What Kind of Results?

The preacher closes his Bible after preaching a message and says to the onlookers, “bow your head and close your eyes.” He proceeds with the conclusion of his sermon by saying, “if you want to accept Jesus into your heart lift up your hand while no one is looking around.” He scans the crowd, seeing a couple hands he addresses them again, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, just lift up your hand and show God that you want in on this life.” A few more people in the crowd raise their hand hoping this Jesus will better their life. The preacher acknowledges the hands by saying, “I see that hand, God bless you, I see that hand, praise God!”  Then he says, “with no one looking around, those who raised their hand I want to pray with you, so make your way to the front. We want to give you a book and talk with you.” Some people who were fearful that people would see them are nervously uncomfortable staying in their seats, while others who also raised their hand started their way forward. As they are coming the minister says, “If you didn’t raise your hand or you should have raised your hand you can come now, don’t wait!” Two more people rose up from their seats and went to the front. As the people are crowded around the front stage the preacher says, “just repeat this prayer after me, Jesus, come into my heart, forgive me of my sins, I need you, thank you, I want to live for you, in your name, amen.” He continues, “If you prayed this prayer you are saved. We want to talk with you some more so just follow our ushers into this room. Everyone clap for them!” The preacher closes the service and dismisses everyone and the people who came forward get a book and fill out a piece of paper that is handed off to someone.

Upfront, I want to state that I am an avid believer in the Altar call!  I believe its origins are Biblical and that it is important to give people an opportunity to respond to the word of God. The problem comes when we leave the Biblical message and methods and try to get people to respond to a false conception of the truth. In much of the Church today we are producing false converts by our effort, which in turn produces a life that is the same as before going forward to the altar. The altar call (with its modern methods) does not produce lasting results. People come forward but after time they “return to their vomit,” (2Peter 2:22) not any eternally better than before they went to the front.

First of all, it is important to define the altar call. The altar call has been commonly called many things such as; going forward, public pledge, invitation, appeal, going down the aisle and various additional terms (Capoccia 2008). It is the idea that after a message is preached there is an invitation to respond to the spoken word. It is commonly used for salvation, although it is also used in many other ways such as; rededicating, healing, deliverance, finances, and additional prayer needs. In reference to the opening paragraph, the altar call in many churches is conducted very similarly, although there are many variations throughout practicing churches. According to Tony Capoccia, “the altar call in general is the time at the close of the sermon where during some form of music, listeners are invited to come to the front in response to the message.” The Merriam-Webster online dictionary says it is “an appeal by an evangelist to worshipers to come forward to signify their decision to commit their life to Christ.”

Now that the altar call has been defined let us take a look at its brief history. The Bible is full of the principles of the altar call. For example, in Acts 17:30 Paul gave a message calling all men everywhere to repent. But the church as a whole didn’t practice the altar call in services until the great evangelist Charles Finney introduced a method called the The Anxious Seat in the 1730’s. There has been much speculation on the actual beginnings of the altar call, but most agree that it was first introduced by Finney (Capoccia 2003). In Finney’s autobiography he wrote about his experience:

Until I went to Rochester I had only in rare instances used as a means of promoting revivals what has since been called “the anxious seat.” I had sometimes asked persons in the congregation to stand up, but this I had not done frequently. However, in studying the subject I had often felt the necessity of some measure that would bring sinners to a decision. From my own experience and observation I had found that the greatest obstacle to be overcome was the fear of being known as anxious inquirers. They were too proud to take any position to others as concerned for their souls. I found that something was needed to make the impression on them that they were expected at once to give up their hearts; something that would call them to act as publicly before the world as they had with their sins; something that would commit them publicly to the service of Christ (Finney 1977)….

Other men such as, Billy Sunday, D.L. Moody, and Billy Graham are evangelist’s who contributed to the widespread use and acceptance of the altar call, Graham being the one who is most related to the contemporary practice of the invitation system used in many churches today (Lorenzini 2008). The early users of this system of inviting sinners to make a public decision to accept Christ focused highly on surrendering all to Christ and not just coming forward. It was meant as a method that would cause sinners to humble themselves in order to receive God’s grace. The call was to be an outward act of faith demonstrating an inward leading of the Holy Spirit. D.L. Moody was ministering in a church and at the end of his message he gave an altar call for people to give their lives to Christ:

As he drew near the close of his sermon, he became emboldened to give out an invitation, and as he concluded he said, “If there is a man or woman here who tonight will accept Jesus Christ, please stand up.” At once about five hundred people rose to their feet. Thinking that there must be some mistake, he asked the people to be seated, and then, in order that there might be no possible misunderstanding, he repeated the invitation, couching and even more definite that something must be wrong, Mr. Moody, for the second time, asked the standing men and women to be seated, and then he invited all who really meant to accept Christ to pass into the vestry. Fully five hundred people did as requested, and that was the beginning of a revival in that church and neighborhood, which brought Mr. Moody back from Dublin a few days later, that he might assist the wonderful work of God ( Bounds 1997)

Often times the modern way of doing the altar call is limited to just coming forward and repeating a prayer, limiting the focus on the method and not on the motive behind the method. Because of this many people don’t understand why they come down in the first place. They end up putting their faith in coming forward and repeating a prayer instead of in Christ, the only name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved (Lorenzini 2008). Many times after this process of coming forward and praying, the minister tells the people who came forward that they are saved.

After someone has prayed the sinner’s prayer, it’s typical to give him or her immediate assurance that they are now part of God’s family. Such a system leads some to believe that their decision “settles things with God” for all eternity. It actually encourages people to make a response that “settles things” and, through subsequent counseling, to never doubt that decision (Lorrenzini 2008).

