The Reformation of Halloween - new book October 1, 2018

I've just completed the work on a new book release. On October 1st, The Reformation of Halloween: rethinking Christianity's response to Halloween is coming out.

As you know, or maybe you don't, Halloween and Reformation Day share something in common - they are on the same day. Martin Luther nailed his 95 these to the Wittenburg door on the day Americans now celebrate as Halloween. It turns out that Martin Luther and I have a couple things in common: 1) we were born on the same day - November 10th, and 2) we have both done our most notable work on Halloween.

After 19 years in Salem, Massachusetts with 31 days of Halloween every year, and nearly a million visitors, I know something about how the church ought to respond to Halloween. I am passionate about this topic. The church has been missing one of the greatest opportunities to love our neighbors and share the Gospel. Halloween is a missional goldmine. Following me on this journey to mission this October.

Here is a description of the book:

Halloween has presented a difficult challenge for Churches and Christians over the last 50 to 60 years. It has often been described as an ancient occult holiday celebrated by modern evil-doing Witches, Pagans, and Satanists. It has been avoided, protested, prayed against, and denounced, and meanwhile it has grown to become the second largest holiday in American culture. The Reformation of Halloween rethinks Christian involvement with the holiday by seeing it as an opportunity for the Gospel. Living in Salem, Massachusetts with its thirty-one days of Halloween each year, Pastor Phil Wyman has experienced the equivalent of almost 600 Halloweens, and has used the day as a launchpad for Christian mission.

The Reformation of Halloween reimagines the holiday as the best season of the year for missional engagement. The horror themes found in the films, stories, and costuming are seen in the light of biblical truth. Topics normally evaded by postmodern culture are celebrated once year by rapidly growing numbers of people, and are described in their biblical themes. Stories from nineteen years of public ministry on the streets of Salem during the month of October highlight the transformational power of taking the Gospel into carnival settings. This is more than a theoretical book on reimagining Halloween for the Churches and Christians; it is filled with evidence that Halloween is one of the most open days of the year for those who would learn how to have fun and share both the love and the hard truths of scripture in dialogical and creative ways.

If you’ve wondered how Halloween might become a season of opportunity for touching our world with the love of God, The Reformation of Halloween will give you insight to a phenomenon that has touched one of the largest Halloween events in the world since 1999, and is beginning to reach into the rest of the globe.

You can pre-order the book now on Amazon.com:
in Kindle 
or in Print

Halloween for Christians: How to Respond to It

Halloween has become one of the largest, most influential holidays in America, and is gaining ground in other countries as well. It is a day filled with costuming, horror images, candy, and community openness. That combination seems strangely out of synch with sensibility at first glance, but those issues may not be as far apart as we might assume.

If you come from the conservative to fundamentalist spectrum of Evangelical Christianity, you may have been raised with a fear of Halloween. You have heard stories of its supposed Pagan beginnings, and the dark sinister things occurring on Samhain (pronounced Sow-en). The Fundamentalist mind runs rampant with human and kitten sacrifices on October 31st. Churches hold Harvest Fairs, or 24-hour prayer vigils to combat the dark intentions of the Evil One on this night.

Meanwhile, families are getting dressed up in costumes ranging from bloody zombies to Disney Princesses, and they are traveling the neighborhood knocking door-to-door like vacuum cleaner salesman looking for candy for their children. The neighbors open their doors, cheerily accept a "Trick-or-Treat!" shout, give out candy, and close the doors to declare how cute the kids look. To these neighbors, your concern about keeping your kitty indoor on Halloween, or avoiding a demonic intrusion into your child's soul seems as distant as Pluto.

Now, I will be so bold as to declare, that I know a bit more about Halloween and its intersection with Christianity than just about anybody reading this blog post. You see, I am a Christian Pastor. But not only that, I am a Christian Pastor who lives and pastors in Salem, Massachusetts, and in our little city, Halloween is a one-month-long experience. But, not only that, I have been running an outreach on the streets of Salem for nearly an entire month each year during our month-long Halloween season. And not only that, our city has real live practicing Witches, and I know many of them well. So, here goes my take on Halloween. I will not give you the supposed history of the event. You can find that elsewhere on the internet, and some of it is sensationalist (stay away from that stuff - it's just dumb and wrong), and some of it is honest enough to say that we do not really know the origins or activities on this night back in early Pagan history.

