In his book, Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism, Joel Carpenter writes about how fundamentalists looked for signs of God’s visitation and yearning for miracles among them expressed through altar calls or invitations. Check out what he had to say.
Fundamentalist preachers regularly gave the invitation for people to step forward and publicly profess Christ as their savior, and many pastors insisted on giving this “altar call” at every service. Their reason for doing this was that it was their evangelistic duty, but this ritual, performed with the musicians softly playing, the congregation singing or praying, and the leader speaking in an almost liturgical cadence, had become the high and holy moment of the fundamentalist church service, the time when miracles happened. For many fundamentalists, the experience of walking the aisle was so inspiring that doing it once was not enough. Surely people might feel encouraged in their faith and be charged with holy joy when others responded to the gospel, but there was nothing like experiencing it personally. Since conversion happened only once, fundamentalists developed ways for born-again Christians to “come forward” more often. By broadening their altar call into an invitation or rededicate their lives to God, to surrender themselves to God’s service, or to testify to a “definite call” to a particular field of service, fundamentalists found a way to meet their thirst for holy moments. “Going forward” became a fundamentalist sacrament.
– Joel A. Carpenter, Revive Us Again, 77.
One must not need wonder why contemporary fundamentalists are so antagonistic about their brethren who either do not stress the importance of altar calls or have done away with it altogether. The sacramental reverence given to those closing moments in a church service were considered to be time where miracles happened. Furthermore, such movements down an aisle were a confirmation that God was working and the church was growing, such that a person coming down for the fourth time for rededication was more indicative of a renewed “surrender” than a faulty view of justification and sanctification. One of the inevitable consequences of this sacrament was that pastoral counseling and knowing the spiritual condition of the flock often became suppressed by the pragmatic temptation to permit more and more people to profess faith, be baptized, and join the church without any serious inquiry into the state of their soul or their understanding of the gospel. Most unfortunate the case, such a sacrament became the gateway for unregenerate church members to seek a better life now predicated on higher morals (moralism) and stricter standards (legalism) rather than new life brought by the Spirit of God. Thus, through performance failures and feeling a sense of inadequacy, many mourners were advised to seek a false sense of security through “nailing it down,” “surrendering it all” (again), or getting a fresh start through being re-baptized. These substitutes for salvation have become the statistical justification of “church growth” and the progenitors of modern-day nominalism.
I suppose that I must make my usual caveat here whenever I address this issue. I am not against altar calls per se. I am against the misuse and abuse of them, and it is quite uncommon to find a church where such a sacrament is not elevated to a status of blind acceptance or treated with serious pastoral care. Many excellent articles and essays have been written in recent years sharing such mutual concern over decisional regeneration and altar calls, but probably one of the more popular pieces available today is Iain Murray’s Invitation System. As Christians, both individually and corporately, we need to promote a doctrine-centered evangelism which expresses the heart of Christ with the truths of His Word. The effectual operation of the gospel comes when we do God’s work God’s way, and lest we think otherwise, we can find ourselves adopting a method of evangelism presupposed by a faulty doctrinal understanding of salvation which would produce “90-day Christians” and “Christianized pagans” who know the lingo but do not know the Lord. Let’s labor together in the fields which are white with a relentless commitment to reach the lost as well as a rigorous devotion to the gospel of which we have been entrusted.
So, we have this Interim Pasor, who will remain nameless, but I really really like him. Ilike that he is preaching the gospel by preaching God’s word with expositional teaching. He is so refreshing after the last pastor and his “feel good” preaching. While we wait for God’s man to fill the pulpit, this Interim is truly a blessing. But there is one thing that bothers me. The altar call at every single service, including Sunday evening and Wednesday evening. Yesterday he tells this story about a guy he knew who pretended to be a christian to please his wife,,,,went to church every Sunday, was a nice guy,,,nice enough that the church asked him to be a deacon and he got ordained, but he whole time the guy knew he was living a lie. The altar call had obviously not worked for this person, but our lovable Interim Pastor proceeds to give an invitation to give people the chance to make sure that they knew about their eternal salvation, the chance to “nail it down” as you put it. Prays the sinners prayer at the end of every single service. It’s like he doesn’t know how to wrap up a message with out that ritual. The Interim Pastor is extremely (and I mean EXTREMELY) intelligent, so I don’t want to question his ability to understand that most people just don’t really get saved by walking the aisle on Sunday morning. So I’m left questioning his motives. What is up with that? 🙂
Renee,
A possibility. He may not have bad motives or be unintelligent. He may be evangelistic and feel that every time he preaches he should invite and urge sinners to come to Christ. He also may realize that many people are saved when the gospel is preached and people are called to repent and believe. I’m not saying there are no problems with the invitation system in many churches. Just that I don’t necessarily think it is bad for a man to invite people to receive Christ and publicly profess it each time he preaches the gospel.
By the way. I was saved on a night I had gone down an aisle at an invitation. That was seven years after I had “gotten saved” at my house, with no pressure. It does happen. A big thing is to do the invitation clearly, and take people out for good counseling, not do a rush job during the 4th stanza of a song at the front of the church.
