Christ Temple Church strives to grow churches throughout the community with their annual Judgment House “Spiked”.

The Judgment House is a walk-through drama of heaven and hell laid out by actors and participants in the church or tri-state area. With 6,000 people anticipated to come this year, 300 volunteers committed to give up their evenings to create “Spiked”.

This year’s drama is themed around a young girl getting her drink roofied at a Christmas party, which leads to three teens losing their lives, one being a girl who just lost her father to cancer.

Bobbie Young, co-coordinator of The Judgement House said the theme is always different, but the outcome remains the same when creating the walk-through drama.

“We give them a glimpse of what judgment, hell and heaven look like, and none of us know what this looks like exactly,” Young said. “And we give them a really amazing realistic drama with characters who will be making the choice to accept Christ or not.”

Young said the event isn’t intended to scare people into Christianity.

“It’s not a spook house for Halloween, it’s not something to scare people, it’s so people will question their own mortality. And know not choosing Christ is making a choice,” Young said.

Young said professionals are on scene to help anyone who may be frightened and need someone to talk to during the event.

“It’s graphic, and we tell people ahead of time and have child psychologists, nurses on stand by,” Young said.

Pastor’s daughter, director of the Judgement House and business and finance director of Christ Temple, Anneliese Caserta said she’s thankful for the commitment from everyone involved.

“Our people are so great and know they are in here for the long haul; we don’t give up and say we’re tired and stay as enthusiastic with the last group as they were with the first,” Caserta said. “Last year we were baptizing people until 3 a.m. on a Saturday night.”

Caserta said many actors in the event are young or have no acting experience, but they have a member of the church that helps them embody their characters.

“We have a member of our church who’s a blessing, Beth McVeigh,” Caserta said. “She was Mrs. Potts on Broadway, and she goes room to room and talks to them and helps them tap into experiences and who they are as well as logistics. It’s magic. She can turn anyone into an actor.”

Caserta said the event acts as a method to unite the Huntington community through churches all over.

“We consider this a community event, because so many church groups come to this, and if they bring a church group and any of their people get saved, we will send the information over to that church to follow up with them, and it grows their churches as well,” Caserta said.

Caserta said she hopes people walk away serious about afterlife.

“We want people to leave with a realization that there’s the reality of life beyond the grave, and it doesn’t end here, and understand the seriousness of that.”

“Spiked” is occurring until Thursday, Oct. 25 from 5 to 11 p.m. Groups of 50-60 people are taken at a time. Food, coffee and live entertainment will be available while groups wait. Christ Temple Church is located at 2400 Johnstown Road in Huntington.

Lillie Bodie can be contacted at [email protected].