Sunday, February 25, 2007
WHY DO WE HAVE ALTAR CALLS?
That's the question. Am very interested in hearing from Southern Baptists on this question. Why do we? Have Southern Baptists always had altar calls? If not, when did they begin and why? I know, that's more than one question. But I'm the blog-host so I get to ask what I want even if nobody is interested in answering. selahV
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3 comments:
TO ALL: I first attended a Southern Baptist church as a wee child. So in my lifetime, I have never been in a church where there wasn't an altar call. Never researched why we had them. Never felt any need to. To my knowledge, I've never had a minister demand I come to the altar for anything. Never recall anyone teaching me what an altar call was for either. So how did I know to walk the aisle? Was I a dumb sheep following the flocks? Or a wayward sheep following the Shepherd's voice? Now that I actually have time to consider this question more thoroughly, I think the latter. That is how I have been stirred to move ever since the day I was saved...by His Spirit. It wasn't till I read some blogs mentioning it that my interest was peaked in the subject.
If anyone chooses to answer this blog, please bear in mind that I'm just interested in your thoughts. I'm not saying you are right or wrong in your thoughts. And if someone chooses to respond to someone else's thoughts, please also keep that in mind.
Can I get AN answer to my question?
It doesn't have to be THE answer.
SelahV
From my understanding of the history of altar calls as known today, this was not always in existence. It was used for a person to be able to come forward and ask for prayer or to talk to a minister or other,it was used to be able to help those in a large congregation, but not used for decision making. The altar in the New England church was used to refer to the communion table.
Charles Finney is the one that I understand, used altar calls as a plea for those wanting to be saved or baptized. His claim in using the altar call for decisions and a written prayer, was that all in the United States could be won in three years.
I do not have a specific source for this as I read the history in several places over a several month quest to find the answer to the very question you asked. I do not know about the altar calls of the SB specifically.
I do not have a problem with altar calls if they are used for information, prayer request, or to come as a candidate for Baptism, which should be after conversion.
I do however have a problem with it used as in the Billy Graham crusades. Too many people come to the front of a church or crusade based on emotions which could or could not be true conversion. There are too many that walk away and their later fruit shows signs of no conversion, or they work so hard to meet criteria to maintain their salvation,but no real conversion has been done by God. I don't want to be too long on this point, but this is a subject that I am concerned about.
To my knowledge, Paul and the early church did not have altar calls in any form.
So far as I know, altar calls were more or less invented by Charles Finney in his revivals. My own church at present doesn't have altar calls as such, although the altars are open after services and people do come forward just to pray. I did grow up with altar calls and don't have a problem with them per se. I think there is value in asking people to make a decision for Christ and to attest to that decision publically. The danger is to identify "walking the aisle" too closely with the inner change that God does in a repentant sinner's heart. Some people may think they're saved because they've walked an aisle and repeated a prayer, but have never truly had a heart change, and don't walk in the ways of the Lord.
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