To answer the specific question of the day, my “faith organization,” by which I understand the denomination to which I belong, does not have an official stand on participating in the various activities of Halloween. Some see it as a purely cultural holiday and are able to dress up, trick-or-treat etc. to the glory of God (which is to be the Christians criteria for evaluating everything), while others see too much of a connection to pagan principles. This becomes a question of conscience in many cases.
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Most reformed churches choose to celebrate a different event that occurred on October 31. It was on that day in 1517 that a Catholic monk named Martin Luther nailed his “95 Theses” to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, opposing unbiblical practices of the Roman Catholic church, an event that is recognized as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation and is celebrated as Reformation Day. 

​Contrary to what many people think, the Bible actually does teach that belonging to a local church congregation is a necessity; not because salvation come through church membership, but for several still critical reasons.
First, because in the unique times of the Old Testament, to be a member of the nation was to be a member of the church.
Second, in the New Testament time, conversion assumed association with a visible, local church congregation.
Third, there are many commands given to Christians that are not properly fulfillable apart from church membership; church discipline, submission to elders, celebration of the Lord’s Supper, and the exercise of spiritual gifts to name just a few. Also, pastors’ and elders’ care of the flock requires there be an identifiable flock. 
And this just scratches the surface. The local church congregation is a unique blessing to every Christian, and those who disregard it do so to their hurt.

It is far easier to give into the irritation that we feel when at times than to do otherwise. It certainly gives us more personal satisfaction to let our fuse remain short and exact our pound of flesh when people cross us. But God commands us not to repay evil with evil, nor to seek personal revenge. One of the virtues that God creates and nurtures in his children is patience. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves, and God’s word says that love is patient and that it covers a multitude of sins. 
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When Christians are understanding of others and quick to forgive we are simply imitating God, who is long-suffering toward us and has forgiven us of so much, and who calls us to do the same.

Christianity teaches that because of man’s rebellion against God and the sin of which every person is guilty, we owe a payment to the justice of the one true God which is only able to be paid through eternal punishment. 
But God, being rich in mercy, in order to save many from that penalty, sent his son, Jesus, who came to earth, took to himself a human nature, and lived in perfect conformity to God’s commands, and then, in his death, bore the sins of all who would call on him in faith as a substitute for them, thus preserving God’s justice, while allowing God to pronounce those same people acceptable in his sight.
That salvation is given, by grace, to any who will believe on Christ, trusting in him for eternal life.
That, in 133 words, is the message of the Bible, and the message of Christianity. 

​One of the benefits of belonging to what is called a “confessional” church is that doctrinal issues are not a my-word-against-someone-else’s affair. No minister is able to use the Bible as a wax nose and present his own unique take on it. The reformed confessions, written hundreds of years ago, and historically received and upheld by the churches of Protestant Christianity, give a commonly received understanding of the teaching of scripture on essential bible teaching. I have the shoulders of many men far wiser and godlier than I, and the discussions, debates, and defenses of centuries of church councils to stand on, and it would be the utmost arrogance for me to think that all of historic Christianity got it wrong but that I am right. The doctrinal errors that arise in the church today have arisen and been dealt with before, and doctrinal innovation is highly suspect, especially my own.