Church's 'Judgment House' Drama Brings Eternal Perspective to Halloween
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
October 31, 2005
(AgapePress) - As Halloween draws near, once again churches across America are using the holiday as an opportunity for evangelism. Last year, First Baptist Church in Selmer, Tennessee, hosted "Judgment House," a dramatic live presentation that attempts to show audiences the consequences of choosing or rejecting Christ. Shannon Phillips is associate pastor at First Baptist Church in Selmer. He says the congregation's "Judgment House" performance sparked a church-wide revival last year, and excitement is high over this year's presentation as well. The Judgment House outreaches are inspired in part by the ever popular secular attractions that send edgy visitors on a heart-pounding tour through a "haunted house," encountering various staged shocks and spectacles as they brave one scary room after another. Haunted houses are designed to frighten and amuse all at once, providing some gently disturbing but temporary, escapist diversion. However, their Christian counterparts have much more otherworldly objectives -- and hopefully, far more enduring impact.
A ministry called New Creation Evangelism, Inc., owns "Judgment House," and makes it available to churches around the country, along with other resources. The organization's mission is to equip and train churches to share the gospel with their communities through these innovative, biblically grounded dramatic presentations.
A standard presentation involves an eight-scene walk-through drama that tells the story of several youth facing their individual daily challenges. A guide leads visitors from one scene to the next as the narrative unfolds. One teen chooses to accept Christ and another chooses to reject Him. Then the characters die in a common calamity such as an a car crash or natural disaster, and they are flung into their respective eternal destinations, thus revealing the end results of the choices they made -- everlasting Heaven or Hell.
Phillips describes First Baptist's "Judgment House" drama as a teaching tool. "I believe it is a way in which people see that there are decisions that have to be made now that will affect you for all eternity," he says. "We were able to portray that to the folks that came through in such a way that, when they got finished, we had counselors [to talk with them], and we were able to see God move in a mighty way."
The Tennessee pastor says more than 1,800 people went through the church's "Judgment House" last year. And those visitors were not the only ones who were deeply affected by the presentation, he adds.
"It was such an impact on our own church," Phillips says. "We had so many people that got involved that otherwise would not have been involved, maybe, in a revival or in blanketing the area for a survey or anything like that."
The evangelical church leader feels there is something about "Judgment House" that makes it like no other outreach, and he believes his congregation members participated because they felt it too. "This is something that was different, and they were excited about it," he notes. "They were curious about it, and so they were willing to help in many different ways."
Phillips says Judgment House has proven to be an excellent resource for targeting and reaching out to people who do not usually attend church worship services. First Baptist Church of Selmer will be holding its Judgment House through Halloween night.