Here are some suggestions I have for you:

1) Don't get freaked out by the gory aspects of Halloween. Yes, some people go overboard, but then again so did Grimm's Fairy Tales, and so did some of the descriptions of war, sickness, depravity and suicide in the Bible. There is a strong connection between death and apocalyptic scenarios in literature and film, and these connections carry spiritual meaning. From stories of zombies to vampires to monsters to antichrists we find interesting correlations to finding safety in God during apocalyptic crisis in literature and film, and social commentary is ripe in story lines like The Walking Dead.

2) Take advantage of the community openness. What other day of the year will people happily open their doors to a knock from a strangely dressed stranger saying funny things to them? In fact, they will be so happy to see you, they will give you a gift of candy. How often does that happen? You couldn't get that to happen on Christmas Day while everyone is excitedly opening packages under the decorated piney tree.

3) Don't get all caught up in the supposed dark intentions of the night. How many Witches do you actually know? My guess is that most people reading this will answer "none." I know hundreds - literally hundreds. That is because I live in Salem Massachusetts, and have friends from the Neo-Pagan Witchcraft community from around the world. I have yet to encounter any dead kitty cats, or sacrificed babies. I have found very few examples of curses upon churches or individual Christians. I am not saying that there are not any examples of curses by Witches, but the Witches I know are generally kind people who want the world to be a better, more peaceful place. For this reason, I do not have to hide on Halloween to pray the darkness away.

4) Join someone doing something both fun and redemptive, if you can. Because I am in Salem, and 500,000 to a million people will visit our city in October, we will provide live music on the streets, give away free hot cocoa, free hugs, and will set up booths to offer a variety of spiritual counseling. This is our way of connecting to a searching world during a searching season.

I believe that Halloween is the most open and community oriented holiday in our culture. It is filled with wild creativity, and offers Christianity the best moment in the year to shine with its own creativity, love and giving. Don't let that moment pass you by, because you are afraid of some bogey man of urban myth in fundamentalist garb.

of long tongues and cleaning up after the carnival: Post Halloween Thoughts

This Halloween was a unique and crazy carnival for The Gathering. Every Halloween is that, but they each have their own strange life. This year a few new friends, and new events set the stage for the changing future of outreach in Salem.

Christianity Today asked me to write a story about the circus of outreach styles which occur every October, and to focus on the things we do during the month. Our friends Michelle Pritzl and Shawn Fitzgerald were asked to provide photography back up for the story.

I placed myself and a few friends in the last slot of the evening: Aaron Zev Katz, David Gerard, Mark Muzeroll, Jim and Allison Trick, and Michael Pritzl (who just moved to Salem a couple months ago, and when we get together we look like Dumbledore and Snape ) joined me for the closing set of Halloween Night. My favorite moment of the whole month of Halloween Outreach (remember Halloween is a month long event in Salem) was when we were leading a crowd of hundreds singing with us to such songs as Lake of Fire, and Amazing Grace.

Friends from other outreaches joined us for the first time: Hope Deifell (my favorite Burner), Kelly and Bonnie Williams (who were at the Wild Goose Festival), and our always faithful and surprising friend Alan Drake from Dallas brought his friend Kresimir Zeravica (a brilliant Croatian now living in Dallas).

Our Children's Day was on the verge of going extinct, but thanks to some help from Jason Silva from the mayor's office, Ellen Talkowski (the Queen of Halloween), Dominic Benvenuti from Domino's Pizza, Aggregate Industries, Fiesta Entertainment, and Shara Sobelman the event is on the rebound and should grow well over the next couple years.

Dream Interpretation teams rocked it, and a few new friends (Leeland and Kimberly) joined us through the month and touched people's hearts deeply.

More than any other year, some of our visitors from distant places left in tears, because they were so touched by new friendships they developed. And of course, those friendships included our friends who love The Gathering, but do not identify as Christians. Bonnie, Kelly, and Debora Spotted-Eagle just had to get a picture with their new friends. They just fell in love with Valor, Stephen and Dan - the Witch, the Tie-dye Buddhist Guy, and the Agnostic.

Valor added color to the season by making a "Hug a Witch" sign and standing in front of some aggressive street preachers. Dan (the agnostic) stood in the pouring rain of Hurricane Sandy getting drenched, and waited for a street preacher to take a breathe, and then asked if he could get him a sandwich or a coffee (note: Dan has been out of work for quite a while). These were funny moments, where the people who love us but do not identify as Christians were showing love to people they struggled to accept. These are lessons for all of us who do call ourselves Christians.

