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.

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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.