Words cannot express how my heart soars when hearing the words "Judgment House". My family has been a part of this event that Eastwood Baptist Church puts on since the very first year. We not only participated but after a few years, my Daddy took on role as "director". As kids, my sisters and myself never got to trick or treat much, but honestly, I never remember missing it. JH was always so much "FUN". Funny that as a child that's how I remember it, even as a teenager, it was fun more than anything. It's not until I became an adult that it meant a lot more. I have always known the point:
To share the gospel with our community.
A lot of people come to JH with the anticipation of being scared, or that it is something of a hell house or haunted house. That is the farthest things to what Judgement House is.
If you have never been, allow me to explain:
Judgement House is not a made up thing by EBC. It is an actual organization, check it out
here. You have to buy into the covenant, which is not a cheap thing to do. (per us begging for donations!) When buying the covenant, you receive a script of your choice, and all rights to advertise with the JH logo (and a lot of other technical things).
1. We select a script. On the website, they have many options, with descriptions. The directors read over the options, and we decided on our top 3 favorite. We then contacted the JH organization and ask them to send us the preview DVD of the 3 selected choices. After watching the DVD's, we decide which is our favorite. I'm sure it is ALL God, but we have NEVER not all been in agreement of which was the one we should do. We always watch it and can see the layout through the church. (Which is VERY important!) We can usually see who should play which role, and etc.
2. Start our "committees". Come on guys, we're Southern Baptist, OF COURSE we have committees!
This includes, advertising, food, guides, counselors, acting, scene set-up, prayer, etc. We have a WHOLE lot that has to come together.
3. We have always set the date for JH to be within 3 nights around Halloween but the process starts LONG before then. We start praying/preparing/planning as early as June. It really is a 5 month planning process! And we always need all the help we can get!
4. Start selecting actors. We have a sign up sheet as early as August, with many different options:
Adult speaking, adult non-speaking, children speaking, children non-speaking, youth speaking, youth non-speaking, etc. You get the picture. And just because you sign up for one of these things, does not mean you will necessarily get it. Or, you may think you will have one part, and show up for rehearsal and we might have to move you to a totally different part. (We prayer for flexibility!)
5. We then assign different scenes to different parts of the church, usually making it all flow nicely. When going through Judgement House, you go from room to room watching a "play", I guess you could say. This year our theme was "Behind the Family Portrait", featuring the Jernigan Family: Hank, June, Matt & Sam. Hank is an abusive father that has a problem with alcohol. He has hit daughter Sam & wife June many times, and he often gets in fights with son Matt. We usually have several people portray these characters. We dress them all the same. So all of our Hank's had on a white shirt, June, black, Matt, blue & Sam, red. This way you can follow each character in every scene.
Example:
Scene 1: It started in the Jernigan's living room. Hank had just hit his daughter Sam. Her brother Matt gets so mad that he tries to get in a fight with his father, while wife/mother June comes in and tries to break up the fight. Everyone in the family is so sick of fighting.
Scene 2: This was a classroom scene for Sam. She is with her best friend Todd. He notices that she has a black eye and points out that she has been having a lot of "accidents". She confesses that her father has been abusive. Todd has been trying to witness to Sam for a very long time. At this time, she realizes that she really does need Jesus in her heart, and she wants to share this joy with her family in hopes that it will change their family.
Scene 3: Todd invited Sam & Matt to a youth Bible study at his church. Sam loves the church and can't wait to be involved, while Matt makes the decision that he wants nothing to do with God or the church.
Scene 4: Todd was taking Sam & Matt home from church, when they were all in a car wreck, which tragically killed all 3 of them.
Scene 5: This was actually a split scene, half the room was the Jernigan's living room, the other half is a hospital waiting room. The scene starts out with Hank & June fighting over bills, when they see on the news that there was an accident not far from their house, and they notice the car looks like Todd's. They rush to the hospital. At the hospital they learn that both of their children and Todd did not make it. Their hearts are crushed.
Scene 6: This is called the Judgement scene. In the Bible, it says we will all face judgement, if during our time on earth we accept Jesus as our Savior, we will get the gift of eternal life in Heaven with Jesus! But if we deny Jesus, and do not accept this gift, we will face hell. This scene shows a glimpse of how we think Judgement might be.
Scene 7: Hell Scene
Scene 8: Heaven Scene
After you have completed the walk through, we take the group to what we call counseling. Your guide leaves you here while someone presents the gospel. If you feel led, you are welcome to sit down and speak with someone one on one.
I won't go into the nitty gritty details of planning, that will kind of ruin the fun and mysteriousness of JH.
We had a great year of JH this year. We had 714 people come through, and 10 accepted Christ as Savior and 4 that rededicated their lives! :) It was a great week, and makes all the hard work well worth it!
.JPG)
