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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.

© 2006 Denelle Burns

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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.