Shownotes
- The history of Halloween and how the Church may have actually invented it.
- How the Gospel redeems culture instead of avoiding it.
- Why Christians can and should participate with radical generosity.
- 7 ideas on ways to be more intentional and missional this year.
Each week the Big 3 will give you immediate action steps to get you started.
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Transcripts
The truth about Halloween was it long ago there was some pagan celebrations that were going on.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:But like in the eighth century, the church said, Hey, hey, let's redeem that.
Caesar:And so they just went ahead and renamed that day, All Saints Day.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:And that was a day when they would pray
Caesar:for the people, you know, their, their relatives that had, I don't know if they prayed for salvation or whatever, but they would just be, they would just.
Caesar:For people had passed away and it was the church's way of redeeming the culture.
Caesar:So they said, Hey, well we're gonna have parties.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:So I loved it cuz it wasn't like, let's abstain from it.
Caesar:Let's stand up on a wooden box in the in the square and tell everybody you shouldn't be, you know, part.
Caesar:They just went ahead and renamed it and then what happened was All Saints Day, that was all hallow.
Caesar:All what they was the night before.
Caesar:And then all Halls Eve got shortened into Halloween.
Caesar:Huh.
Caesar:And that was long ago.
Caesar:You're saying that the
Heath:Halloween was the church's idea?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:It actually Beautiful.
Caesar:Right.
Heath:Welcome to the Everyday Disciple Podcast, where you'll learn how to live with greater intentionality and an integrated faith that naturally fits into every area of life.
Heath:In other words, discipleship as a lifestyle.
Heath:This is the stuff
Heath:your parents, pastors and seminary professors probably forgot to tell you.
Heath:And now here's your host, Caesar Kalinowski.
Caesar Kalinowski:All right, here we go.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hope you're having.
Caesar Kalinowski:Day, hope your loving life, and just experiencing grace to the fullest here as we live in the kingdom.
Caesar Kalinowski:The kingdom of a good and right and perfect God.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hope you're experiencing that.
Caesar Kalinowski:I promised you I might give you a little update from the last episode.
Caesar Kalinowski:I told you I was excited cuz Tina and I were just getting ready.
Caesar Kalinowski:To go on a little two or three day vacation down the Oregon coast.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, it was beautiful.
Caesar Kalinowski:The weather, the first day was amazing and it was beautiful there.
Caesar Kalinowski:And as I was hoping and expected, the food and wine was great and we met a friend down in Portland on the way, and it was just a blast.
Caesar Kalinowski:The next day, little rainy, little bit more of your traditional Pacific Northwest late fall kind of feel.
Caesar Kalinowski:But still along the coast, it is some of the most beautiful, oh, part of the world I've ever seen.
Caesar Kalinowski:Amazing.
Caesar Kalinowski:So yeah, that was a nice little pressure valve release, feeling a little bit of recreate, little rest there.
Caesar Kalinowski:And our hearts definitely needed that.
Caesar Kalinowski:So, yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:But back at it and happy to be, Hey, could I just say, if you find even the smallest little nugget of wisdom and encouragement from the podcast or as you hear this, Would you share it with a friend who needs it?
Caesar Kalinowski:Don't be stingy.
Caesar Kalinowski:Your friend will think you're a rockstar.
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Caesar Kalinowski:I just love it when I get a text from a friend or some, somebody in my family with a link to a podcast that they know I'm gonna absolutely love along with a message.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, it says something like, Wow, you gotta listen to this podcast.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're gonna love this.
Caesar Kalinowski:I love getting that.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's how I find new podcasts and sort of pay it forward when I find something good.
Caesar Kalinowski:So if you're enjoying the Everyday, Disciple, Podcast, would you do that right now?
Caesar Kalinowski:It's super easy cuz just like everything online, it's everyday Disciple dot com slash something.
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Caesar Kalinowski:. five twelve
Caesar Kalinowski:So you can share this episode just by going, Wow, you gotta check out this podcast.
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Caesar Kalinowski:Disciple dot com slash five twelve There you go.
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Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:As we get started here, I listened back to an episode that we did on the podcast a couple years ago where Heath and I were talking about Halloween and the amazing opportunity for mission and relationship building.
Caesar Kalinowski:It is, and it's just too good not to share with you here as we head into this season again.
Caesar Kalinowski:Maybe you're a new listener.
Caesar Kalinowski:Maybe hadn't heard this before or cuz it was a couple years ago.
Caesar Kalinowski:Maybe you haven't heard it since then, but it gets into a lot of the history of Halloween.
Caesar Kalinowski:So why we don't have to fear it as Christians freak out about it and a bunch of great ideas for living on mission right in your own neighborhood this Halloween.
Caesar Kalinowski:So I really felt this is what I'm supposed to do.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let's dive into that now.
Heath:Yeah, so I don't usually dress up, but one year, probably four years ago, I bought this like, Like German leader Hoing, and it was like the, it was like a little too tight on me and it felt good, you know, it felt tight, but I also had my beerstein with me and I just, it was kind of fun walking around the kids in a, in a thin little Walmart
Caesar:leader, Hoing.
Caesar:I, I can't, I'd be honest with you, I cannot remember what the weirdest Halloween costume I'm sure taking the kids around, doing some Halloweens cause yeah, I can remember doing.
Caesar:All of 'em, pretty much if I was in town or whatever, um, I don't remember doing a whole lot of dressing up, so I don't remember.
Caesar:I do remember my folks going to some Halloween parties and dressing up a little bit, but not very, I'm not a big costume guy.
