The Modern Day Altar Call
In churches across the nation on Sunday the average person is asked through as act of his or her will to mentally subscribe to four or five truths that we believe about salvation and how the process of salvation works.
Believe those propositions, raise you hand, ask for forgiveness, pray this prayer, and voila, you’re in. You may claim that’s a bit cavalier for how the process really happens. I disagree. I speak as an insider on this.
The whole model of the “appeal” is extra-biblical. You don’t find a system for it anywhere in the Bible.
I hear the question every now and then, “Do you present the gospel at Christ the King?” Subtext? “Do you go through the gospel presentation as we understand it so people can get saved?”
The model proposed by Jesus was much different. - He simply invited the disciples to hang out. He said, “Follow Me.” Not, “Now, let’s bow our head and close our eyes and if you believe in me, raise your hand. No one’s looking around.”
It was process-oriented. He knew that these relationships over time would equal change.
Way too relational for most churches. Where was the doctrinal and expositional message from the Old Testament? Where was the clarification on the God they were really following?
Jesus knew that if he hung out with these guys, over time their lives would change. Jesus would slowly raise the stakes, and they would either continue deeper in their relationship with him or abandon it altogether.
Watch this: Experience preceded explanation. Relationship preceded doctrinal training.
A bit crazy?
June 12th, 2005 at 5:30 pm
Here’s an interesting thought? Wasn’t Jesus the foremost doctrinally trained individual? Wasn’t He doctrine? John 1 seems to point to that…He was the Word made flesh.
The whole concept of discipleship is what you’ve just described. Jesus’ method was expressly this…relationship building based on truth. Truth was known to Him because He was/is truth. Therefore, as relationships grew, so do awareness of truth in those whom He discipled.
I think you are very correct in that salvation is so much more than the “patented” method that seems to be most popular in today’s churches. Though justification happens at the moment of acceptance, santification continues throughout one’s life. The question becomes not how we shall evangelize, that is the easy part, rather how shall we go into all the world making disciples of all men?
Instantaneous gratification has overwhelmed the church in respect to creating “converts”. Rather, I truly believe God is more interested in the “Christ-followers” than a title or moment when I was 11 yrs old. What are we as a church doing to see those who have that time in their lives where they accept Christ into their hearts, continue on to become true Christ-followers? Are we dropping the ball because the rewards don’t come often? Do focus on the moment rather than the eternity? Do we neglect discipleship because 200 hundred salvations is a lot better statistics than what one might find when they look at the stats for those who truly pursue Christ with everything that they have?
These are some things I too have been thinking through very thoroughly the last few weeks. It puts missions very much in perspective.
June 13th, 2005 at 12:13 pm
I was raised in an entirely “relational” church, with little to no doctrine. My experience was that when doctrine is not taught, people invent their own — and you’d be surprised at what they came up with.
The result was that I “followed” Christ for my adolescent life, went to college, and was entirely lost. I can remember the moment I was confronted for the first time in my life if I had accepted Christ as my savior. When I raised my hand and went forward at the age of 21, my whole world changed.
I don’t know if you have ever lived without Christ, and then accepted Him. There is a life and death difference. How do we achieve that without an altar call? It certainly happens, but there’s a purpose to Romans 10:9-10. At some point in everyone’s life, there has to be a concious decision to turn over their life to Christ, a defining moment of Faith.
Up until I was 21, no one had ever challenged me with that one pertinent question. You can hear about and live out Christ’s walk all you want, but until the decision is made, you’re just as lost. Having personally experienced it and the fact that I observe it everyday at my work with the wonderful Hindus and Muslims who are lost, but walking a Christ-like walk, I still think “what would have happened if no one had cared enough to confront me?”
I’d still be long gone.
June 9th, 2006 at 10:24 am
I love the relationship issue here. This is true, and its what makes this walk so real. You do not have to pretend He in our midst, He is here and wanting to hang out. I would like to comment here to say that there are public confessions of faith we make to show evidence of our faith, if we confess with our mouth and beleive in our hearts comes to mind as well as water baptism, its nice to brag about Him in public as well.