Does Celebrating Halloween Send You to Hell?

The greatest opposition I've faced since moving to Hartsville has been from preachers and radical religious nuts who put opinion above Scripture. It's been quiet recently, but my phone rang yesterday and I received a voicemail from a pastor who informed me that I was going to hell (along with our church and many other churches) for celebrating Halloween.

Eight years ago, Emmanuel hosted Hartsville's first Trunk-or-Treat event. This year, there are 10-12 other churches in our community hosting similar events around Halloween. Ours takes place on Oct. 31, as we invite families to come to a safe environment, get candy, enjoy inflatable rides, carnival games, ponies, and concessions. We ask that there be no scary or evil costumes. We use this event to share the gospel and to gather names of those who might be looking for a church home. In years past, our crowds have averaged 1,200-1,300 people coming through in 1.5 hours. Remember, we minister in a city of 8,000+/-. Gospel tracts are handed out to every person present. It is a very positive event that has been appreciated and embraced by our community. It's a community outreach event, and an alternative to Halloween, not a celebration of it.

In spite of the success of the event, a preacher stated that a person goes to hell for celebrating Halloween. Is that true? Absolutely not. Sadly, in this day and time, you can't even believe everything a preacher tells you. Denominational teachings, opinions, and personal preferences have replaced solid Bible preaching. Rest assured that the only thing that keeps a person out of heaven is refusing to recognize that Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to heaven, His blood paid the penalty for our sin, and He is Lord of all.

Certainly, our church does NOT endorse the evil aspects of Halloween; but we DO endorse using every opportunity to share God's love with others. How about you? When was the last time you told someone about Jesus?

Judgement House - Sunday #2

Another amazing night at Judgement House! We had over 800+ people walk through tonight, and 108 of those made decisions for salvation. Our grand total was 2,475 people walking through in 4 nights. Of those, 256 made decisions for salvation and many others recommitted their lives to Christ. The night started slow and 3 of the first 4 groups walked out without one person making any type of decision, so we ramped up the prayer efforts and God answered!

Now the real work begins, as we follow-up with all of those decisions. Phone calls, mail outs, and visits to each one. We are partnering with the local churches who brought groups to accomplish this task. it's their job to follow-up on those who came with their groups. Our goal is not to build our church from other churches, but rather to build a partnership of churches working together to make disciples.

A special thanks to the Judgement House team... eight years and running! (They are definitely invited back next year and there are more Pecan pies where those came from.) Our thanks also goes to all those volunteers who arrived today at 4:00pm to serve and then stayed until after midnight resetting everything for school. We have an incredible church family!

Finally, a special thanks to our two amazing ministry assistants who spent their monumental birthdays serving God by serving others! Happy birthday Anna & Stacie!

Judgement House - Saturday #2

UNBELIEVABLE! We had 604 people walk through JH last night. 70 of those made first time decisions for salvation and a couple of dozen recommitted their lives to Christ. When given opportunity to respond to the invitation, one ENTIRE group exited the room to speak with a counselor!

It's been interesting as 2 of our church members and another relative of a church member have passed during JH. In addition, I truly believe we had a demon possessed man tour JH last night. He was very disruptive during the presentation of the Gospel and wrote some "crazy" things on the testimony board. Thank God, that even that man heard about the love of God.

Keep praying... one more night to go. So far, we've had 1,641 people tour JH. Should go over 2,000 tonight.

Judgement House 2010

Judgement House has become an annual event at Emmanuel. This is our 8th year hosting this event. Our first Youth/Children's Pastor, Kevin Matias, stepped out on a limb to try something that stretched our church; but has become one of our favorite events. Our current, Youth/College Pastor, Justin Facenda, has brought annual improvements to JH and it continues to grow. This year, we are hosting it over 2 weekends and had over 1000+ people walk through in the first 2 nights. The reservations for this next weekend are even more full and should result in our largest crowd ever!

Last weekend, we saw 77 people make first-time decisions for salvation. In addition, there were 20+ who recommitted their lives to Christ. In addition to the story line, each participant hears a closing that draws the story together and leads them to examine their own lives. Those who make decisions are dealt with one-on-one to make sure they understand. One of my favorite parts is that each person who makes a decision writes a brief testimony. It exciting and encouraging to read these heartfelt decisions.

So, please pray for our staff of over 100+ people serving as actors, tour guides, counselors, registration, security, nursery workers, lighting, sound, runners, consessions, and more! For more information on JH, visit http://www.judgementhouse.org.

I'll keep you posted on this weekend's results.