Caesar:Yeah, I mean either, but I've seen some crazy.
Caesar:I've seen some crazy costumes online.
Caesar:Like it's getting to where it's not just like the, you know, like people wanna rent them.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:It's like weird, like it's real weird.
Caesar:Like combinations of things.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Like I saw this one picture of this gal.
Caesar:She's dressed like a fried egg, but she's wearing the mask of Benedict Cumberbatch.
Caesar:And so she's eggs benedict.
Caesar:You know what I mean?
Caesar:Like, you know, it's like that kind of stuff that you see, you know, a
Heath:lot, right?
Heath:The ones that always give me are like the ones where it looks like the, you know, it's your head, but you're writing like an ostrich, and so your feet are in the ostrich, like the little
Caesar:baby riding.
Caesar:I've seen people dressed up as like, like they're French, you know, all stripe shirts and little thin mustaches, but then they have kiss makeup on and berets and they're called French kissing or something that, you know, there's, there's crazy stuff out there, but I don't know, I'm not as into the costume.
Caesar:Even when people are like, we're doing a co, we're doing a costume cont in, you know, our.
Caesar:Yeah, and I have some friends man, that they go nuts.
Caesar:Yeah, Yeah.
Caesar:People go crazy.
Caesar:Our drop crazy coin, they spend weeks building the costumes, you know?
Caesar:Like I'm all for it with the kids.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:But yeah, me, I don't know.
Caesar:I
Heath:just don't have the time for it.
Heath:Our neighbor goes crazy every year.
Heath:I mean thousands of, She's always on the news and she's got all the lights.
Heath:She starts in July.
Heath:Every Saturday you hear Tony, her husband out in the backyard like,
Caesar:yeah, there's another house like that in Tacoma.
Caesar:I was just at my sister's in Chicago and she said, This guy.
Caesar:Every season, every holiday for months, it's all decked up.
Caesar:So that's, it goes nuts.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:That's kind of awesome, right?
Caesar:I guess it's fun, you
Heath:know, Hey, we wanted to, um, you know, right now, 10 days away from Halloween, we wanted to give people about a week and a half to start getting ready for Halloween.
Heath:Uh, because we think it is probably the best Missional holiday, I mean, To have neighbors coming up to your door.
Heath:Crazy.
Heath:It's amazing.
Heath:It is.
Heath:Right, right.
Heath:And I grew up in a home that celebrated it, but I've come, I've come to find a lot of people that just don't.
Heath:In fact, a lot of religious homes, friends and religious homes just don't participate.
Heath:Yeah, they don't.
Heath:Right.
Heath:Yeah.
Heath:What a great holiday for mission.
Heath:Right?
Heath:People coming to your house, showing up at your door.
Caesar:Knocking on your door.
Caesar:I mean, people just like agonize all year long and throw up over like, I just know how to meet anybody.
Caesar:And it's like, and then people are just banging on their door.
Caesar:Everyone's running through the streets.
Caesar:What?
Caesar:Just stick a bowl out on a stool and maybe, you know, we don't have to mess with people.
Caesar:Do you ever hear the Seinfeld?
Caesar:It's old.
Caesar:I only heard it an audio, but it's an old thing about him doing a bit about Halloween when he was a kid.
Caesar:He's like, Remember the first time you heard about Halloween?
Caesar:He.
Caesar:Who's, who's given out candy?
Caesar:Everyone we knows, given out Candy , I gotta be a part of this.
Caesar:How do I, I'll wear that.
Caesar:You know,
Caesar:, Heath: I always loved, we, we would have little like, Secrets we'd tell our friends that there's a lady in the neighborhood who would actually give out the actual size candy bars.
Caesar:So instead of like a little tiny,
Caesar:you get the, yeah, there was always one or two of those generous people
Heath:love it.
Heath:And so, you know, early on in the night, like who your true friends are, cuz they'll tell you like, Hey, go over to, there you go.
Caesar:Nancy's house, she's, one time I was a kid going and I went up to these, uh, guy's house and um, there was two stoners sitting on the porch.
Caesar:I probably didn't know that's what they were then.
Caesar:But like now looking back, I go, Oh, they were stoners.
Caesar:. And.
Caesar:I remember like same thing, you're kind of waiting for that big candy bar and you can tell how good the candy hitting your bag is by how heavy the thk is.
Caesar:Oh yeah.
Caesar:Right?
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:Because you know like a little one of those little crap clear bags of like fake like Skittles at nine real Skittles.
Caesar:It's just like chi hits your bag, but when you get like Thk, you're like, I think that was like one of those big milky ways or something, right?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Anyway, I get this big Thk Thk in my bag and I'm like, Yes.
Caesar:And I remember the whole rest of the Halloween like trick or treating that night.
Caesar:I'm thinking I can't wait to get it and see what those guys gave me.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:These two stoners as I get home.
Caesar:And they were two desell batteries.
Caesar:No, . That's what they threw in my back.
Caesar:And then I was like, I remember thinking like, you know when you're a kid, you're an optimist.
Caesar:I'm thinking, That's okay.
Caesar:I got a lot of toys that use D cells.
Caesar:They were dead.
Caesar:Oh my gosh.
Caesar:They weren't even, They weren't even good chucking out old batteries.
Caesar:Yeah, they were chucking old batteries over.
Caesar:They were getting rid of
Heath:their trash.
Caesar:And Halloween.
Caesar:Now they'd be Halloween.
