You may have noticed that we have not made announcements for Trunk or Treat this year, and some have asked about it. The reason is that we are skipping this event, at least for this year. You may wonder why! There are three primary reasons. First, participation in the event had lessened over the last several years, and it was becoming difficult to get a large number of CBC participants who would host a trunk. Second, our leadership teams responsible for organizing the event, when asked, were more in favor of skipping it than hosting it. We didn’t have strong, much less unanimous, willingness from those leading to make it happen. Third, and most importantly, Trunk or Treat has not proven to be fruitful in terms of outreach or mission. As a fun event for our own kids, it serves well! Our kids have fun with it, so it’s good for building up social connections within the church. However, it has not been fruitful in terms of outreach or evangelism. Yes, some guests have attended. But, there are many churches that host Trunk or Treat, and people likely skip around from event to event. It has not helped us to bring people into the church or church community. To that end, there is a case to be made that events like this do far less good than we think in terms of bringing outsiders into the church community. Why? Because they require a lot of energy and effort, trying to pull people into our event, making people come to us. Our energies almost assuredly would be better spent instead going to where our neighbors already are. Instead of hosting a Trunk or Treat event here, I suggest we all focus our energies on going where our neighbors are. Maybe instead of coming to a church Trunk or Treat, you could use that time and energy to host a neighborhood dinner or party. Or, you could gather your neighbors to pass out candy, and focus your energies on building relationships. We are accustomed to thinking that throwing a big event and inviting people to come will help bring people in. That may work from time to time, and there are occasions to do just that. However, it is more likely that we need to grow in our efforts in connecting relationally with those around us, and thinking of ways we can go to them. In short – instead of only inviting people to come to us, let’s spend energy on going to where others are. The Halloween season, and other social holidays, allow those kinds of opportunities.