So, now my tongue is hanging out, and I am ready to sleep for a month, but the clean up must follow the carnival. This was a great year of surprise, and the biggest surprise was the fact that dozens of people wanted to start following Jesus. Of course, as always we will gauge that by the daily changes occurring in heart, mind and action. Following God is not the easy path of life for most of us.

If you would like to follow upcoming events and outreach events of The Gathering and our friends you can sign up to our mailing list on our website.

Halloween in Salem Begins

Friday evening was Mayor's Night Out in downtown Salem. Participating stores and businesses became a part of it by passing out candy to hundreds of local children who were trick or treating.

Gregg and Jodi, Carlos, Joyce, Mark and Anthea from Cheltenham England, and Jeff from North Carolina were there to help.

The following two days we offered free Dream Interpretation, and a variety of Spiritual Counseling advice and help. Live music was provided on the stage we provide downtown each year.





Jeff estimated the number of people we ministered to on Saturday and Sunday at about 300 people. 14 people - from New York, Pennsylvania, the UK, Carolina, and those of us from Salem were here to reach out to people.

Many of them cried. Some of them expressed their interest in pursuing God more deeply, and many people were thankful for the encounters.

14 people - 300 people in encounters. That's pretty good numbers if we were into counting numbers, but our main interest is individuals being touched by God's gentle love.

3 more weekends to go, and it can only get better, busier and filled with God's grace. Please keep us in your prayers.

If you would like to help support this massive work which is sacrificially being accomplished by a small church in Salem, MA you can do so by donating at www.salemgathering.com

You Will Be Exposed! Threats from Fundy-ville

This is my first personal story from the Halloween season.  It is fresh in my mind and so weird that I thought I would share it first.

It was Halloween Night.  I was changing the stage set up, because my friend from Wales, Sarah Louise Owen was playing next, and I was backing her up on the guitar.  I turned and looked out over the street in front of the stage, and there had suddenly appeared a street preacher with a sign which said "Jesus Saves."  The street preacher was standing directly in front of the stage, and his sign was tall enough to block the faces of musicians while they performed if he remained there.  So I asked Jeff Cox to ask him to move on somewhere else.

Street Preachers with big signs apparently don't like to be asked kindly to move on from obnoxious locations they have procured.  He took umbrage with the request and began to argue with Jeff, and then myself.

Then he shouted up to me and asked, "Do you have non-Christians playing on this stage?"

I responded by saying, "Yes, do you have a problem with that?"

He replied in some form that there is no fellowship with darkness and light, and then went on to say that I was not a real Christian.  Well, I was setting up the stage, and didn't have time for this nonsense, so I said, "Well if you feel that I am doing wickedly, you should leave and not fellowship with this darkness."

So, our friendly street preacher commented, "You will be exposed."

I responded, "                ."

Heck, what was I supposed to say?  I was going to be exposed for having non-Christian musicians on the stage we provide for the city of Salem, and it's visitors?  So.  What's the big deal.

Then seeing that I was not particularly moved he said, "and John Paul Jackson will be exposed too."

I responded, "Hmmmmmm, I don't think he is going to care too much."

At some point the Street Preacher finally stomped off.  Later while I was backing up Sarah Louise Owen on her set he returned.  This time he had no sign, but he did have a video camera, and he took video of me playing rhythm to "Zombie" by the Cranberries.  I was dressed as a tree, or more specifically The Green Man, who is a character from the carvings on Gothic Cathedrals, but of course the missional potential of that would have been lost on him anyway.  Jeff got a picture of the videoing Street Preacher, and there he is getting ready to expose me I suppose.

Later that same evening as the stage wound down, another preacher looking guy came by, and was videoing a girl who fell down near stage.  My buddy Allan who helps run the sound, plays bass, and is a former pastor and YWAM leader put on Thriller and people were dancing.  The guy began to video the girl up close as she was on the ground, and as people began to help her up, and make sure she was okay he only pressed in for a better shot.  I certainly hope he wasn't one of those street preachers, because if he videoed the event of her falling to show something he thought was wrong, and did not help the girl (as our team of workers were doing)he is a Pharisee in the ultimate expression.

Later that same night he spoke to the leaders from the Streams Ministries internship, and said that he would expose me to John Paul Jackson.  Hmmmmmm...so let's get this right:  He will expose me, he will expose me John Paul, and then he will expose John Paul?  Does something seem wrong with this picture?  Could I have a little deception with that exposi[tion] perhaps?  Oh well, what's one to expect.

The next day, I heard from a pastor friend who was that the Street Preacher appeared at his church at 8am (his church is an hour and a half away) and was taking notes.  If you know this guy, write him and say hi. :-)

That's my first story from the fringes of Halloween in Salem.  This one is weird.  Others will be weird as well, and some will be graciously wonderful.  Halloween in Salem is a weird and wonderful place.

Calling Musicians, Poets and Storytellers! Bardic Competition this Fall in Salem

For more information on this Eisteddfod (Bardic Competition) go to The Gathering's Blog.

Eventism, Contemporary Christianity, Festival Life as a Means of Evangelism, and My Dilemma

I have been concerned about the state of Evangelical Christianity as an event based establishment for most of the 24 years I have been a pastor. I have written extensively about "Relational Christianity", as I have typically called it for the last 20 years, as a model of church life preferable to event based Christianity.

My thinking is this: As evangelicals we have understood that church is not a building. Most of us were smart enough to figure out that the frailties, banalities, and fallenness of humanity made it impossible for a corporate structure such as a denomination to be a definitive expression of "The Church," but somehow we still seem to describe church as an event.

Rather than something we are, church has become something we go to, and something we do. It is and event on a Sunday morning, or a series of events. It has become Eventism.

I still believe that this is true for much of Evangelical, Charismatic, and Pentecostal Christianity. I still believe that this is less than ideal, and sometimes detrimental to church life.

Despite viewing Eventism as detrimental to a holistic relationship with God, I am beginning to consider a new way of doing things - a way of doing things, which comes dangerously close to the very way of church life I have disliked for so long.

Here is my dilemma: I am looking at the nature of our culture, and the manner in which people gather. I see people running from event to event, and finding their source of fun, recreation, and renewal. This looks reminiscently like the fashion of spiritual gatherings in the Old Testament. There is no mention of church gatherings on Sunday mornings, and even the Sabbath was not set aside for sermons and worship singing, but rather for rest. Instead of church the people gathered in festivals throughout the year, and these festivals became the source of connection to the greater community of the faithful, and the center of Israel's religious life. Now the New Testament has a different spiritual feel. The people gathered daily at the temple in the first few chapters of Acts, and the first day of the week soon became a standard time of gathering for the followers of Christ.

The church I pastor is in the center of Salem, MA. 1 million people pass by our doors each year - most of them come in October during the Halloween based events. We have thousands who pass through our doors. They have a spiritual experience based upon a gracious attempt to relate to them caringly, and creatively, and then they head home to the various corners of the earth from which they came. We have crashed this festival Salem calls Haunted Happenings, and have created one of the best parties within the larger party in the whole city. This has allowed us to briefly pastor tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of people, even if only for a moment, over the last ten years.

I have wondered if we are in a new season lately. We have learned to crash the festival and create life changing experiences people want to be a part of. Could it be that it is time for us to create festivals, which people want to be a part of?

I have been part of a hundreds of Christian festivals over the 30 years of my following Jesus, but typically no one but church goers want to be a part of those festivals. Is it time for me to learn how to develop a festival, which the world wants to be a part of? Is it time to learn how to create the life-changing type of festivals like those of the feasts of Israel?

I think the answer is yes, and our location, and our mission as a church seem to say yes, but I tremble at the thought. Even as I tremble, I am attempting a couple festival type events as a means of pastoring the greater community of Salem (and beyond actually).

How this will contrast with, and perhaps create a struggle with my desire to break the habit of Eventism in the church is yet to be seen, but it is part of the adventure we are on at this time.

May God smile.

Update on Halloween in Salem

I have finally got around to giving an update on our Halloween activities in Salem. Off course you have to remember that our Halloween is a month-long experience called Haunted Happenings. You can find the update here on our church blog.

My Three Day Story

I placed a post on our church blog following my experiences over three recent days. These were not three typical days, but then there really are not typical days in Salem. (I am convinced there really are no typical days anywhere, but that's another story.) So to stop from blathering on here's the link to that story.

Repent America Street Preacher Found Guilty in Salem

Each of the last four years (actually it seems like more, but that's what the paper says) Michael Marcavage and his friends come to Salem to hold big signs, and preach through bullhorns on and just before Halloween. In the Salem News today there is story about Michael being found guilty.

Our church has a little history with Michael. He had some things to say about us in a recent article in Salem's other paper The Salem Gazette.

Here is Repent America's video taken during the arrest on Halloween:


Now, I have some distinct feelings about this issue, and will simply say a few things related the subject, which might help shed some light on the subject from a local pastor's point of view.

1. Repent America is not supported by any of the local churches in their activities here in Salem. I am not even aware of a local church which appreciates their activities (I suppose there may be one, but I am not aware of any.)

2. Over the last number of years I have known street performers, and people barking for events who have been asked to stop using amplification, and even stop working prior to the 10pm curfew set against such noise. Noise ordinances, public complaints, and crowd unruliness during Halloween night have all been reasons for the police request to stop. Preachers have NOT been the only individuals requested to stop.

3. Every year our church is the single largest Christian presence on the street during the month long Halloween season. We obey every request of the police, and if something unique pops up, we resolve the situation with the help of city officials before we resume our activities. Despite working with the police in this manner, we find that people stand in line for up to an hour to experience our events, and despite the fact that we do not emphasize making a decision to receive Jesus, we see between 30 and 40 people make that decision each year, because they ask how to get closer to God. (This is not information I have shared at any time before, because we are sensitive to the fact that Evangelical Christianity looks like it is FORCING conversion upon people, and we never want to be guilty of that heinous crime against nature - even though we are evangelical.)

4. Our people have been asked by the Pagan community to be protected from these same street preachers, and we went out to bring peace on the streets.

So, what do you think? Does taking away a bullhorn amount to restricting free speech?

Samhain is Here!

It's the Celtic New Year - Samhain - Halloween! I will be busy, busy, busy in downtown Salem, MA today. If you want to find out more about what we are up to, I will keep periodic updates going at The Gathering Blog Site.

Beyond the Pall (Part 7): A Day with Dennis

It was October in Salem. It was now eight months since my friend the Witch had died. It was also the season when the occult trade took on a decidedly more noticeable place in the marketing strategies of our fair city. Our small city of 40,000 people hosts twelve or thirteen withcraft shops, and the windows were brimming with occult wares like toy stores stocked for the Christmas rush.

In the ninth October of ministry during Salem's month long Haunted Happenings events, we now had over a hundred volunteers. The members of our own small church, interns from a prophetic school of ministry, groups from other churches in the area, musicians, and people who travelled from as far away as California joined us to "do the stuff" in our wildly fun city during this season in which families visited to celebrate the costume season, and spiritual seekers came from distant lands to pursue an alternative spirituality.

I taught classes on understanding Neo-Paganism to people who visited to do evangelism in our unique gentle style. We held events specifically aimed at offering fun, yet significant experiences to visiting tourists. We served free hot cocoa on the streets, and provided seven days of live music on the city's largest outdoor stage which we paid for, and sponsored and ran.

During this unbelievably busy season Dennis joined us from rural mid-state New York, and stayed at our house for a week. We prayed together. We practiced the ancient art of scripture meditation called Lectio Divina. We wandered around town and visited some of the Witches I knew, and I taught Dennis what I had learned over the last 13 years of studying, and befriending Witches.

Dennis had come with expectations of discovering a new way to do evangelism after having felt ineffective over most of the course of his 23 years as a Christian. The year before he heard about our outreach in Salem, MA, and his heart had been stirred to visit us.

One afternoon Dennis and I were doing Dream Interpretation (pretending to be like Daniel of the Bible) at the church. As we were interpreting dreams, a man in a long black cape, and some convincing looking vampire fangs entered and patiently waited for us to conclude our session. Vlad was a gothic magician working in the city. He had visited our church once before, and he and I frequently spoke on the street. When we were done, Vlad asked if I could visit one of the local Witches, who had become quite frustrated, and was apparently in some state of frenzy that day.

"Pastor Phil, he respects you, and I am sure he will listen to you." Vlad said.

When we were free, Dennis and I made our way to try and help this professional Witch who was working his way toward burnout. I mentioned to Dennis that this had now become a fairly regular event, especially during the busy Halloween season. Dennis was processing this information, which even to myself was a bit bizarre, but to Dennis there was no mental file folder in which to place these strange facts.

Unfortunately, we could not reach this Witch in his shop on our little journey down the street. So we let it be known we were making a friendly call, and went on our way. As we left the store, we were met by another local Pagan shop owner who asked me if I would help bring some peace between some feuding business owners.