Tim,
A topic of the moment…this recently came up at my church when one Sunday the pastor did not offer an altar call which upset the seasoned citizens. I addressed it similarly to your blog comments while teaching my S.S. class. I found the article at the link below to be a good resource for historical perspective and thought you might enjoy it as well.
http://www.biblicalstudies.com/bstudy/ecclesiology/altar.htm
That was a great piece of writing on Carpenter’s part.
I agree that the altar call has been elevated to a near cultural sacrament. Far too many place in assurance of salvation in the fact they have “come forward” to “pray the prayer.” Assurance is about so much more than a one time event; for one thing, it is about how our life has changed because of what Christ has done and continues to do in our hearts.
I fear, however, that many well meaning preachers of superior biblical/theological/historical education might be tempted to abandon the invitation system (for lack of a better term) cold turkey. For many American evangelicals, the abandonment of the altar call is equivalent that one is not interested in evangelism. I don’t believe fighting for or against the traditional altar call is a hill on which ministers should choose to die. I do, however, agree most heartily with your desire to “promote a doctrine-centered evangelism which expresses the heart of Christ with the truths of His Word.” Let’s get our people to understand that the Spirit works in more ways and at more times than just the post-sermon invitation.
Timmy,
Thanks for this post. I recently made one similar. I wish I could understand more why pastors feel the need. My wife thinks that when visiting preachers go to churches that they do it so they or atleast the event will be remembered. That’s her observation.
If you like, my post is here: http://hereiblog.wordpress.com/2007/02/05/the-altar-question-southern-baptists-and-others/
Thanks,
Mark
Timmy,
Rightly stated that “contemporary fundamentalists are so antagonistic about their brethren who either do not stress the importance of altar calls or have done away with it altogether.” I served on staff at a church plant in Colorado for three years where we say healthy church growth through the addition of truly regenerate people as result of Christ centered gospel preaching and evangelism. We saw God add to our numbers weekly but yet we came under attack by the other baptist churches in our community simply because we did not have an altar call. No one was willing to look at their own plateaued and declining congregatioins and ask tough questions like “why are we seeing none saved?” or even “why is noone new setting foot on our property?” We were an easy target for jealousy (which is simply ridiculous for those in the Kingdom to engage in) and eventually even slander simply because we did not have an altar call.
The altar call and all that comes with it have created an unhealthy and uneducated religious culture in the south that has seperated regeneration from church membership and in my opinion led to a works based religion. I currently and back in the south (North Texas) in what I would consider the heart of the bible belt yet many in church have no understanding of the gospel, true salvation, regeneration and transformation, justification or sanctification. In my years of student ministry in the Bible Belt 92-02 and o4 to present I come across student quite regularly that have been “saved” and/or baptized multiple times. Most commonly two and three times, but sometimes upwards of 4, 5, 6, or more times. Salvation has been minimized to simply a physical act of walking down an aisle, repeating the “sinners prayer,” filling out a card/checking a box, or commiting to and being baptized.
I appreciate this article and bringing to light a problem that exists not only as a practice or methodology but ultimately as a theological problem that betrays a fundamentaly (no pun intended) flawed view of soteriology.
Michael
As a former SBC pastor, I conducted altar calls at most of my preaching services. I am currently attending a Bible Church that does not do altar calls. When I first started attending the church, I found it refreshing that there was no pressure to succomb to emotional pleas or charismatic speaking skills of the pastor. Now, I’m realizing that an altar call every now and then would not be such a bad thing. When I think of II Cor 5:20, I am reminded that God does have emotions and that he does plead for sinners to repent and He is grieved when we don’t. If the Lord allows me to pastor again, I will conduct altar calls and when the Spirit moves, I will emotionally and enthusiastically “plea” for sinners to repent, but I will stay committed to expository preaching and let the Word of God do the rest.
I appreciate the honest conversation here about altar calls. The Christian Reformed congregation where I am a member has communion, up front, every Sunday. Once, a member asked the pastor why he did not do altar calls. He replied, “But I do! Every Sunday!” He invites everyone to the Table who “is sorry for their sins and trust Jesus as their savior,” to accept the Lord’s gracious invitation to the holy supper. I don’t think that he would argue that communion is a converting ordinance, but it is indeed a way of publicly declaring, again, that you accept Christ’s sacrifice on your behalf. Want to walk forward again? Re-enact that holy, sacramental moment? Of course! But as someone reared Baptist, it made my knees go weak when, one Sunday, I turned out into the aisle to go forward for communion, and the pianist started up “Just As I Am, Without One Plea.” I told that to a hymnologist friend, and she smiled. “It started out as a communion hymn,” she said….
Blessings,
Joel
Dr. Carpenter,
That’s a hilarious story! Why didn’t you put that in your book? 🙂
But seriously, thanks for your work and contribution to the fundamentalist movement. As a required textbook for class, I enjoyed discussing your contribution to the topic of the class (which was Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism).