Community Engagement: APU Serves at Vineyard Church Glendora’s Trunk or Treat

January 16, 2025 | Category service | Written By Jacqueline Guerrero

Four volunteers stand in costumes near their car that is themed from Back to the Future.

Vineyard Church Glendora (VCG) hosts a Trunk or Treat event on Halloween to provide the entire community with an opportunity to trick or treat in a fun, safe, and family friendly environment. For the past two years, Azusa Pacific University students have had the opportunity to participate in the event through the Office of Service and Discipleship’s Local Engagement opportunities.

At the event, VCG members decorate the trunks of their cars to pass out candy, serve food, and play games with trick or treaters. Abigail Gaines is the lead pastor at VCG who helps craft the event’s vision and lead it to success. “The Trunk or Treat event has become a very practical way to dissolve barriers between the local church and the community it exists within,” Gaines said. “Families in our neighborhood have made this a part of their annual tradition and look forward to it every year.”

While the event is fun for the community, it also benefits the APU students that volunteer their time. “It’s great for APU students to see that ‘being’ the church and creating space for the kingdom of Heaven to draw near can happen in parking lots just as powerfully as it can in the four walls of a church building,” Gaines said. Engagement with the event also allows students to build friendships between the church and the local community and see that their involvement in the church can make an impact on the lives of others.

Karen Rouggly is the Director in the Office of Service and Discipleship, a campus pastor, and the Connections Pastor for VCG.

Service helps students connect with people and places outside of their college campus,” she said. “There’s so much positive energy that comes from working across generations and in diverse communities. It’s good to be reminded that the local church is a body of believers each playing a very different role from their vantage point and life stage.

Students have enjoyed getting to interact with community members, especially the children which is an age group that many college students don’t get to interact with on a daily basis.

The Trunk or Treat event is designed to highlight APU’s fifth principle of community engagement through diverse partnerships, sustainability, safe practices, and accessibility for all populations. “Long term, programs like this help us to create accessible spaces for those who are exploring how to connect with God and how to connect with the church,” Rouggly said. “We’re continuing to be a consistent presence in the neighborhood, ensuring that they know we care about them.” Sustainability is a key element of APU’s community engagement since the university has always seen value in being a continual, reliable presence in the community. “We love having APU students help at the event,” Gaines said. “It means so much as a smaller church to have the additional support considering Trunk or Treat is a very large event to pull off for hundreds of people in our community!”