Today is Halloween, and once again the interwebs are filled with ideas about how Christians should appropriately approach Halloween. Should we boycott, offer alternative celebrations, ignore the holiday, or hand out bibles to everyone who rings our doorbell?

I’ve decided the most missional way to engage halloween is to participate in my neighborhood’s trick-or-treat. I open my door and hand out candy to neighbors, both friend and stranger. I walk the neighborhood with my kids, talking with neighbors.

Halloween is the only night many of my neighbors will open their houses and engage in life together.

In most of our neighborhoods, it is just not normal to ring doorbells and meet neighbors. Halloween offers us a culturally approved way to do exactly this: ring doorbells and say hello. Why wouldn’t we take advantage of this?

So, on Halloween night, you won’t find me at an alternative non-Halloween festival. You won’t find me locked in the house with all the lights off. I’ll be out in the neighborhood, talking with neighbors, making connections.

It is the simplest and most effective way of being missional this week.