A youth pastor from Elizabethtown and his church have pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from a mock kidnapping in March that was meant to be a lesson in religious persecution

Andrew David Jordan was charged in July with false imprisonment and simple assault following the incident, during which prosecutors allege there was interrogation and staged torture.

Jordan, 28, of the 100 block of North Hanover Street, and representatives of Glad Tidings Assembly of God Church, near Middletown, waived an appearance Thursday at an arraignment on the charges in Dauphin County Court.

In July, after the charges were filed, an attorney for Jordan and the church denied the allegations.

According to a grand jury report, teens attending a  youth group meeting at the church suddenly had the lights go off. Men with guns and flashlights ordered them to the floor. Their wrists were bound and pillow cases put over their heads.

The teens were put in a van and driven around before being taken to a windowless basement, where the interrogation and torture of Jordan were simulated.

The mother of one of the teens, a 14-year-old girl who was not a member of the church, filed a complaint with police. No other complaints were filed.

Attorney William A. DeStefano told an Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era reporter in July that the mock raid was intended to show the dangerous scenarios Christians can face on missionary trips.

It was not the first time the church had conducted a similar lesson in religious persecution, he said.

"The church is pretty serious: They don't think they did anything wrong," DeStefano said in the July interview.