Judgement House 2011 (Weekend 2)

The word "amazing" would not suffice to describe what God has done through Judgement House this year. We had 2,458 people walk through JH, 361 make decisions for salvation, and 194 recommit their lives to Christ. After eight years, we have had over 12,500+ people walk through JH at EBC. A special thanks to everyone who volunteered to make JH a success!

A couple of great stories: 1) A little boy walked through heaven, turned to his dad and asked, "Where's my mommy?" The mother had died this past Mother's Day. 2) A mother and her two daughters were all saved at JH. They were in different groups, so none knew of the other's decision, until they arrived outside. 3) A youth pastor sent an e-mail telling us how much JH impacted his youth group and revival was beginning. 4) A wife was standing on the sidewalk crying and when I asked her if she was okay, she stated, "I've been praying for my husband for years and tonight he accepted Christ!" There are so many other stories that people told in their own words on the testimony boards posted around our Worship Center. I hope our members will take time to read them and feel the impact of your hard work.

Jeff Huey preached yesterday and God moved. We were encouraged to add spiritual items to our bucket list such as: 1) Know Christ, 2) Serve Him, and 3) Lead others to Him. Two adults that were saved in JH came down the aisle to make that public and my wife had the privilege of showing a lady how to be saved. It was a good day, in spite of the tiredness due to JH.

Judgement House 2011 (Weekend 1)

This is our 8th year to host Judgement House at Emmanuel. In the first 7 years, over 10,000 people have walked through JH at EBC, and we expect 2,000+ again this year. This has become our largest evangelistic effort and our church family has really bought in! In fact, this is the first year that people are "dependent" on our church staff and we are serving as "support" personnel. To me, that is the sign of a great church, and a very strong ministry!

Again this year, over 100+ volunteers are involved as actors, tour guides, counselors, registration, security, concessions, runners, support personnel, and more! This year, JH is being offered on Oct. 1-2, 8-9 and all of our reservation slots are already full. We've reserved room for walk-in's, but we encourage those to come on Saturday night beginning at 5:00pm.

The results after the first weekend are as follows:
- Over 900 people walked through.
- 121 salvation decisions.
- 73 recommitted their lives to Christ.
- 4 to be baptized this Sunday.
- And many amazing testimonies!

I want to especially thank Justin, Billy, and Brian for their leadership and oversight of JH. I also want to extend our thanks to Jeff and his team for ALL the help that Extreme Ministries provides! These guys have become like family and I invite you to come hear Jeff preach this Sunday at 10:30am at Emmanuel. You will also see the baptisms and hear some testimonies from JH.

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.

Judgement House Report

Emmanuel Baptist Church just concluded our 7th year of Judgement House, and it is a highlight of every year! JH is a nine scene walk-through drama that challenges people to consider whether they have a right relationship with God and whether they are ready to meet Him when they die.

JH involved nearly 140 members of our church family, took months of practice and preparation, and many hours to build the scenes. Our Pastor of Student Ministries, Justin, provides the annual leadership to the volunteers and God used the efforts of everyone for His glory! Volunteers included registration, concessions, security, actors, counselors, tour guides, runners, set construction, cleanup crew, data entry, sound technicians, and more!

We had 1,777 people walk through JH in just 3 nights. Of those, 183 made first time decisions to accept God's gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. Another 100 came for assurance or to rededicate their lives to Christ. Each person who made a decision was counseled individually, questions were answered, materials were given for immediately followup, and their names are being provided to the church they listed so the mentoring process can begin.

The stories were amazing and most of these new believers briefly wrote their testimonies, which will be displayed in our Worship Center in the weeks ahead. Those who heard the gospel included a Muslim, a Wiccan, alcoholics, substance abusers, backsliders, and and others in need of God's love. One little girl went through JH on Saturday and was saved. The next night, she brought her grandmother and grandma recommitted her life to Christ. Those stories just go on and on.

Thank you God, for using us to make an eternal impact on the lives of individuals in our local and surrounding communities.