Caesar:Thanks.
Heath:Well, okay, so my experience, we don't wanna be that guy.
Heath:Don't be that guy.
Heath:I was raised.
Heath:We celebrated Halloween more.
Heath:The candy, we didn't know any of the background of it, but we had a lot of friends who, who in the church were very, uh, vocal, even to my parents, like, You are a terrible parent for letting your, your kids go out in Halloween.
Heath:And it's the, it's the devil's holiday.
Heath:Oh my God.
Caesar:Sat, I hate to admit this to you.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:As, as my close pal and also to our listeners, but I can remember one time standing outside of a Halloween party, not at a house.
Caesar:It was a big public one, and handing out anti Halloween track.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:So I like not, it wasn't anti, it was, it was sort of using Halloween as like this evil thing to scare people outta hell, you know, scare the, you know, like scare hell.
Caesar:It was just like what one of those things where I'm gonna have to like apologize to Jesus face to face for doing that.
Caesar:Sorry.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:Sorry.
Caesar:Jesus and all those Christians was not anything like you.
Caesar:I don't know why we did that.
Heath:So it has some dark history for what I've been told, and I always taught that this was a holiday you're supposed to avoid.
Heath:And I did until
Caesar:I, like, I've heard the whole, it's a pagan holiday.
Caesar:Oh yeah.
Caesar:So by, you know, dressing your kids up and going out there, like participating in Pagan holiday, how you like about that?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:And
Heath:how, how would you like, like the demons to crawl into their souls while they're out, you know?
Caesar:Well, I don't want that , I don't even wanna meet that much sugar, to be honest with you, but it's kind of fun, you know?
Caesar:Um, Okay.
Caesar:So it, I was, I grew up in the same kind of way.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So we did it as a.
Caesar:But there was always that sort of layer.
Caesar:I don't know that the church I grew up in had like the crazy anti Halloween thing going on.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:But there was, it was definitely out there.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:It was definitely out there.
Caesar:And I would say that when Tina and I were raising our kids when they were young and they were doing that, it was even more so.
Caesar:So maybe less it.
Caesar:Early sixties when I was little, little, you know, Um, and a little more in the eighties when I was raising my kids.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:So, but the truth is we did a little research.
Caesar:You now we're just looking at some stuff.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:The truth about Halloween was, is long ago there was some pagan celebrations that were going on, but like in the eighth century, the church said, Hey, hey.
Caesar:Let's redeem that.
Caesar:And so they just went ahead and renamed that day, All Saints Day.
Caesar:And that was a day when they would pray for the people, you know, their, their relatives that had, I don't if they prayed for salvation, whatever, but they would just be, they would just pray for people had passed away.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Um, and it was the church's way of redeem.
Caesar:The culture.
Caesar:So they said, Hey, well we're gonna have parties.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:So I loved it because it wasn't like, let's abstain from it.
Caesar:Let's stand up on a wooden box in the in the square and tell everybody you shouldn't be, you know, part.
Caesar:They just went ahead and renamed it.
Caesar:And then what happened was that All Saints Day.
Caesar:That was all Hallows Eve.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:All what they was the night before.
Caesar:And then all hellos Eve got shortened into Halloween.
Caesar:Huh.
Caesar:And that was long ago.
Caesar:By the way, you're saying that the Halloween was the church's.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:It actually Beautiful, right?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:People can go look it up and I know we're gonna get people right in and say, No, I'm gonna put some links to some stuff on the History Channel, and they go deep into the history of h Halloween.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:Um, they go super deep into it.
Caesar:We'll go ahead and put a link to some of that.
Caesar:Um, but yeah, it kind of was right, And it was just all these parties, but then other traditions around the world that had similar fall festivals brought sort of the idea of like, Hey, you know, we, we can.
Caesar:Can we get some food or like some snacks or some fruit or you know, a treat.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:If we do this and if we don't do that.
Caesar:And it wasn't until the fifties, man, that this whole trick Yeah.
Caesar:1950s, that the whole trick or treating thing really kicked in.
Caesar:Huh.
Caesar:And that was primarily here in America, but it was all this continuation.
Caesar:Now here's another funny thing is, Lot of Christians will rail against Halloween or any kind of participation in it.
Caesar:And I'm not really here to tell people like, whatever your convictions are, sure that's your convictions and you need to vote your convictions.
Caesar:You know, you live out of them.
Caesar:What's next season?
Heath:You're gonna tell us that that Christmas wasn't, wasn't a church holiday.
Caesar:Christmas was actually a Pagan holiday.
Caesar:It was redeemed too.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Back, yeah, back like in the third century.
Caesar:There was other things going on that were sort of.
Caesar:Pagan and the church viewed as like, Hey, that's not cool.
Caesar:But there again, instead of railing at it, they went ahead.
Caesar:And they came up with their own holiday.
Caesar:Then later they also said, Oh, and that's the day we're gonna celebrate Jesus' birthday.
Caesar:Cuz surprise surprise to our Christian listeners, um, there is no December 25th anywhere in the Bible.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:Like, we don't know the day that Jesus was born.
Caesar:We just, we don't know it.
Caesar:And so they just began to celebrate it on that day and that that didn't even come around until something like a thousand.
Caesar:Ad.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:And then it wasn't even that common that your average family would celebrate Christmas Okay.
Caesar:Until like 300 years ago or something like that.
Caesar:I mean, it's, but it was a church thing.
Caesar:So the church redeemed a Pagan holiday, so, So I'm telling you, you gotta to be fair and if you go do the research, to be fair, you gotta kind of either chuck 'em both.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:In fact, that was interesting.
Caesar:Remember in, in the research we saw that for years the Puritans were anti any kind of Christmas celebration.
Caesar:Yeah, absolutely.
Caesar:And, and, and if you were caught doing it, there were certain laws in the books.
Caesar:You were charged five shillings, which I guess was a crap ton of money back then.
Caesar:Uh, if you caught celebrating Christmas, That's how amazing anti the church got to the thing they created because they, they felt like it was being abused.
Caesar:It was becoming too much about like other things.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:I love that man.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So anyway, a little history there.
Caesar:We don't normally go too deep into the history, but you know, a little history
Heath:on there, on the, on the show notes for this week.
Heath:Yeah.
Heath:All right.
Heath:So I personally now having kind of grown more in my Missional identity and the incarnational impulse of Jesus, um, I actually now see Halloween as perhaps.
Heath:Actually, I would say for sure the greatest evangelical holiday that Christians can actually participate in.
Heath:You know, not yet.
Heath:Followers of Jesus
Caesar:Evangelistic holiday.
Caesar:Yeah, sorry.
Heath:Evangelistic holidays.
Heath:Yeah.
Heath:Not yet.
Heath:Followers of Jesus showing up at your door.
Heath:All your neighbors in the street together.
Heath:Everyone's in a pretty great mood.
Heath:They're all celebrate.
Heath:The kids are happy.
Caesar:Anything that gets grown, adults dressing up in costumes has gotta have something funny going on there.
Caesar:Right?
Caesar:Yeah, absolutely,
Heath:man.
Heath:Would you agree with that as far as
Caesar:the Missional side of it?
Caesar:I totally do.
Caesar:I've always thought, I mean, as soon as I became a follower, Jesus, I was like, Well, there's at least one time of the year when it's easy to meet my neighbors.
Caesar:You know what I mean?
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:But so often, I think there again, there's either that distortion of like, Halloween's bad, but I'd say by and large, most Christians don't think that.
Caesar:I'm gonna guess that.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Most of our listeners probably don't.
Caesar:They're like, Oh, it's evil.
Caesar:But then I do know a whole lot of other people too though.
Caesar:Like say, So what are you doing for Halloween?
Caesar:Yeah, we just turn the lights off and we, we split.
Caesar:I can't, you know, I don't wanna, I don't wanna mess with, I'm like, Oh, are you kidding?
Caesar:Yeah, don't do that.
Caesar:You gotta string of people coming to your house, banging on the door in a great mood, looking to be happy.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Holy moly.
Caesar:Like, yeah, that's some low hanging Missional fruit right there.
Caesar:Right?
Caesar:No joke.
Heath:And you're not even, they're not even asking for deep conversation.
Heath:It's, I mean, everyone's in a great
Caesar:mood, you know, and I know there's, I know there's these, uh, there's alternatives.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So like, my kids real.
Caesar:I forgot about this still, just now.
Caesar:When our kids were real little, the church that we were part of, and it was great.
Caesar:It was, it really was a great community.
Caesar:But they were sort of like, uh, the Halloween thing.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:So they would put on the fall festival every year.
Caesar:And I know a bunch of people listening right now go, Our church does that great.
Caesar:Like, celebrate the harvest.
Caesar:Celebrate God's goodness and bounty.
Caesar:We, we get to that is exactly what the church was doing when they created Halloween.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:. So now we forget that the church created.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:With a whole different idea.
Caesar:We've jumped back over to the evil back, pagan as aspect of things or whatever, and um, and now we have to create our own.
Caesar:So it's okay.
Caesar:But here's what I do wanna say.
Caesar:Anytime we take anything in life, be it Halloween, or if you wanna boycott Christmas Sure.
Caesar:Or if it's alcohol, or if it's sports, watching sports, or you know, whatever.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:As soon as we say, you know what the answer to that is as a Christian abstain.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:What we're, what we're doing, we risk doing is saying that's not redeemable.
Caesar:That's beyond the reach of the Gospel.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:So, We'll, you know how you, you know how you deal with that?
Caesar:You don't deal with it.
Caesar:That's, that's still the opposite of the Gospel.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:God came, Jesus came to deal with it.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:He didn't like shout out from heaven.
Caesar:Hey, you guys quit sitting, and by the way, I've forgiven y'all.
Caesar:You know, it's like he came and he dealt with it.
Caesar:He came and he hung out and he walked with us.
Caesar:And now he lives in us.
Caesar:And it's just, it's an amazing incarnating of things, right?
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:And so anytime we say, you know the answer, abstain from it.
Caesar:No, no, no.
Caesar:The answer is always redeem.
Caesar:And by the way, this one was already redeemed by the church.
Caesar:We just have to get back to some of those roots.
Caesar:Well, isn't there a
Heath:scripture that says they'll know we are Christians by what we boycott.
Heath:. I think that's,
Caesar:that's a kind of a paraphrase.
Caesar:. Heath: No, it's our love and engagement for the community and, And what a perfect
Caesar:opportunity.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:So I mean I have no problem with, now I lived in neighborhood too, once where it was a little scary.
Caesar:This was just a few years ago.
Caesar:Uh, we lived on the edge of a pretty rough neighborhood.
Caesar:I know that neighborhood.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:To in submission.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:I won't call it out cuz I don't wanna shame any neighborhoods in Tacoma , but, Um, it was a little scary to send kids door to door.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:You know what I mean?
Caesar:There just was a lot of drug houses and, and stuff going down and Sure.
Caesar:You know, just a lot of danger.
Caesar:So the, there, there would be organized either by churches or civic duties, trunker treats.
Caesar:Mm-hmm.
Caesar:, do you know what Trunker treat is?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Where like a whole, everyone brings up their trunk and Yeah.
Caesar:You kind of circle up the wagons of your cars in a parking lot somewhere.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:And you open up your trunks and they were decorated and there was lights going in music and there was, And then the kids come and cuz they, they're having fun.
Caesar:They're dressing up.
Caesar:You know what I mean?
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:And by the way too, you know like, does everybody have to dress up as the sexy something, you know, the sexy nurse.
Caesar:I told you I'm not gonna do that again.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Last time I'm bringing it up then
Caesar:. Heath: No, I get that.
Caesar:It's such a sec.
Caesar:Like, I'm like, you should not be wearing that
Caesar:lady.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Or your kids.
Caesar:Anyway, so have fun.
Caesar:Dress up, you know, there's lots of movie characters, whatever, you know, I think, I think my grandson is gonna dress up as, uh, a little fireman.
Caesar:This year.
Caesar:Oh, his dad's, His dad's applying to become a fireman.
Caesar:Right now we're believing in faith that's happening real soon.
Caesar:So I think little Patton's gonna be a fireman.
Caesar:That'll be cute.
Caesar:He'd be cute.
Caesar:Little fire right now.
Caesar:Oh my gosh.
Caesar:So anyway, I have no problem with that.
Caesar:That's a cultural thing saying, Hey, we wanna still celebrate trick or treat, have some fun with the kids in Halloween, but let's go ahead and do it in a safe way.
Caesar:Just like if, I guess if your house, you know, like you lived on a highway . Sure.
Caesar:You know what I mean?
Caesar:When, when I was living in Manhattan, Oh, Halloween's a big O deal there.
Caesar:And the Halloween parade, by the way, it was like a freak show.
Caesar:It was just, Oh wow.
Caesar:I be, It was phenomenal.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Like, and you couldn't even, like how much money and years did they put into this stuff?
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:But there was one block, couple blocks We lived, uh, we live on 75th, 60 on 69th.
Caesar:One 69th.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:There was a block that Halloween was their jam, and a lot of the people living on the block were involved in Broadway and productions and set building and acting and all that.
Caesar:When you walked down this block, it was like you were on a Halloween movie.
Caesar:Oh, cool.
Caesar:It was lit and there was stuff hanging outta the trees and lighting and skeleton.
Caesar:They had a zip line man from like a third or fourth, uh, uh, floor apartment over to a tree, like half, you know, like a few houses down.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:And like monkeys and stuff, doing the Halloween thing, like sliding in with monkeys and monkey wings and all it was, Oh my gosh.
Caesar:They opened up the whole building and, and the kids could come in and go door to.
Caesar:Up through 10, 12 apartments and they come into the apartments and they're all different themed.
Caesar:And it was, Man, how fun.
Caesar:It was a blast.
Caesar:That's awesome.
Caesar:I'm so jealous.
Caesar:Cuz I couldn't get in, you know, I didn't have a costume on that day.
Caesar:I wanna go back.
Caesar:I wanna go there.
Caesar:They do it every year, man.
Caesar:They do it every year.
Caesar:It's phenomenal.
Caesar:Anyway, so I, I, I think, I think it's okay to be safe with it.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:I, it's, it's smart to be smart with it.
Caesar:Um, be careful with your kids, do stuff that's age appropriate for them, but I, I think we're in pretty good.
Caesar:Shape by not abstaining from it.
Caesar:Yeah, absolutely.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:And like you said earlier, I think in fact it's the opposite.
Caesar:I think we get to redeem all of culture and all of life and Halloween when, when people are lining up to come knock at your door.
Caesar:Oh, awesome.
Caesar:Amen.
Caesar:Is it a time to be like, treat people wonderfully, and I'm gonna give a whole bunch of ideas of what people can do here in just a
Heath:second.
Heath:So, Yeah.
Heath:You know, uh, one idea that we had, I was at a church in Tennessee and we'd just fallen in love with, uh, kind of trying to move into it like an incarnation church.
Heath:And the, the trunk or treat was the biggest event we did all year.
Heath:I mean, tens of thousands of dollars more attendees than anything we've ever done.
Heath:And they decided one year to cancel it.
Heath:And what they did was they gave every Missional communities the chunk of money, like a thousand bucks or 1500 bucks, and said, Whoa.
Heath:They said, Why don't you, We're gonna pay for bounce houses at all of your houses, and we're gonna, and we're gonna give you a budget for food and drinks, and you're gonna throw a massive party in your driveway.
Heath:So rather than making about one church, now you've got, in this town of 50,000 people, you've
Caesar:got 30 houses.
Caesar:What if churches took their like summer?
Caesar:What do they call the summer thing when everybody comes during the summer break?
Caesar:Uh, vbs.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:What if they took the VBS budgets and said, You know what?
Caesar:This year we're gonna divvy it up and we're gonna let all of our people.
Caesar:Just fun, amazing Halloween things going on at their houses, in their neighborhoods, so that we just have this amazing generosity of presence.
Caesar:Well, that's what happened
Heath:is everyone would sit down and you'd have big bowls of chili and beer, and the the neighbors are getting to meet each other and the kids are jumping together and then they'd go back out.
Heath:But it was just a cool way of, uh, of breaking it up
Caesar:from drawing everyone to one building.
Caesar:A good friend of mine, he's a pastor, young guy, some great fan, great family, great kids, uh, in Norway, Okay.
Caesar:And nor in, in, in lots of Europe.
Caesar:This whole trick or treating thing is just, Huh.
Caesar:It's just brand new.
Caesar:They don't understand it.
Caesar:It's kind of the, you know, the church is still way in the back.
Caesar:They're mostly against it.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:He was like, Are you kidding me?
Caesar:Me and my wife, we decided like year after year we're gonna become famous for how awesome.
Caesar:The stuff we hand out is and how fun it is to stop by for the parents too.
Caesar:Oh, that's cool.
Caesar:Right, And they are.
Caesar:I'm so proud of him going to town.
Caesar:Almost nobody even does it, but our house, everybody knows it.
Caesar:And so we're like, We win right now.
Caesar:The kids love it.
Caesar:I love that.
Caesar:I love
Heath:that.
Heath:Okay, so you just said a few minutes ago that you had some ideas on how we can
Caesar:be more intentional.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Let me, let me jam through a bunch of ideas.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So, um, here's first thing.
Caesar:Super obvious.
Caesar:Be home.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Be home on Halloween.
Caesar:We moved last year to this house.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:And I was booked speaking training out of town.
Caesar:Ah.
Caesar:It killed me.
Caesar:Cuz I know this neighborhood is just all family and kids.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:And they throw a party here at the drop of a hat, anything.
Caesar:Our neighborhood parties and, and they set up stuff, man.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:Balancing the house and, and we weren't here and I was like, whatever, be home, don't be that house again this year.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:You know that house, you know.
Caesar:How often do people line up at your house to meet you.
Caesar:Prioritize this occasion if you feel like your Missional Yep.
Caesar:Prioritize.
Caesar:This year I purposely was like, Tina, we're not booking anything and we've had some things come up we're, nope, not Halloween.
Caesar:Nope.
Caesar:I'm not going anywhere.
Caesar:We're not doing that.
Caesar:We're not taking, That's a great deal on a cruise or whatever, you know, I'm not doing.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Um, Prioritize it and plan to be home.
Caesar:Don't make excuses or worry if your kids are already grown.
Caesar:Yep, that's okay.
Caesar:A lot of the stuff we've learned to do and I'm sharing right here, has all been post when my kids were little cause like cuz we're just, we want to be it.
Caesar:Right?
Caesar:This is once a year, make the most of the opportunity be home.
Caesar:That's cool.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Um.
Caesar:second turn on your lights, . Yeah, I know.
Caesar:It seems real basic.
Caesar:It says we're home, we're here and we're open for business.
Caesar:All right.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:Even though Halloween has this tradition of being scary, you know, and everything, um, make your house seem super inviting.
Caesar:Turn on lots of lights outside, inside now, I guess.
Caesar:Unless your jam is, you know, like those people that spooky, they spook it up and they like the guy sitting in the, the rocking chair on the porch is like, scarecrow, but it's the dad, you know, It's fun too, you know?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:So then maybe you need some darkness, but otherwise, you know, turn on your lights, prop your door.
Caesar:Better yet, sit out front and greet people.
Caesar:That's great.
Caesar:Don't make them ring the doorbell and wait and wait and wait and wonder if you're home and then you kind of show up.
Caesar:Oh, yeah.
Caesar:Hold on.
Caesar:And you grab the bowl like, like you're doing it out of obligation.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Like just turn on the lights and be welcoming.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:There you go.
Caesar:Absolutely.
Caesar:Basics . Um, how about this, Ask everyone their name and tell them yours to.
Caesar:So basic.
Caesar:He's like, tricker treat.
Caesar:He's like, Hi, what's your name?
Caesar:I'm Caesar.
Caesar:You know?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Just basic stuff, right?
Caesar:I mean, seriously, when someone you don't know comes to your house and you ask them their name and where they live, you introduce yourself, right?
Caesar:Normally, like think about any other opportunity where a neighbor showed up, you wouldn't be like, Got outta here as soon as you possibly can.
Caesar:Here take this candy.
Caesar:Go take this D cell.
Caesar:. Yeah.
Caesar:Battery.
Caesar:No, just so do normal stuff.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Hey, what's your name?
Caesar:Where do you guys live?
Caesar:Around here.
Caesar:You'll find out some people do and sometimes if you live in a great neighborhood, No, but we come here cuz the Candy's better.
Caesar:Awesome.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:I remember
Heath:last year this little three year old in a, in a princess outfit showed up to the door and I said, You are the most beautiful princess I've ever seen.
Heath:And she said, I'm beautiful.
Heath:And she got this giant smile and her parents are
Caesar:like, What a cool guy you are.
Caesar:Think about this.
Caesar:Ask someone their name, where they live, introduce yourself.
Caesar:We learn that in kindergarten.
Caesar:It should be that tough.
Caesar:So don't crack the door.
Caesar:Toss a piece of candy out towards their bag, right?
Caesar:Discipleship in mo mission moves at the speed of relationship.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:So who knows?
Caesar:This could be the start of a new friendship with that family.
Caesar:Dress like the monsters.
Caesar:You know what I mean?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:We don't know.
Caesar:Right?
Caesar:We don't know.
Caesar:I've, I know I've met some people through this like Sure.
Caesar:Like became part of all the stuff that was going on in the neighborhood.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Um, next one.
Caesar:Give out good stuff.
