The Candy Give-Away

Last Tuesday evening some of our people participated in the local “Trick or Treat” event. Some of you have asked me about it so I thought I would at least report on the results and say a word or two about the rationale.

First, let me say that to start with I was not big on the idea though I did not think there was anything wrong with it. Here’s what happened and you can evaluate it for yourself. A few of our people gave out 1800 plastic bags containing a few small pieces of candy and two small tracts: one introducing the church and another advertising the Dull’s Monday Evening Bible class. Of course, the tract was not for the kids but for their parents. We have no way of knowing how many of the parents will read the tract but the hope is that some will. This means that 1800 people at least had the opportunity to learn about the church. Then after the candy supply ran out a young couple approached our group and said that they were not interested in the candy but wanted to know about the church. So at the very least two people were interested and received some information about us.

Now for the rationale. Jesus and the apostles seem to have taken every opportunity that presented itself to tell the gospel message. Paul, for example, stood in the city of Athens, a city filled with pagan idols, and spoke in the same arena as the pagan philosophers. On the same principle churches of Christ often setup booths at county fairs to distribute tracts and sign up people for Bible Correspondence Courses. This even though at such fairs there are things going on in which Christians would not participate. The point is that anytime and anyplace as opportunities present themselves so long as we are not engaged in wrong doing and so long as it is expedient. These are the two basic criteria.

Claude