Evangelistic haunted houses now focusing on follow-up
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___If you're going to take people to hell, you'd better be prepared to bring them back.
___That's the advice of Texas churches that have used the popular "Judgement House" scenarios as a Halloween outreach tool.
___Judgement House is a proprietary name based on an old-English spelling. Churches

VISITORS to First Baptist Church of Denton's "Judgement House" viewed scenes of both heaven (above) and hell (in photo below). The journey led 250 people to make spiritual commitments.

using the plan for the evangelistic haunted houses set up a series of scenes--such as heaven and hell or a drunk driver or a suicide--which guests pass through. The event usually concludes with a formal gospel presentation.
___Follow-up with people making spiritual decisions is just as important as the planning of the event, the Texas churches report.
___"It's something we take very seriously," said Marty Collier, associate pastor of The Church on Rush Creek in Arlington. "We take a month or so just following up on these prospects. It's a monumental task."
___Rush Creek saw 280 people accept Christ as Savior during the six nights Judgement House was presented there. Now the church will match those people's newfound faith with a bit of its own.
___"The FAITH (evangelism) teams are the answer right now for us. They are real excited about following up on these people, and many of them were part of our counseling team for Judgement House," Collier said.
___While many churches say as many as 80 percent of their Judgement House visitors come with youth groups from other churches, The Church on Rush Creek experienced a walk-in crowd that made up about 50 percent of the 1,571 who attended the event.
___Collier attributed the large number of walk-ins to the excitement of the church body about Judgement House.

GHOULS sit among audience members at "Judgement House."

___One youth invited the entire school to his home for a hamburger and hotdog cookout as a precursor to attending Judgement House. About 75 youth took him up on the offer.
___The excitement level also had an effect on the level of church member participation this year.
___"For months after we did Judgement House last year, we had people coming up and saying, 'When you do Judgement House again, I'll be in charge of security, or I'll be in charge of registration.' They were so excited because of all the people they saw make decisions for Christ last year," Collier said.
___As evidence of that he points to last year's Judgement House employing about 175 volunteers. This year 282 volunteers offered their help.
___"Rush Creek just believes in it," Collier explained. "For months we'll be saying as people enter the baptismal waters, 'This is So and So and they accepted Christ at Judgement House.'"
___First Baptist Church in Denton also recorded a huge number of decisions for Christ as a result of the 10 dramatic scenes that make up Judgement House.
___Groups of 15 to 20 were led through vignettes that depict a family experiencing everyday life, the reality of death and the joys of heaven along with the anguish of hell.
___This was the Denton's church first experience with Judgement House, but Jeff Dooley, student ministry associate, said that after seeing more than 250 people make decisions for Christ the event will become an annual one.
___"We were just overwhelmed with the response," Dooley said.
___The youth who took part particularly were excited about how well things went, he said. "The students were just overwhelmed that they had a part in something that resulted in so many people being saved."
___Twenty-five youth groups attended the Denton Judgement House. Teenagers making decisions filled out cards that identified which church group they came with. The 30-member counseling team passed those cards on to another set of volunteers who collated the cards, so each youth minister left with the cards of teens who had made decisions from their group. The various youth ministers were able to start follow-up counseling on the way home.
___The Judgement House concept has caught on not only with large churches, but with smaller ones as well.
___Pastor John Sursa at Central Baptist Church in Italy said more than 60 people made decisions the first night of Judgement House there.
___Eighty percent ofparticipants at the Italy event came with other youth groups, he said. Decision cards will be collated, and then those churches will receive calls to make sure they know of all who made decisions. The church has a team of about 25 who will follow up on those who did not indicate a church preference.
___This is the second time the Italy church has staged the event, the first time being two years ago. Sursa said the time commitment and the sheer number of volunteers required caused the church to skip a year.
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The Baptist Standard