Burning Religion

A week away. We put up the stage. We get ready for the first weekend of October in Salem, Massachusetts. It’s not anything you’ve ever seen before, if you’ve not been here. Costume witches, real witches. bullhorn street preachers, live music on the streets, crowds of tourists, barking vendors, and families here for the Halloween fun. And it happens all month long. This is called Haunted Happenings.

Typically, these are the places Christians do not know how to behave themselves. These are the places we make fools of ourselves, and the world around us thinks that we are judgmental party poopers. It need not be that way, and for the last 17 years, we’ve been training people how not to be that way. We join the party, and show people that wisdom and true spirituality can be mixed with hilarity and joy. It’s amazing how God shows up with a smile and a blessing when we learn to meet people where they are – non-judgmentally.

The Gathering, the host of people who join us from across the US and the UK, and the local musicians band together for a series of events each weekend of month until Halloween Day itself. This is a combination of party meets spiritual depth of a kind not found many places on earth. I call this intersection of hilarity and wisdom: Deep Fun. This is where fun becomes a theological word.

Your generous support has been a part of making history, and it may not be a stretch of the imagination to use those words “making history.” This is a story that has been told across the globe from radio and film to the Wall Street Journal and Christianity Today. Help us keep the dream and this movement alive – it is on the cusp of breaking out to other places around the world, and needs your help to do so – but that breakout os another story for another post.

You can donate your support on The Gathering website, or on the website for The Fountain Stage. This is where the Deep Fun happens.