If You Go
' What: Hell House, performed by Rising Fawn Church of God ' Where: South Dade Community Center, 259 School St., Rising Fawn ' When: 7:30-11 p.m. tonight, weather permitting. A tour takes 20 to 30 minutes. ' Admission: Free
RISING FAWN, Ga. - He stands behind waist-high flames, lifts his black hood and chuckles.
"I knew you could never keep a promise!" he tells an audience of about 20. "This is where it ends for you!"
It is cold outside the South Dade Community Center on Friday night, and the fire is the lone source of light. And surrounding the audience, men and women and children with painted faces crawl through the dirt on their bellies and clutch the air inches from the visitors. The demons wail. And Chris Hagler, 45, the pastor of the Rising Fawn Church of God, stays behind the flames, head tilted back, laughing.
Then, guides with flashlights usher the audience away, to a room they call heaven. Hagler walks to the entrance of the community center and introduces himself to a new group. He is portraying the devil.
Though Judgment Houses, Hell Houses and "Scared Straight" Houses have become popular in evangelical Christian circles over the past two decades, the Rising Fawn Church of God had not hosted this type of event until five years ago, when Hagler became pastor. A former school band director with some community theater experience, Hagler felt a Halloween performance could lure the lost souls who avoid Sunday morning services.
But he also knows how outsiders view church productions. He's watched some Christian films fall flat. He knows some people will assume their event is lame.
His antidote is intensity. He wants the scenes in the church's production to address what he believes to be the problems of Dade County. In past years, actors have pretended to cut themselves, hang themselves and shoot themselves, using real guns as props. A pregnant middle school girl has made fun of her classmates for being virgins. A man has blamed his ex-wife for their daughter's death because the mother was a lesbian.
During rehearsals for this year's show, he told some actors they needed to yell at each other louder. Others, he said, needed to worship false idols with more passion.
"You said, 'Hush, mom,'" he told one actress who plays a disrespectful daughter. "I want you to say, 'Shut up, old lady!'"
On Friday night, during a scene in which an actor steals his mother's prescription pills, Hagler bent over, into the face of a 10-year-old boy in the audience. He told the boy that he could make $100 selling pills. In another scene, he sang "Hush, Little Baby" to an aborted fetus.
He knows this is brash, sickening, even. But he wants the production to be blunt. He wants people to know how he feels, how he believes Satan feels.
Pastor Chris Hagler stands behind a fire pit in the hell scene during a rehearsal for the Rising Fawn Church of God's Hell House event at South Dade Community Center on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015, in Rising Fawn, Ga. The annual event takes visitors through scenes of sinning actors before arriving in a simulated hell, and it concludes with a scene of heaven.Hagler wants people to hate him - or the devil he portrays. He wants people to see that heaven, with its white sheets and white lights and angels cloaked in white robes, is the best option. It's peaceful.
He says fear should not be the motivating factor for such a decision - people who become Christians out of fear often do not stick with the faith. He believes it is the quality of the performance that will change people's lives. But the performance itself is supposed to be scary.
"In reality," he said after the Friday night production, "hell is going to be a very scary place."
Of the 160 people who attended the Hell House on Friday night, Hagler said, 13 chose to become Christians.
Many in his congregation agree: Hell House is effective. So are the other community outreach events the church has organized since Hagler arrived. Backpack giveaways before school starts. Gifts for nursing home residents during Christmas. Random acts of kindness before Easter.
Sandra Reeves, a member for 38 years, said only about 30 people came to church when Hagler first became pastor. She said the weekly population has since grown to about 150. Ted Rumley II said he arrives 15 minutes early because the church doesn't have enough seating.
Some of the members were skeptical of Hell House at first. But Reeves said seeing one performance changed their minds.
"It's just so real," she said after watching a scene in which a man realizes his mistress is pregnant. "So many people face that."
Matt Veal, who has played an abusive husband, a methamphetamine cook, a doctor who can't save a car crash victim's life and a demon, says he's seen acquaintances come through the Hell House. He knows some of them have been directly affected by the issues he is acting out. He knows they're being changed, some of them.
Christopher Ely, the children's pastor, feels the same way. He plays the abortion doctor this year, a role that excites him. He doesn't feel discomfort with the scene. He feels a presence intervening in the air. He can see it on the audience's faces.
It's not fear, he said. It's the Holy Spirit.
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at tjett@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-64766.