Caesar:Be that house and the folks that everyone looks forward to.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:. You know, like what's the difference between just crap candy and awesome candy?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:You're not gonna, few bucks difference, right?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:I mean, save up for it if you need to.
Caesar:I mean, I know a lot of people have tight budgets.
Caesar:I'm not, you know?
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:So, but if you're prioritizing, hey, we're gonna be home and we're gonna rock it this year.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Well I don't, you know, save up a little.
Caesar:Yeah, absolutely.
Caesar:Put a buck away, you know, every week or so.
Caesar:I dunno, you know?
Caesar:I, you know, I still, like I said, remember which houses gave out the full size Snickers when I was a kid.
Caesar:You know, you just kinda get 'em locked in, like you were saying.
Caesar:Right?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Which ones to avoid because they were weird and you know, they'd hand out either those hard orange circus peanuts, you know, those things are like door stops.
Caesar:My stepdad's favorite, but they're awful.
Caesar:People are gonna write in, Oh, I love those.
Caesar:They're horrible.
Caesar:They're terrible.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Just be generous.
Caesar:Be like Jesus, who brought the best wine.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:To the party that the wine steward at every.
Caesar:There's our model.
Caesar:Thanks.
Caesar:Thanks.
Caesar:Thanks, Jesus.
Caesar:Yeah, that's awesome.
Caesar:Okay, fifth, offer a warm drink and a chance to sit down for a few minutes.
Caesar:Like I, This one I learned dragging kids around for hours.
Caesar:You know, you're just like, holy cow.
Caesar:Like you're in the wagon.
Caesar:The little one right.
Caesar:I'm pulling you.
Caesar:So depending on where you live, it's often colder around the end.
Caesar:October.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:Not everywhere, but a lot of places.
Caesar:Um, set up a table out front with a few chairs.
Caesar:Offer hot chocolate or.
Caesar:Ask people if they wanna take a load off for a few minutes while their kids finish up the block.
Caesar:You know, they're trying to pay attention here.
Caesar:We'll sit right out here.
Caesar:We can see 'em.
Caesar:Hey kids, just do the houses over there.
Caesar:Whatever.
Caesar:They feel comfortable.
Caesar:Right?
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:And this will let people know that you're open to relationship and not in a hurry to just move 'em along.
Caesar:You know, Maybe even a little party you'll break out.
Caesar:Yeah, absolutely.
Caesar:Great.
Caesar:Here's another idea.
Caesar:Throw an after party for parents only.
Caesar:Hm.
Caesar:One of the coolest things we ever did was we made little flyers and we handed 'em out, inviting people in our neighborhood to come around after trick or treating was over for like an adult beverage and some real appetizers.
Caesar:Oh, that's cool.
Caesar:And we said, uh, the flyer just said, Why should kids have all the fun that that was, that was the headline, huh?
Caesar:I mean, it was horrible.
Caesar:I just made it up on, you know, on a Word document, it just, but sure.
Caesar:And then we hand out the flyers earlier, the.
Caesar:And also to folks that came to the door for trick or treat.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Like we said, Hey, having fun.
Caesar:They're like, Yeah, you know, I tell like, we're freezing out, but you know, the kids are having fun.
Caesar:You're like, Well, we're having a little party afterwards.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:I'm not telling kidding you how many people came.
Caesar:That is so awesome.
Caesar:So the kids are home like getting a full on sugar high and, uh, drink.
Caesar:Yeah, exactly.
Caesar:You know, so that's, that was one of the coolest.
Caesar:We had a blast and we took things further towards lasting relationships with several people.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Um, now here's another one.
Caesar:organize a neighborhood Halloween parade.
Caesar:. Oh, cool.
Caesar:Like this one's like, maybe for the more bold people out there.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:But it's a great idea.
Caesar:Let me little story here.
Caesar:Uh, a few years ago, my buddy Chuck was, uh, told me this, I think he's still doing it.
Caesar:he started this cool annual Halloween tradition in his neighborhood.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:He went around handing out flyers, announcing they called it Treats in the Street, Halloween.
Caesar:That is great.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:And he was organizing it for the kids and the parents who lived around his home.
Caesar:And everyone met at his place at five 15.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So right after work.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:Mm-hmm.
Caesar:. And they marched around the neighborhood, up one block and down the other, and folks.
Caesar:Like everybody, you know everybody.
Caesar:Cause the kids all met there.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:And then the kids paraded and the parents were back home and cheering their heads off.
Caesar:So the whole neighborhood was just cheering for them.
Caesar:That is so cool.
Caesar:. Uh, it was awesome.
Caesar:And, and, and then they would end up back at Chuck's house where he had a big fire pit blaze in and gallons of chili and a jump house and all that stuff.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:And this man, I don't have time today, but this led to lots of discipleship and lots of relationships, Of course.
Caesar:And lots of trust.
Caesar:And it was one of those things because he did it annual.
Caesar:And even called it the annual treats in the street Halloween parade.
Caesar:People look forward.
Caesar:Hey, you doing the parade this year?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:My kids love the parade.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:You know I am.
Caesar:Oh, why do you, He's so, I'm not saying everybody's gonna do this, but there's an idea, right?
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:How cool is that?
Caesar:That's great.
Caesar:As a super cool one.
Caesar:Now, here's a bonus tip.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Involve your kids in all this with you, not just, you know, um, duh, right?
Caesar:They don't have to just be out, trick or treat in the entire time, okay?
Caesar:Our own kids always had a blast hand in out treat.