"Could you do a miracle?" He asked.

"Sure, what's going on?" I asked in return.

He told of the two business owners: one who ran a haunted house, and another who ran a Witch shop. They were at odds with one another over what he thought was fairly petty issues.

"It would be better for business for all of us if they could get along," he said.

I told him I would give it a try, and as we walked away Dennis laughed with wonder and said, "Two different Pagans have asked for your help and counsel for their friends in the last 20 minutes. This is incredible!"

Dennis spoke to our church on Sunday morning, and this event became one of the highwater marks of his week. The experience was weird and wonderful, and Dennis helped me remember once again for perhaps the thousandth time that my life has become weird and wonderful in the last few years.

Live Music, Free Hot Cocoa!

So, one more year we serve the streets of Salem during Haunted Happenings wth live music, and free hot cocoa. We are now doing seven days of both. The members of The Gathering are the most awesome servants of the Gracious Nazarene I know. Blessings on them all.

The Christians and the Pagans Meet for Samhain: October 24th SynchroBlog

Sacred spaces, and sacred times are not terribly important to me. One day is like any other, and one place like another. Some of you reading this will be appalled to hear that the Vatican is no more holy to me than a dumpster. Now this does not mean that I do not appreciate fine Cathedrals, or beautiful Abbeys and Chapels. Rather it means that I believe God can manifest His gracious presence anywhere He so chooses, and He is not impressed by places and times, but instead by humble human hearts.

Okay, so that's what I read in the Book of Isaiah, and I believe it to be so.

"Heaven is My throne,
And earth is My footstool.
Where is the house that you will build Me?
And where is the place of My rest?
For all those things My hand has made,
And all those things exist,"
Says the Lord.
"But on this one will I look:
On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit,
And who trembles at My word."

Yet, human hearts often attach greater importance to one place, or time over another, and I believe that there is a God in this universe Who loves people so desperately that the Divine presence of love, grace, and power will appear to those who yearn for it. Sometimes that search for God in sacred times and spaces yields results not because God honors the place, but the yearning hearts which go there.

So it is that the Spirit of Truth appears on Halloween. People come to the evening of Samhain (pronounced Sow (like cow)-en) believing that the veil between the worlds just might be thinner on this night. They seek like they have not sought before, and perhaps - just perhaps the God of the universe peeks through the veil, and says hi.

Of course, all across my country Christians will hold prayer meetings, and some will fearfully ward off the evil spirits, which they perceive are forming in more organized cohorts than any other day of the year. Their superstitions concerning holy, and unholy times cause them to anticipate demons forming pacts of allegiance against the churches on this one day in the season. Meanwhile, the Witches and Pagans I know celebrate in hopes of touching the other world - that place of gods, goddesses, and spirits of the departed. It is not a place I choose to seek, but I wonder how different it is than my own desire to reach the Unseen God of the universe through His Son Jesus Christ - that is at least from a human level.

They want health. I want health. They want hope. I want hope. They want peace. I want peace. They want their needs fulfilled. So do I. From this simple human perspective we seek the same things. I seek them in Jesus, and I believe that He is the only way to the Father Who loves me. They seek these things through other names, and deities, and it may be that they experience divine goodness from Him they do not know, but Who loves them as much as He loves me.

I do not fear Halloween, but enjoy it. Before I was a Pastor it was simply another day. After I became a Pastor, Halloween became a day in which the veil between people became the thinnest. People were happy, and celebrated in costume. In costume they felt a little freer. They opened their doors to strangers and gave gifts, and knocked on my door and looked for gifts. They did things in family units, and they were open to things unseen. It became a day when the veil between us was thinner.

Now I live in a city where we have a whole month of Halloween. The veil between Christians and Pagans sometimes becomes thicker during this season, because Christians superstitiously fear this day, and the Pagans who celebrate it. I find that this month becomes thinner between myself and my Pagan friends. I am working to make this a time when the veil between the worlds becomes thinner, and they are working for the same thing. We may not agree on how it is done, or on Who we seek, but we do seek blessing together, and in this place we meet, and the veil between us gets thinner. Perhaps the veil to finding the Father will as well.

"Up rises awen from Samhain to Samhain. The spirit of deity rushes my soul like a storm.
-me ;-)

Next Synchroblog - Wednesday, October 24th

The upcoming topic for the next SynchroBlog is "A Christian Response to Halloween." Want to join the conversation, and the pontification? Let us know.

