Finch Baptist Church sees more than 50 saved at Judgement House

Finch Baptist Church in Paragould recently hosted a Judgement House event. They reported 58 salvations. (Submitteed)

PARAGOULD, Ark. – Finch Baptist Church in Paragould saw more than 50 people give their lives to Jesus while hosting a Judgement House earlier this fall. 

Over four days, Oct. 17-19 and Nov. 1, they had 734 people walk through and reported 58 salvations, 49 rededications, and 98 prayer requests.  

Judgement House is a walk-through gospel presentation about people’s choices and the consequences of those choices, both in this life and the next. According to the website, “The walk-through drama takes place throughout a series of rooms or scenes. With each room, a unique yet tragic story will unfold. Although the scripts vary in content, setting, and characters, all of our scripts leave the viewer asking one important question: ‘What story am I currently writing, and how do I want it to end?’” 

Melissa Coffell of Finch Baptist Church said she attended a Judgement House with her family several years ago but did not realize there were any in the Paragould area. Last fall, while at an event at Southside Church in Paragould, she saw a sign hanging on the wall for Judgement House. Upon asking about it, she learned that the church held a Judgement House production about every third year. That day was the church’s last day that year to have Judgement House. She attended with another lady from her church to see if Judgement House was something they might want to do at Finch Baptist.  

“We went and I absolutely loved it, and I was pretty certain we could pull something like that off even though right now our church is kind of going through a season. We don’t have a pastor at the current moment. And, you know, some people were reluctant that we should do anything without a pastor,” Coffell said.  

But Coffell kept thinking, “Our church is not dead.”  

“We still have people coming. And if we have programs, such as this, that just kind of confirms that we’re still worshiping. We’re still doing what we’re supposed to do, and that we’re not basing everything that we are doing … on just a pastor,” she said. “So, I thought, if we can do this, I want to do it.”  

After walking through the Judgement House, the lady Coffell brought with her agreed, “I think we can do it.” She even called her teenage son, asking him to bring a couple of his friends to walk through the Judgement House. They liked it and said if they held one at their church, they would want to help.  

From there, Coffell said they began the planning process. They reached out to Judgement House, went through training, picked a script, and got to work. The script they chose was “Reckoning.”  

On the first night of the event, Oct. 17, they were scheduled from 6-9 p.m. Coffell said they had so many people come through that the cast did not end up leaving the church until around 11 p.m. 

Originally only scheduled for three days ending on Oct. 19, on that Sunday, Coffell said one of her fellow church members came to her and said he had a dream. He felt that God was telling him that they need to leave it up and do it again in two weeks. She talked it over with the cast; they prayed about it and agreed to host Judgement House again Nov. 1. They had over 100 people walk through that day and reported seven salvations.  

“Had we not done that last day, there would have been all those numbers that would have just missed out. … I’m glad we followed the guidance that was put out there in front of us,” Coffell said.  

For more on Judgement House, check out judgementhouse.org.