Churches continue to find success when offering alternatives to traditional Halloween festivities. Using the season as an opportunity for outreach to their communities, hundreds of Alabama Baptist churches hosted events such as fall festivals and trunk or treats the last week of October.
And many are reporting a record attendance, even those that had to move their festivities indoors because of rain.
First Baptist Church, Albertville, in Marshall Baptist Association runs about 500 in weekly worship attendance, but its fall carnival had nearly 3,000 registered guests. Of the guests, about 500 families said they do not have a church home.
Chip Warren, First, Albertville’s minister of education, said the church has already begun making door-to-door visits, handing out church information packets to those families.
“A lot of people would come to something like this who would never come to a worship service or Sunday School,” he said. “That’s why I think special outreach events are so important.”
First Baptist Church, Athens, in Limestone Baptist Association is one of the churches that moved its festivities indoor because of rain. But an estimated 1,300 people still came to the festival, church leaders reported.
During the festival, photos were made of any child who wanted his or her photo taken. Church members are now delivering those photos to the children and their families.
“It gives us a way to go back to the people that visited us and to invite them to come back and join us,” said David Carter, First, Athens’ minister of children and young families. “I tell our people it’s great to give out candy that day but even better to go back in two weeks to visit the families.”
Tonya Shirley, head of community events at Moundville Baptist Church in Hale Baptist Association, came up with the idea last year to do a fall festival that would involve all the area churches.
The festival, called Harvest on the Square, took place in Moundville’s town square and involved about nine area churches with each church overseeing certain aspects of the festival. Moundville Baptist oversaw the trunk or treat and hayride aspect of the festival.
Shirley thinks the attendance was tripled this year compared to last year’s festival.
“A lot of people won’t come to church, but when they see you out in the community in a family-type setting they get to know you,” she said. “There have been people to attend the churches because of these events.”
Hillwood Baptist Church, Huntsville, in Madison Association is one of many churches that hosted a trunk or treat.
One of the highlights for Minister to Children Jeff Whitehead was the great turnout of people — 500–600 — despite having to turn tables into “trunks” and moving the event indoors. Out of those who came, 75–80 percent are not members of the church, he reported.
Whitehead said the trunks allow them to highlight the different children’s ministries the church offers. The church also gives out goodie bags which include gospel tracts and children’s ministry brochures.
“It’s like making a whole lot of visits without having to leave your facility,” he said.
Along with fall festivals and trunk or treats, other churches offered evangelistic dramas during the Halloween season.
Calvary Baptist Church, Russellville, sponsored Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames a few days before its fall festival.
The Franklin Baptist Association church does the drama every other year around Halloween because of the focus on evil and spiritual beings often associated with the holiday, according to Associate Pastor Neil Rogers.
Because people are already thinking along those lines and because it is a good time for the church to do it, they usually get a very good response, he said.
Out of the 1,200–1,300 people who came to the drama during its production, the church had more than 130 decisions for Christ and gathered more than 50 prospects of the 130 who do not currently have a church home.
Brent Baptist Church in Bibb Baptist Association hosted its annual “Living Bible Land,” but this year the church focused on the life of Jesus Christ rather than random Bible stories.
“It brought in a narrative,” said Senior Pastor Greg Hyche.
As a result more members were involved in the drama and more than 1,000 people attended — a record number, according to Hyche. At least six professions of faith were made and many more said they wanted to learn more.
“Our purpose was to reach the unchurched with the life of Christ and to encourage those who already know Christ,” he said.
These are just a few of the hundreds of stories Alabama Baptists are telling following this year’s fall festival season. In preparation for next year’s season, The Alabama Baptist will be developing a resource guide that will be published next August or September for use in planning and preparing for a fall festival.
If you have success stories or not-so-successful stories to share, please e-mail those to news@thealabamabaptist.org or post them on our Alabama Baptist Facebook page.
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