Helloween was established at First Assembly of God in 2003 by the youth group (which would later become known as Ignited 12:29). The first year of Helloween was the birth of a ministry by a group of kids that wanted a way to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others. We had no clue what it would look like or how many people would actually come to a church for a “haunted house”. We thought maybe a couple of hundred people might come through in the week straight span that we ran the event. To our surprise, God brought in a couple hundred people the first night, even though it was cold and rainy. We were amazed at how God could use about 14 kids with a passion to share Jesus with others, and see dozens of people give their lives to Christ.
The goal of Helloween was always to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we could, and then give them a chance to make a decision to have a relationship with Him. We built this out-reach on the basis of Jude 23, which says, “save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” So, every year, we planed out scenes that we felt God would want us to share with you, in order to try and save some … because we love them. We crafted the scenes as real as possible to show the reality of the decisions that each of us make every day; the main decision being whether or not to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. After a couple of years, someone looked at our event and made the comment that “you won’t know how scary it really is, until you know how scary real is.” This was our motto ever since; to share the reality of life, the consequence of rejecting God, and the immense love that God has for each of us.
Since that first year of Helloween, God allowed this out-reach ministry to become something that affected thousands of lives every year, along with the dozens of volunteers that actually work the event. We are blessed to have a church body that comes together for long nights of ministry in many different aspects. This truly was a team effort, and we are thankful for a home church that allowed us to produce such an event, and a community that was willing to bring their lost friends and family members to an event that could change their lives. And we know, that nothing that we have or can do is enough. Any lives changed, souls saved, bodies healed, or spirits renewed was completely the work of God’s Holy Spirit; and we are most grateful to Him for the work He allowed us to do for Him from 2003 to 2022.
