Halloween is also a good time of year to think about some things we may not think about all the time. These issues are not to make Halloween sad but instead to enhance Halloween and maybe even make a difference in our communities.

1. Chocolate: not all chocolate products are created the same ethical way. You can buy fair trade chocolate online and in many stores. Help educate yourself and others about forced child labor and the other issues involved in the chocolate industry. It is too late to get a Fair Trade Halloween kit, but it’s not too late to download info cards to hand out to trick-or-treaters or order for next year.

2.  Hunger: it’s estimated in 2010 that 925 million people around the world experienced hunger (check out worldhunger.org for more stats). Millions go hungry in American everyday (check out feedingamerica.org .) Consider taking a group from your church or your family to volunteer at a local poverty or hunger center to learn how hunger is experienced in your area and how you can help. You can also check out Oxfam for lots of resources and ways to take action. Many college and grad students go trick-or-treating for canned goods to donate instead of candy.

3. Costumes: what is your costume or your child’s costume saying about your values? What we wear can say a lot about us without us thinking about it. Take a step back before you head out and take a hard look at your costume. Is anyone or any group of people being demeaned by this costume? Is your costume witty or funny, and if so is it at anyone’s expense? Is there a way to make your costume or re-purpose an old costume instead of buying something you may only wear once?

4. Neighbors: Are there children in your church or neighborhood who won’t be able to trick-or-treat? Is there a way for you to help them? Perhaps you can arrange a carpool to a neighborhood with handicap accessible houses or simply ask if someone would like to go with your group.

5. Use your imagination: It’s Halloween! Use your imagination  to find ways to make this Halloween meaningful and fun.

-The Daily Lectionary is a 2-year cycle of scripture readings meant for personal reflection that offers a morning Psalm, an Old Testament reading, an Epistle reading, a Gospel reading, and an evening Psalm. You can also subscribe to get it e-mailed to you (on the left above “more information”)!  The PC(USA) is also planning to release an iPhone/iPad app later this fall. Keep an eye out for that!

-The Hear the Word Podcast, also by the PC(USA), is an audio recording of the Revised Common Lectionary (read on Sundays by many churches) with an Old Testament, Psalm, Epistle, and Gospel reading. You can also go to your iTunes and search “Hear the Word” and subscribe to the podcast to easily put it on your computer and mp3 players.

-Also an audio recording, Pray-as-you-go is designed for people to listen to while traveling on their mp3 players (although it could be used anywhere). It’s made by the British Jesuits and features beautiful music, one scripture reading, and questions for contemplation. It is also available as a podcast. Search for “Pray as you go.”

-The popular devotional Our Daily Bread has a podcast and a daily e-mail with devotions. You can also listen or read the devotions online daily without having to subscribe.

-Day1 is a multimedia resource designed for Mainline Christians that includes a weekly sermon podcast, video conversations, an app called “Call on Faith.”

-Many churches offer prayers and reflections through e-mail or on their website (sometimes even on Facebook). For example, Christ Presbyterian Church in Martinsville, NJ offers a Thought for Contemplation every day. Check your church’s website.

Back in 2005 when I first got on Facebook only college students could get a Facebook account. Even back in 2009 when I started seminary many churches who at that point could get on Facebook didn’t want to, and many people thought Twitter was for nothing but short updates about meaningless things.

Now, my mom and grandma  are using social media. Churches, synods, dioceses, presbyteries, and the like have Facebook accounts that at the very least give their contact information. More and more individuals, organizations, and churches are becoming Twitter converts as they see it being used in huge movements like the 2012 election as well as for personal communication.

For anyone in ministry who has hesitations about social media, let me calm some of your fears. There is biblical precedent for churches and ministries using social media. Saint Paul used social media.

Paul used the absolute best social media of his day: letters. The people who wanted to be like Paul wrote letters. We may not think of letters as incredible technology, but back in Paul’s time letters were a big deal. Never before had people been able to communicate like this!

Someone like Paul who traveled so much was able to keep up with communities he had let not just through sending messengers or constantly having to travel back and forth. Through writing letters Paul was able to keep relationships going that he may not have been able to if he didn’t write letters. He was able to help those early communities with their problems and struggles. He was able to encourage what the churches were doing well and explain what they were not.

Then the communities had those letters to continue looking back to. Today we still look to Paul’s letters to help us understand how we live out the Gospel. The technology had drastically changed, yet churches and ministries are still using social media to build relationships, encourage, and explain. Social media connects us with communities we are not with in body. It is a useful tool in our lives individually and communally as we try to live out out our commitments.

Saint Paul used the best social media of his day to be in communication and conversation with people he cared about and people he did not even know! He had never been to the church in Rome yet felt so strongly about wanting to be in conversation with them he wrote the Epistle to the Romans, an incredible letter.

Saint Paul is a powerful example of how to use social media, and as social media continues to change we continue to look back to his example of using technology to best serve his ministry to discern how best to use technology in our ministries.

As part of our theological commitment to congregations, we are pleased to announce that we are hosting a no-cost small group lesson plan for your congregation or small group ministry.  The series of lessons entitled “An Open Letter: 2 Corinthians in Perspective” is designed as an all inclusive lesson plan for high school and college age students and young professionals.  The six week course has been designed by a cohort of students from Princeton Theological Seminary and will be hosted by Worship Times on a free-to-access website.  It includes video introductions, video discussion prompts, written study guides, discussion questions, and built in tools for user feedback.  It is specially designed for small group ministries or for any Bible study that includes group discussion.

Here is a short introduction to the study guide from the lesson’s introduction.

Who are we? There are many things in the world that try to give us the answer to that question. I am an athlete. I am a punk rocker. I am a waiter. I am a student.

Paul, one of the writers of books that would form the Bible, wrote to a community trying to help them understand who they were. But instead of being defined by their job or their taste in music or place in life, Paul wanted to give them images that helped them understand who they are based on who God is, what God has done for them, and what we are to do in response.

There are six images from the book of 2 Corinthians that this study focuses on:

1. We are the Aroma of Christ
2. We are Clay Jars
3. We are New Lens
4. We are Ambassadors
5. We are Gifts
6. We are Letters

As part of our encounter with the gospel of Jesus Christ, the church is moved to discern what place technology should play in our communal life.  Should it be considered a medium through which the gospel must be preached, or is it dangerous to our life together and should be resisted?  These questions, and many that follow them, require sustained prayer, attention to scripture, and theological reflection.  It is my hope that Worship Times will be a place for inquiry and theological exploration of these important themes.  Its purpose is not to provide answers, but to provide tools so that your body of believers can be empowered to live faithfully in your own place and community.

These tools will take varied forms.  Some will be incredibly practical, exploring advancing technologies and considering how they could be employed in your church.  You don’t need to subscribe to a hundred of other technology blogs to see how you could use the technology for your church’s ministry, we will notify you when there are great shifts coming in the technological world and how they might impact your ministry.  In other cases, we will engage in theological and scriptural reflection, seeking to discern what role technology should play as we witness to the lordship Jesus Christ.  Not every technology is equally useful for every congregation or ministry and we want to be a conversation partner with you as you seek to be a faithful witness in the post-technological age.  Regardless of the form the tools take, Worship Times is a community of believers seeking to rightly appropriate technology to serve the church in its larger mission and ministry.

Let me encourage you to subscribe to the Worship Times blog, we look forward to bringing you a rich selection of information that will assist you in your life and ministry.