Halloween Neighborhood Outreach

Consider reaching out to your neighbors this Halloween by serving hot chocolate or roasting s'mores or hot dogs in your driveway for Trick-or-Treaters and their parents.  This is a great way to start building more relationships with people in our community.  Do it on your own, with your family or with your house group.  Check the date for Trick-or-Treating in your neighborhood.

• Town of Mukwonago - Saturday October 31
  
• Village of Mukwonago - Sunday October 25

A Matthew Party

Luke 5: 27-31
 ²⁷ After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him, ²⁸ and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
    ²⁹ Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"
    ³¹ Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

In this passage, Matthew (or Levi) meets Jesus and his life is radically transformed.  He was a tax-collector, probably a hated man since most tax-collectors at the time were known for taking money illegally from their fellow citizens.  But when Jesus comes on the scene, he leaves everything to follow him.  Once Matthew is a follower of Christ, he realizes that he needs to tell his friends about the radical transformation that has happened in his life.  So he throws a party....a Matthew Party.  He invites all his old friends, people far away from God.  And he invites Jesus.  He sets up an encounter where his friends who he desperately wants to meet Jesus have a chance to rub shoulders with Jesus himself. 

We can do the same thing today.  There's really nothing special about throwing a party and inviting some of our Christian friends and our friends who still need to know God.  Everybody loves a party, but this is a party with a heavenly purpose.  We can set the stage where people that we love will have the chance to learn more about our faith though natural interactions with other Christians.  All of us who have experienced Jesus in our lives would love to see our friends changed in the same way.  This is a simple idea for making that happen.  So take a chance and host a Matthew Party for Halloween this year.  (Ideas taken from Just Walk Across the Room by Bill Hybels)