I see the pressure on Thursday VBS. It is unsaid peer pressure. Some probably are saved, and the rest are following the others in an effort to do the right thing. Good intentions – no true repentance.

How many people breakdown during a service in realization of their sin? Maybe it is because sin is not preached as much.

We have done the response card, too, and I struggle with the urgent response vs waiting for the pastor to schedule someone in.

You guys just keep preaching repentance.

Liz

My wife has a testimony similar to Sister Liz’s. I will see if she will allow me to share it with you.

Blessings,
Tim

I agree. I think we’re “barking up the same tree.”

When I speak about “coming forward to get saved,” I’m not really talking about any precherly claims. I am speaking about a general (mis)understanding among Baptists that “the walk” is generally associated with salvation. Indeed, in some churches it can only occur during Spring or Fall Revival, or you’re not really saved!! (Seriously, I have heard that sentiment expressed … they wait for the “real evangelists” to come at revival time.)

Often times it doesn’t matter what we tell people, or how many “disclaimers” we give or explain … misunderstanding is still misunderstanding. And, as always, our actions speak louder than our words. That call for “just one more verse” speaks volumes about the overall conception that God must work during the “invitation time,” lest He not work at all.

Again, I’m not talking about what we say, preach, or even think … but what our “practice” and tradition “say” to the people in the pews.

I believe that you and I are saying the same thing but we are using different verbiage to say it.

When I come to the end of my message I give an invitation to receive Christ as one’s personal Lord and Savior. At that time I explain that to receive Jesus is as simple as praying a prayer of confession and repentance. I then explain that this prayer does not contain any magical words and I will voice the words for the person that desires to pray. Once I lead in that prayer, I then express that if one prayed that prayer and meant it with all of their heart, then Jesus saved them. If they prayed and believe in their heart then their next step is to make this private decision for Christ public and follow it with baptism and church membership.

I by no means encourage one to walk an isle in order to get saved. I honestly do not know of anyone that tells people they must walk and isle to get saved. Just as you do not encourage a person to fill out a response card in order to get saved.

In all honesty, I feel that you have set up a straw man with this “altar-call” illustration. No one says you must come down an isle to get saved. Dr. Billy Graham comes close, but he says that if you want to come to Jesus we have counselors that will help you. I have been to a number of BGEA Crusades and I honestly cannot remember any time that an invitation has been given that one must come to the altar in order to get saved.

Blessings,
Tim

I didn’t make that assessment. I posed that thought in the form of a question, with which the reader can choose to agree or disagree … “Is an altar call truly for the respondent, or for those who are watching … to pump up their local church egos?”

No primer for that pump.

Sandy Creek tradition, and all other traditions aside, I’m still looking for that compelling biblical argument for the current practice that is known as the “invitation” or “altar call.”

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not intending to speak of the altar call in a derogatory manner. I simply believe that it is not a clearly biblical practice, and that it many, indeed, do more theological and practical harm than good for many who take the “walk.” That’s why I prefer to use other methods.

You referred to Acts 16:
30He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized.

Notice that the reply was the Gospel, followed by baptism. No walking of an aisle. No hymns. No organs. No pressure. Sounds a lot like my church.

I sincerely believe that the altar call is an expression of church culture and tradition. As such, its use must be optional. Yet so many of our brethren look down upon (even rebuke and ridicule) those who do not make use of it.

That’s why I’m doing this series of posts … to show that we who choose not to have an altar call do so on sound theological (biblical) grounds.

I have hesitated in posting this comment as I am one that certainly believes in an altar call. Please do not get me wrong. I am not against your having someone fill out a response card for someone to follow-up. Thus I will not term that style in an derogatory term. However, I must lovingly and respectfully disagree with your assessment that the altar call is a primer for the ego pump of pastor or congregation.

If we trace the altar call I believe you will find the Sandy Creek Tradition is a place to trace back to. Charles Finney had a form of it called the “wailing bench” or the “anxious seat”. It has been some time since I researched this, but Finney would give an invitation to come and sit on the “anxious seat” and meditate on the sins in your life. I believe that the named was changed to the “wailing bench” because as people sat there during the invitation meditating on their sins they would be so broken they would just begin wailing as in agony. Finney would then tell them to go home and if God saw fit to save them then they could return the next evening and express their desire. As I said, it has been awhile since my research of this and I may be off on some of the logistics. However, an appeal to a public profession, I do not believe, is out of character in the NT. One such instance comes to mind. In Acts the people asked Peter, “What must we do to be saved”? Do you reckon they wrote that out on their response card, or did Peter invite them publicly to salvation? (The response card was just a friendly jab.:>))

Blessings,
Tim