I have been using a different method lately for the “Altar Call” on Sunday mornings. Instead of asking people who need to make a decision to come forward while everyone is standing (and looking at them) I have been experimenting with using a “Communication Card” in conjunction with having the “Decision Coaches” available at the end of the service to aid people who want to speak to someone about their decision. Let me share with you a few thoughts about this approach:
1. We have not killed the invitation or the “altar call”.
I have heard from a few concerned members that we start having an invitation and altar call again. Here is good news for you: We have not stopped offering an invitation! Every week I invite people to respond to the message and to the Gospel. Using the communication card is an effective way to have people indicate their decision so we can adequately follow up with them as needed. Having Decision Coaches available at the end of the service enables people to speak to someone if they have questions or need prayer. This is especially important for people who may be under conviction about their need for Christ. So we still offer a “walk the aisle” invitation. It is simply at the end of the service. (Just a note here…we really cannot have an “altar” call anyway because we don’t have an altar. The last altar that mattered was the cross upon which Christ died. Praise God, we don’t need an altar any more!)
2. This approach helps alleviate the #1 fear of most people: standing up and being singled out in public.
The fear of public speaking is a reality for many people. I try to assure people that if they come forward we will not make them say anything to the church. But I regularly hear that people are afraid to come forward. You might say that they are ashamed of Christ. But I do not believe that is necessarily the case. A fear of public speaking and being ashamed of Christ are two different things. We all know deacons who are scared to death to even pray out loud in church. Are we going to question their salvation? I think not. Why then will we excuse a deacon who has known the Lord for years and not excuse a person who may be on the verge of salvation or has accepted Christ moments earlier just because they are nervous about everyone looking at them or at the possibility of having to speak publically to hundreds of strangers?
3. There is no biblical mandate that sinners are asked to walk the aisle of a church.
The altar call as we know it has been around for only 200 years. There was a time in the 19th Century that many Baptist churches refused to use an altar call because they believed it was manipulative. People like Charles Finney made the altar call popular. For nearly nineteen centuries prior, Christ saved people without an altar call in a church building. Simply put, people are not saved by walking an aisle. They are saved by grace through faith in Christ. There is not a Sunday that goes by that I do not tell people to turn to Christ in repentance and place their trust in Him. One of the dangers of an altar call is that it gives people the false sense of salvation because they “walked an aisle” once. The biblical public profession of faith is baptism followed by Christian living. Think of how many people “walked an aisle” and have never darkened the doors of the church since.
4. I do not believe that “altar calls” are necessarily wrong if used properly.
I have seen God work in mighty ways in services where a public invitation was given. I was saved as at the age of 12 during a Sunday night altar-call. I simply don’t want people to have the idea that walking an aisle saves. I want them to know that we are saved only by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8-9). In fact, my entire sermon is an invitation to trust Christ. You do not have to wait until the end to believe on Christ.
We will use a variety of methods at Fort Caroline Baptist Church to help people place their trust in Christ. We will probably have times where we ask people to come forward in the service. But I want to be open to the leadership of the Holy Spirit in how He wants me to conduct the services. If the Bible commanded me to tell people to walk an aisle then I would do so without hesitation. But nowhere in Scripture are people commanded to physically move from one place to another in order to be saved. But sinners are commanded to place their faith in Christ. Sinners don’t need to come to me or to you or to the front of a building to be saved. They need to come to Christ in faith. I will always offer that invitation.
I recently read a wonderful article by Fred G. Zaspel titled “The Altar Call.” Fred does a masterful job of discussing this issue. Click on the tile and read it for yourself.
Please pray for me that I will always follow the Lord’s leading as the pastor of this dear church.
