taunting falls into this area as well. 

As a Christian, Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”. We need to remember that everyone is made in the image of God and since God loves them, we are supposed to also. Is this easy? No but God did not say life would be easy. He said that He would help us do the impossible…including loving that “jerk” on the other team.

There are more but these are the three dangers that I see the most and are the most harmful to the Christian. The Bible tells about sports and how they are similar to our life as Christians. The biggest warning I can give is that we need to watch our witness for Christ in the stands or on the field. God is watching you and you never know who else is watching. Will you be able to tell others about the love of Jesus after the way you behaved at the game?

Christians need to speak against Divorce, also

While same-sex marriage has been in the news lately, many religious leaders have been public about their opposition to it. The Bible is very clear that the act of homosexuality is a sin. As President Mohler states, the Bible also forbids many other sins including divorce. In his article on CNN, he ends with this admission:

"The church failed miserably in the face of the challenge of divorce. This requires an honest admission and strong corrective.
At the same time, this painful failure must remind us that we must not fail to answer rightly when asked what the Bible teaches about homosexuality. Love requires us to tell the truth." (http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/21/my-take-the-bible-condemns-a-lot-but-heres-why-we-focus-on-homosexuality/)

Today, while perusing the headlines, I came across one that caught my eye. "'Should I Divorce?' 10 Ways To Tell If Your Marriage Is Over" was posted on Huffington Post's website. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/25/should-i-divorce_n_1542985.html) In reading this article, all 10 things, except for #5 "One of you cheats", occurs in most, if not all, marriages. For example, item 6 is that there is selfishness in the marriage. Duh! Every marriage is made up of two incredibly sinful sinners. If you ever spend much time in a nursery, you will learn quickly that no one needs to teach kids to be selfish. It is bred into them from the start. We spend the rest of our lives trying to control our selfishness and think of others before ourselves. Thus, every marriage will have selfishness involved in it. Should society tell them to throw in the towel just because one of the spouses is selfish? NO, no, a thousand times NO!!!

But this article says that this is a sign of a marriage that is not worth saving. Thank goodness for the comments. If anyone bothers to read the comments, they would find many people pushing back and calling this article "Bull", "silly article", and "PSY101 nonsense". Unfortunately, most will not. They will take the article at face value. Marriage is hard work but the blessings that come from it are unmeasurable. Our society has turned marriage into a commodity that can be accepted or discarded at the whims of the participants. (Huffington Post also has an article "You've Decided To Leave Your Spouse -- Now What?" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emily-gordon/youve-decided-to-leave-yo_b_1547142.html?ref=topbar that tells you what to do when you will split with your spouse).

Divorce is a symptom of a society with an over-active consumer mentality. "I want what I want and when I do not get it, I will go find it." Instead, the Bible tells us to be content with what we have (Philippians 4:11-12; Hebrews 13:5), love God first and love others before ourselves (Matthew 22:34 - 40). These verses, taken to heart by both spouses, would fix 9 out of the 10 items listed in the article (and it would do a lot to take care of infidelity as well). As Christians, we could condemn divorce. I think a better approach is to foster better marriages, both before they happen and after.

The Bible speaks against homosexuality as well as divorce. Christians need to speak against both when given a chance.