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Apostolics Redefine Halloween—Then Dream Bigger
By Denelle Burns
January 30, 2006
Roughly 25 miles southeast of Hollywood is the city of
Bellflower, California. While the city itself isn’t much to behold (just another
of the thousand cities in Los Angeles County), the saints of International
Pentecostal Church (IPC) are anything but ordinary. Over the past 10 years they
have developed a unique vision and ministry for taking on Satan on his own turf.
From Halloween to Hell
In 1995, Pastor Daniel L. Butler had a vision for an outreach ministry that
would take place during the Halloween season and would draw young people from
the streets. He approached Youth Pastor John Aoki about an idea to create a
haunted house-type, walk-through drama that would take audiences on a tour from
sin to death to Hell and then to Heaven, where Jesus could make an appeal and
give the audience an opportunity for salvation. Excited, but knowing that he’d
need help, John decided to enlist a new member of the church,
Eric Roemheld,
into this project, as Roemheld was a set decorator in the Hollywood movie
industry.
Roemheld had recently received the Holy Ghost and had been
baptized in Jesus’ name, so he was excited and determined to work his “stage
magic” for Jesus Christ. He purchased several thousand dollars worth of
equipment with his own money, took a month off work, and dedicated himself to
converting the church property into a walk-through haunted house of Biblical
proportions. The set zig-zagged through various Sunday school rooms, the back of
the church, and finally ended up in the sanctuary. The project was christened
Virtual Hell.
That first year (1995) the Virtual Hell rooms detailed
family abuse, AIDS, drug/psychedelics, an insane asylum, an electrocution chair,
a mortuary, Hell and Heaven. Approximately 1,600 people walked through; on
Halloween night, many visitors came through with their costumes on.
Virtual Hell Redefined
In 1998, with the addition of a Christian School to the church, Virtual Hell
had to change from a walk-through to a “non-traditional” stage drama. The
results have been phenomenal.
During the months of September and October the sanctuary of
IPC becomes a construction site, as it is transformed into an all-encompassing
stage (as services continue despite the dust and drop cloths). Thousands of
flyers are mailed out, given to co-workers and family and even passed out to
students on the local high school and college campuses. Starting the week before
Halloween and continuing through Halloween night, the cast stages between 10 and
15 performances. (Each drama lasts about 45 minutes, with a 30 minute altar call
afterwards.) Amazingly, those that would never set foot in a regular church
service stand in line for two hours to see Virtual Hell.
The plays are independently written by the drama team at IPC
and tend to be action packed (explosives and the occasional fight scene or two)
and a bit creepy (demons and Satan are a must). Yet while the story is always
different, one thing never changes—the theme that God always triumphs Satan/evil
in the end, and that no sin is too great to be forgiven. It may seem a bit
extreme and it is certainly not a “harvest festival.” However, Jude exhorted,
“others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment
spotted by the flesh.” (Jude 1:23)
Average annual attendance for Virtual Hell is close to
2,000 visitors. People from the local communities come, and church groups drive
from as far as Arizona and the San Francisco area (4-6 hours) to bring those
that need salvation. Each performance ends with an altar call and the altar is
always flooded.
During the performances for 2005, over 30 people were
confirmed to have received the Holy Ghost. Experience has proven that the
numbers are usually much higher simply because there are so many visitors from
other churches that it is impossible to track everyone and find out their
experience.
Glimpses of Virtual Hell
Clicking any of the links below will give you a better glimpse of Virtual
Hell.
· 1998 “Virtual Hell the Drama”—an
abusive family turns to God for help.
· 1999 “The
Y2K Project”—the military takes over a church during Y2K.
This included a life-sized tank in the church parking lot that was so
real the police stopped to check it out
· 2000 “Vote for Joe”—at a political rally the
Presidential candidate is revealed as Satan and is defeated by two
“audience” members
· 2001 “Vision of Hell”—a young man wakes up in Hell,
where he is judged and sentenced by Satan; when he cries out to God for
help, Jesus appears revealing that it was only a vision/dream to aid the
young man in waking up from the life of sin he was living
· 2003 “The
Abomination”—a young minister’s quest to discover if the
stories, written in his grandfather’s journal, about a powerful and
mysterious man living in the
Syrian desert, are true. After
witnessing the “miracles” the man can conjure, it is revealed that he is
the Anit-Christ and he is defeated by prayer and the pleading of the
blood. Loosely based on the stories of Jonathan Urshan.
· 2004 “The Reign of Fear”—Three people have
nightmares of ending up in Hell (death, missing the rapture, committing
murder). Jesus appears to each and explains that he has forgiven their
sins and that he loves them.
· 2005 “The
Invitation”—Four
people receive invitations to a mysterious
house on Halloween.
Unexpectedly, a young evangelist, lost in a storm, arrives as well. The
mistress of the house is very cryptic as to why they’ve been invited and
a general
presence of evil makes everyone
uneasy. When they discover the reason for their invitation, each of them
is forever changed.
Back To The Future
While Virtual Hell is a blast to produce, it is ultimately all about
souls. However, there have been several side benefits that have been revealed.
Namely, the previously unrecognized God-given talents of a multitude of saints.
Those talents and an ever-growing void in quality Christian entertainment has
opened the door to the next level
of ministry.
ninetyandnine.com
© 2006 Denelle Burns
-----------
Denelle Burns spent six years
immersed in the craziness that is Virtual Hell and loved every minute
(well almost every minute) of it. She has also come to realize that there
will never be another “Bellflower” anywhere else on earth and is secretly
plotting a return.
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