If someone was never truly born again, to tell them they are is very dangerous.  In an interview with a youth leader, (she will remain nameless for the sake of privacy) she said that after she does ministry at the altar, they bring the kids into a separate room. She explained that after the altar call and the group prayer, when she talked to these teens she would ask, “why did you come forward?” The answer of most of the kids is “I don’t know?” This is after the invitation and prayer! In the old way of doing the altar call or Biblically when someone chose to, “come follow Jesus” they would abandon it all and surrender their lives totally to the master! That was the only way to receive eternal life. The Bible says in 1st John that the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are saved. It wasn’t some little prayer that they repeated or coming down front that saved them! It was an abandon all attitude as people put their trust in the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. According to the Bible there is no other way to be saved. Going forward doesn’t save us, it is believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and that he died and is raised from the dead for the remission of our sins (Rom 10). Ron Mcintosh in a lecture at Victory Bible Institute said, “Some people come to an altar and they are aborted before they are born (Mcintosh 2008).” In other words, people come forward but because they do not have the correct ingredients to receive salvation, they are never truly born of God in the first place. As ministers it is our duty to give the listeners all of the ingredients for salvation. If someone was baking a cake they couldn’t just have flour and water, they need all the ingredients to make a cake. Many times the modern altar call just focuses on a couple ingredients to salvation but negates necessary ingredients such as, repentance and surrender. In another lecture at Victory Bible Institute Professor Jerry Peterson said from his own experience, “We have people here at Victory who come down to the altar 15 times and never get born again (Peterson 2008). Obviously the old methods and new methods are different, which makes a difference.

In order to get a picture of the results and the temporary or lasting effects of them, it is necessary to look at some statistics. Charles E Hackett, a director for the Assemblies of God U.S. said,

“A soul at the altar does not generate excitement in some circles because we realize that ninety-five out of every hundred will not become integrated into the church. In fact most of them won’t return for a second visit (Lorenzini 2008).”

Another event was looked at closely,

In November 1970, a number of churches combined for a convention in Fort Worth, Texas, and secured 30,000 decisions. Six months later, the follow-up committee could only find thirty continuing in their faith (Lorenzini 2008).

Ray Comfort traveled in many churches and as he traveled he was given access to church growth records. Some of his findings include:

“To my horror something like 80 to 90% of those making a decision for Christ were falling away from the faith. That is, modern evangelism with its methods is creating something like 80 to 90 of what we commonly call backsliders for every hundred decisions for Christ (Comfort 2008).”

“Let me make it more real for you. In 1991, in the first year of the decade of harvest, a major denomination in the U.S. was able to obtain 294,000 decisions for Christ. That is, in one year, this major denomination of 11,500 churches was able to obtain 294,000 decisions for Christ. Unfortunately, they could only find 14,000 in fellowship, which means they couldn’t account for 280,000 of their decisions, and this is normal, modern evangelical results (Comfort 2008).”

Gordan Lindsay, who was a prolific writer and leader of the church, discussed the importance of the time that a person comes to give their life to Christ:

Just joining a church is not enough. A sinner needs a new heart, and this only comes through repentance. When repentance has done its full work, converts will not be easily enticed back into the beggarly elements of the world. The greatest moment in a persons life is the moment when he meets Christ. It is not a time to be in a hurry. When a person comes forward under the burden of sin, he must be given time to meet God. A pentitent sinner must be given ample time for his emotional outflow. When a soul hangs between life and death, wrong instruction may have most serious consequences (Lindsay 2006 pg. 75)

According to church Growth magazine during a major crusade 18,000 were converted, yet 94 percent of the so called “converts” failed to be incorporated into a local church (Lorenzini 2008). These stats are just a few of the many outrageous numbers declaring that something is radically wrong with the modern methods and the temporary results that are being produced.

In conclusion, the data speaks for itself. The more I study the message and the way that the ministers of old used the invitation, the more I want to return to an altar call that aims for repentance and surrender to Christ rather than a quick decision that produces temporary change. In the excitement of all the modern technology and desire for something new, and all the hype of having “big numbers,” I believe we have compromised the message (which was the main method) and have suffered for it in the results that our churches are having. The altar call (with its modern methods) does not produce lasting results.

Bibliography

Acts. The Bible. King James Version.

Bounds, E. M. E. M. Bounds On Prayer New Kensington, Pa:

Whitaker House, 1997.

Capoccia, Tony. A Close Look at Invitations and Altar Calls.

February 6, 2008

<http://www.biblebb.com/files/MAC/SC03-1050CDNotes.htm>.

Comfort, Ray. Hells Best kept Secret. Living Waters Ministry. February 6, 2008 <http://www.livingwaters.com/help/HellsBestKeptSecret.pd>.

Finney, Charles. The Autobiography of Charles G. Finney. Ed. Helen Wessel. Mineapolis, Minesota: Bethany House Publishers, 1977.

Lindsay, Gordon. The Charismatic Ministry. Dallas, Texas: Christ for the Nations, 2006.

Lorenzini, Massimo. Frontline Ministries. The Modern Invitation system Examined, February 6, 2008 <http://www.frontlinemin.org/decisionism.asp>.

Mcintosh, Ron. Professor of I.M.P.A.C.T., Victory Bible Institute.

Class lecture on From Pew to Participation. Tulsa, Oklahoma, February 5, 2008.

Peterson, Jerry. Professor of Personal Ministry, Victory Bible Institute. Class Lecture on Decieveing and Seducing Spirits. Tulsa, Oklahoma, February 4, 2008.

Webster, Merriam. Online Dictionary February 18, 2008

<WWW.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/altar>.