If you died tonight, would you spend eternity in heaven or hell? When you stand before Jesus and He asks why you should go to heaven, what will you answer?
The certainty that everyone will meet with a final destination is the focus of a ministry on which many churches nationwide have embarked. Through this ministry, the churches try to reach out into their communities to bring people face to face with the reality of eternity.
Those who ask Jesus to come into their hearts to be their Savior are assured of an eternity in heaven. Those who don’t spend forever in hell.
It’s simple. It’s biblical.
And the presentation of this reality led 53,000 people in 1999 to ask Jesus to come into their hearts or to rededicate their lives to Him.
This ministry is called Judgement House (the trademark named is spelled with the English spelling of judgement).
“It’s truly a God-ordained ministry,” said Kathy Miranda, administrator with Judgement House’s headquarters in Clearwater, Fla.
Miranda said it began as one youth group’s vision and now is presented in more than 200 churches worldwide. “In 1999, more than 332,000 people heard the gospel at a Judgement House presentation.”
In the two years Miranda has been with Judgement House, she has witnessed exponential growth, she continued. During her first year, three training conferences were held for interested churches. Already in 2000, there have been nine such workshops.
One was in August at Cropwell Baptist Church in the St. Clair Association. Representatives from 25 churches and 10 states attended the conference.
The first Judgement House was created by Tom Hudgins in 1983, while he was a youth pastor at Bethel Baptist Church, Moody. The youth group, according to information from Judgement House, wanted to stage a haunted house at Halloween for the community.
But Hudgins felt “that Satan gets too much attention at that time of year. Tom looked for a way to accommodate the kids while keeping their eyes on Jesus. He applied the haunted house concept of walking through a series of rooms to an original, Christ-centered drama he had written. Five hundred people attended the first year and 50 made professions of faith.”
The theme of the eight-scene, walk-through drama changes each year. For the churches that choose to follow the selected Judgement House theme, this year’s theme is, “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire.” It is about a house fire.
“We always try to address a life issue,” said Tim Bristow, minister with youth and children at Ridgecrest Baptist Church, Dothan (Columbia Association).
“We always try to use a life situation that could happen to anybody,” such as an auto accident or a tornado, noted Bristow.
The eight scenes carry visitors through the last days, hours or minutes of the characters’ lives and to their judgment before Jesus Christ.
The visitors see how those who have received Christ as Savior are rewarded with everlasting life in heaven. Those who have rejected Christ suffer the consequences of hell, which is described in the Bible as a lake of fire.
This time last year, visitors to the Judgement House at First Baptist Church, Ardmore (Limestone Association), walked through Sunday School rooms that looked like a locker room and a gym. In one room, ceiling tiles had been removed to accommodate huge fans to create the winds of a tornado, said Kay Widner, who directed the Judgement House endeavor there with her husband, Ray.
The event brought the reality of eternity into focus for at least 20 who made professions of faith there, according to Widner.
Similar renovations of campus facilities are seen at many Judgement House sites.
However, Bristow said his church chooses to host Judgement House at a neutral site so it won’t look like a “church function.”
Last year, 850 of the 8,900 people from Florida, Georgia and Alabama who went through Ridgecrest’s Judgement House in Dothan asked Jesus to come into their hearts, said Bristow.
This year, two other churches — Bethel Baptist of Dothan and Jesus Joy Revival Church of Ashford — are teaming with Ridgecrest to present Judgement House. The first night for it was Oct. 13. And there are even special nights set aside for church groups with reservations. First Baptist Church in Trussville also plans a Judgement House that begins Oct. 27.
What makes Judgement House so effective is that “it makes you stop and think” about what will become of you after you die, said Jeff Huey, minister of students at Cropwell Baptist. More than 2,000 visited the site there last year and 253 made professions of faith in Jesus Christ.
Decisions made during Judgement House, he continued, are recorded and are referred to churches in the areas where the people live. Those churches then contact these new Christians in an effort to get them involved in their local congregation.
Though his church didn’t present a Judgement House in 1999, Gordon Lee knows the impact one can have in the community. Lee was then pastor of Mineral Springs Baptist, Pell City, and is the current pastor at Coosa Valley Baptist, Cropwell (both in St. Clair Association). He said the youth leadership at Mineral Springs took a group of students to Cropwell’s Judgement House. Four of that group made professions of faith. One was from Mineral Springs and Lee later had the privilege of baptizing that person.
Judgement House, he said, “just kind of wakes folks up about what the Bible teaches. … It wakes everybody up to the fact that everyone faces (judgment) one day and the Lord is the answer.”
Jeff Copeland, pastor of First Baptist Church, Robertsdale (Baldwin Association), pointed out the strong evangelism impact Judgement House has. He explained that Judgement House reaches people and confronts them with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In that town of 3,500 people, 500 went last year to the church’s Judgement House and 28 prayed and asked Jesus to come into their hearts, Copeland said. And while churches are encouraged to request small donations from those visiting Judgement House, many don’t contribute, said Miranda.
“We just wanted to offer it as a ministry,” said Copeland, explaining that the church didn’t want there to be any hindrances to people hearing about Jesus Christ.
Reaching people who may normally avoid church is a powerful aspect of Judgement House, said Terry Sisco, pastor of senior adults and missions at First Baptist Church, Boaz (Marshall Association).
This year, First, Boaz, will try to reach even more by using members of its Hispanic congregation to present Judgement House in Spanish at certain times, Sisco said.
He noted that Judgement House is not designed to terrorize people with violent scenes. Instead, it uses biblical information to get people to think about their final destination.
The Judgement House ministry also impacts the members of churches where it is presented. Without fail, the church officials interviewed said that working to present a Judgement House brings together three generations of members for a common purpose. It unites all ages and creates a tighter bond.
“It brought a spirit of unity to our church,” said Billy Smith, minister of students at First Baptist Church, Mount Olive (North Jefferson Association). More than 3,000 people went through the Judgement House there in 1999 — a first for the church — and 135 were saved.
Working with Judgement House even spurs some church members to greater service and others who haven’t been attending church to start going regularly, said Widner. It is awesome the “kind of blessing we got out of doing it. … This was better than any revival.”
It can take anywhere from 100-200 people to stage a Judgement House, church officials say. Bristow added that the effort gives church members a world view, that there are many outside the walls of the sanctuary who need to hear about Christ.
Though it is based on the Judgement House concept, the script is actually written by church member Jon Searls, said Sharon Mitchell, secretary at First, Sylacauga.
At last year’s “Beyond the Grave,” there were about 100 professions of faith, she said.
Eden Westside Baptist Church, Pell City (St. Clair Association), also stages a walk-through drama along the lines of Judgement House. But this one — Revelation Walk — is outdoors, set up along one of the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
While Judgement House focuses on a person’s final destination, Revelation Walk uses the book of Revelation and scriptural scenes depicting the end times, said Thelma Jones. She and her husband, Lee, coordinate the Revelation Walk effort at the church. “We do our best to keep it biblically based.”
Last year, she said, 57 people came to know Christ during Revelation Walk at Metro Heights.
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