As this Halloween shapes up to be the warmest Colorado Halloween we’ve had in maybe a decade, I find it shamefully ironic that Neil won’t be conducting the Jesus House, his annual Halloween alternative for youth. Reverend Brown, the PraiseNet’s associate editor, has conducted this ministry for more than a decade, inviting churches all over the city to send their youth to a dramatic (and scary!) re-telling of the Gospel. Leading groups of kids through a darkened maze of exhibits inside several rooms, Neil dramatically reenacted Christ’s crucifixion, death and resurrection in a way so visceral it would literally scare the devil out of many kids, while offering games and prizes, food and candy and a musical finale with a youth choir.

We won’t be seeing that this year. Over the past several Halloweens, support for Neil’s ministry has dwindled, with Neil having to take on more and more of the work himself. This year, the host church—the church that’s held the event nearly every year of its existence—denied Neil’s request to use their facility, ostensibly because Neil didn’t submit his request in time for the church’s quarterly business meeting—a protocol Neil knew nothing about. Thus the church’s senior pastor once again put his idiot process over the lives of young people, hammering Neil because he missed some arbitrary and meaningless deadline and thus closing his doors to a meaningful and important solution to the problem of Christian kids emulating pagan rituals.

Kids will, undoubtedly, show up at this church on Halloween, anyway. That’s how closely Jesus House is associated with this church. They’ll likely find the doors closed, or some tired bible study going on or, hypocritically, the church doing their own version of Jesus House after having told Neil he couldn’t do his because the proposal arrived too late.

Additionally, of the 70+ black churches here in Colorado Springs, only one—True Spirit Baptist Church—has agreed to materially sponsor the event or lend any help to it. The Jesus House event simply slipped under the radar and/or off the map of most churches. Some of this might be Neil not banging the drum loud enough, but, by now, these churches must surely know this is what this man does every year. And, every year, fewer and fewer churches step up to the plate. Most offer nothing whatsoever for their youth on Halloween, so their kids end up in the street trick-or-treating, unwittingly indulging in Satanic ritual.

It is the latest and saddest testament to the overall lack of vision and spirituality here in this town, the shockingly childish selfishness of these so-called “ministries,” in that they either take Neil for granted or are simply too lazy to help him.

And, this year, Neil has finally had enough. Which is truly a shame. What a lousy town this is. What lousy pastors we have here.