Interpreting By Day What God Speaks By Night

My friend Steve Maddox told me he was setting up outreach events at Borders Books. He arranged to offer free dream interpretation, and would spend the afternoon at Borders talking to people about their dreams.

I thought to myself, "I can do that."

Over the years people would share their dreams with me, and then ask what I thought they might mean. Often I would be rather dumbfounded that they asked, because any dream which had some sense of divine meaning (which certinaly is not all of them!) seemed so obvious to me. If dream interpretation was something which came natural to me, perhaps it was a gift - like Daniel who was able to interpret dreams better than all the kings magicians and astrologers.

Five years earlier I had been at a pastor's conference. Ed Silvoso was the main speaker, and I happened to sit with him at breakfast one morning of the conference. Ed and I talked. I told him my story: how I moved to Salem, Massachusetts from California to plant a church, how I had studied about Neo-Paganism, and how I had come to know some of the Witches in our city as friends. Ed remarked that Daniel was assigned the position as the chief of the occultists in Babylon by the king, because he did "the stuff" better than they did. Daniel was the head pastor of the Witches, he said.

After breakfast Ed spoke at the morning session. He retold my story to the conferencees, and told a room full of over 500 of my peers that I was a pastor to the Witches in Salem, like Daniel was a pastor to the Witches in Babylon. He spoke in a prophetic tone, the kind which only comes from Pentecostals.

Until recently I did not realize how much these two stories have merged into one long, wild tale.

I am convinced that my friends who are involved in the occult yearn as deeply for the graceful power which comes from God's good hand as I do. Healing, miracles, and prophetic utterances of promise and grace are things they want for their own lives just as much as I do. Of course, their pursuit of these things has taken a different path than my own, but perhaps like Daniel, there is power in my journey with Jesus, which can speak gracefully into their lives.

I thought about interpreting dreams like my friend Steve was doing at Borders Books as I was preparing for the month long Halloween season in Salem, and I decided it was time to give this a try.

We made up our signs. We put out our tents. People began to stand in line, just like they do every year we set out our ministry tents.

One evening close to Halloween itself, a young man in an elegant, long black ceremonial cape stood in line with his friends. I had trained a few people to interpret dreams that year, and was taking a break from the tent, and keeping the line outside the tent door happy. The caped man and I began to talk. He discovered I was a pastor, and we discussed the differences between his Pagan path, and my Christian worldview in friendly terms. For the most part I asked questions, and he answered them. He believed the spiritual realm was a helpful, friendly place. If he asked for guidance and help it would not lead him astray.

After talking for some time, he asked about the dream interpretation, and wondered if I interpreted dreams. I told him I did. He told me his dream.

He and his friends were in Red Rock, Colorado. It is a New Age "hot spot," a natural amphitheater, and beautiful concert venue. After some time of being there, black helicopters came racing over the hills, and began to shoot at he and his friends. Some of them died. Others were severly wounded. He and one other friend were able to escape into nearby caves, and hide from the helicopters. Then the dream ended.

"What do you think this means?" he asked.

I looked at him, and paused simply because my response was one of importance. Then I said, "The spiritual realm is not always benign, sometimes it is malignant and harmful."

The young man gasped out loud. His eyes opened wide, and he said, "You are so right!"

I had not thrown Bible verses at him to prove from a scriptural standpoint that demons existed, and spiritual deception was real. This was a young man who had studied religions, and understood many of the basics of Christianity. He had rejected the Christianity he was familiar with, and adopted another religious view, but his rejection of the Bible did not mean that he rejected all spiritual voices. He took stock in his own dreams, and that evening his dreams and my Christian worldview met.

Where he would not listen to the Bible, he would listen to his dreams, and the God Whom I believe wrote the words of scripture had visited his head by night.

Since that evening I have wondered how many non-Christians are visited by God in the night. After four seasons of interpreting dreams I have discovered that there are more people visited by God than I can possibly know. Perhaps He comes in dreams, perhaps in life experiences, or perhaps in words of power and grace. He visits them by night, and I believe that He waits for us to help interpret the wild variety of those visitations by day. I also believe that He is giving us the charisma to do so, and to speak prophetically into their lives.

I have had Witches call me late at night to ask my advice, and guidance in times of trouble, but I do not think that I am anything special. I believe that there are more Daniels out there. There are more pastors to the people who are not found in our churches, but are still looking for God's guiding voice to speak into their lives.