Trick Or Treat! Here’s A Gospel Tract….

You know what you should hand out to kids at Halloween this year?

Kit-Kats?

Skittles?

M&Ms?

Of course not!

You should give them a gospel tract!

Because obviously an 8 year is going to root through their bag of candy, ignore all the sugary goodness, and instead read through a religious tract, contemplate the meaning of life, realize they’re a sinner, and immediately say the sinner’s prayer.

Sounds ridiculous, right?

Well, not to this guy.

Here’s the thing.

There’s a reason Jesus never said “I was ignorant of Christian theology. Did you give me a tract to read?”

That sort of approach to “sharing the gospel” isn’t just weird or goofy or outdated.

It’s a total bastardization of Christianity.

The message of the gospel is about healing, reconciliation, liberation, redemption, and world transformation. This sort of crap turns the gospel into a magic spell you can read and then “poof” you’re on your way to heaven.

What’s worse is it’s done under the guise of caring about others.

But there is no love for neighbor in this.

If you really cared about your neighbors you would take the time to get to know them and invest in their lives, not dump a bait and switch religious tract in their children’s candy bag and send them on their merry way.

This is cheap grace at its absolute cheapest.

The life, death, and resurrection of Christ reduced to nothing more than a tacky gimmick.

You’re not changing lives when you pass our religious tracts to children who are just learning how to read.

You’re just wasting paper.

Religious tracts simply aren’t evangelism. They’re just a lazy sales pitch for cheap grace.

Real evangelism, really preaching the gospel requires incarnation and you can’t hide incarnation in a bag of candy.

Grace and peace,

Zack Hunt