Caesar:And they, they usually knew more of the kids and the families that came calling than we did.
Caesar:So we would let them do that and they actually loved it.
Caesar:Let me hand out to the candy.
Caesar:He's like, Great, Here's what we're gonna do, honey.
Caesar:Ask them their name.
Caesar:Tell 'em your name.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:And then you can even introduce, this is my dad's Caesar.
Caesar:You know?
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Like it's a, it's a super opportunity to train up your kids a bit and get them involved.
Caesar:Plus kids to kids, man, it's
Heath:warm.
Heath:Well, yeah, and it bridges that gap too.
Heath:There was a few times last year where London, my oldest was like, Hey, that's Connor from the soccer team.
Heath:And then, and it's like, Oh, you must be Connor's parents.
Heath:I'm here.
Heath:Yeah.
Heath:Bing.
Heath:Yeah.
Heath:I've always seen you around in soccer.
Heath:Yeah.
Caesar:I didn't know you lived in.
Caesar:So let's talk about a way to train your kids in hospitality and intention.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:So let them know why you're doing it and that you're hoping I'm building relationships.
Caesar:Absolutely.
Caesar:We wanna be friends with these people, and maybe someday we'll get to Disciple and to walk in the ways of Jesus too.
Caesar:Mm-hmm.
Caesar:. But right now, we just want 'em to have fun tonight.
Caesar:You know?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Feel good about this.
Caesar:So, so there's a bunch, there's a bunch of tips for folks and, uh, there we go.
Caesar:That, that, I mean, come up with your own ideas.
Caesar:Use a bunch of those.
Heath:Hopefully that was a spark plug to something.
Heath:They're like, Yeah, it's
Caesar:gotta feel a little bit of energy.
Caesar:Okay, now we wanna leave you with the big three takeaways from today's topic.
Caesar:If nothing else, you don't wanna miss these three ideas.
Caesar:And by the way, you can always get a printable PDF of this week's big three.
Caesar:As a free download by going to everyday Disciple dot com slash Big
Heath:three Caesar, what would you say the
Caesar:big three are for this week?
Caesar:Okay, The first one is God redeems lives and culture.
Caesar:So we don't need to fear generous, loving participation in cultural events in ways that show others what he's really like.
Caesar:Okay, and this isn't just true of Halloween.
Caesar:Okay, so God's gonna bring people, sovereignly, bring people to your doorstep during this upcoming fall celebration.
Caesar:So what divine appointments may be waiting for you on the other side of your front door.
Caesar:This is truly being in the world, but not of it opportunity.
Caesar:Just right there.
Caesar:So, yep.
Caesar:Oh, absolutely, man.
Heath:Okay.
Heath:All right, Number two.
Caesar:Number two.
Caesar:Every person who knocks on your door and hollers, stricter, treat our image bearers.
Caesar:Created in the image of God.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Let that shape your heart toward every one of them.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:It's like, don't shut the lights off.
Caesar:Right?
Caesar:We talked about, you know, , these people are all in need of love and warmth, and God wants to give it to them, and he wants to use you to do that.
Caesar:They've done nothing to earn this from you.
Caesar:Just in the same way.
Caesar:We did not earn God's love and forgiveness.
Caesar:It's about grace.
Caesar:So what does grace look like and sound like to your neighbors as you hand out candy or hot drinks on your porch this Halloween?
Caesar:All right, man,
Heath:great question to be asking there.
Heath:Let's go to number three.
Heath:All
Caesar:right.
Caesar:Be as generous and fun as you can this Halloween, right?
Caesar:What's one new, fun, generous tradition that you can start doing this year and then start adding to it?
Caesar:Mm-hmm.
Caesar:. Maybe it's one of the seven things we shared in the podcast.
Caesar:Maybe it's something else, but make this Halloween a meaningful and intentional experience toward relationship building in your neighborhood.
Caesar:Your kids are gonna love it too, by the way.
Caesar:So any new traditions you build, they're gonna, they're all in.
Caesar:Get your kids involved and let them know why you're doing the things you're doing for your neighbors and all the follow up that you plan to do.
Caesar:And again, I just wanna remind you.
Caesar:You can download the big three to get the ultimate guide to Halloween on Missional.
Caesar:We kinda recap all kinds of stuff and what was said here and, and give you a whole bunch of other stuff too.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Yeah, So it really is the ultimate guide to Halloween on mission.
Caesar:There's so much and way more than we'd ever have time for, so don't be the old crim much in this Halloween.
Caesar:All right.
Caesar:Good stuff.
Caesar:I love hearing Heath there.
Caesar:I miss him being on the show every day.
Caesar:But we do hear him.
Caesar:He's still is the announcer for things and he and I are still pals.
Caesar:I will be adding the link to the Ultimate Guide to Halloween on mission for free.
Caesar:It'll be in the show notes.
Caesar:For this podcast, I also put that link in the big three download for this episode.
Caesar:So again, if you wanna go to everyday Disciple dot com slash big three, download that big three for this episode, and you'll get that link plus the big three.
Caesar:All right, I gotta go for now.
Caesar:I hope you'll join us next week.
Caesar:I'll keep diving into discipleship and mission for this to be a whole lot easier and more natural in your everyday life.
Caesar:I'll talk to you.
Heath:Thanks for joining us today.
Heath:For more information on this show and to get loads of free discipleship resources, visit everydaydisciple.com and remember, you really can live with a spiritual freedom and relational peace that Jesus promised every day.
