Does your church have altar calls anymore?

[Mark Metcalfe]

I think 150 years or so ago, there wasn't even an altar, so this whole
thread might be moot. Altar calls came in with the great revivals of
the 1850s, if I remember correctly.

In Nazarene churches today, the altar is often a place for prayer
("the open altar") as opposed to a place for response. Today's sermons
call people to respond to a challenge.

Pastors, do you give altar calls anymore?
Laymen, does your church have altar calls?

Has anyone analyzed the change, and whether it has been good,
bad or indifferent?

Mark

[Tina Daling]

Yes, I'm happy to say that our church has altar calls regularly. I'm a strong believer in good things happening at the altar. I grew up in a denomination without an altar so when we came to the Nazarene church, great things happened at the altar for me. It is all too easy to sit in a pew and not deal with things - getting up and physically moving forward shows a willingness and a desire to change and it involves an accountability. I'm not saying there's not other ways to bring about change in our life but I believe the altar plays a significant role. A lot of prayer in the pews and homes results from seeing people at the altar.

It's my prayer that our church altar (and yours too!) will always be used for heart change!

Tina

[Marsha Lynn]

Yes, virtually every Sunday morning and more than half the time on Sunday evening.

A follow-up question would be: Who, if anyone, responds to those invitations?

[William Hunter]

I think 150 years or so ago, there wasn't even an altar, so this whole
thread might be moot. Altar calls came in with the great revivals of
the 1850s, if I remember correctly.

In Nazarene churches today, the altar is often a place for prayer
("the open altar") as opposed to a place for response. Today's sermons
call people to respond to a challenge.

Pastors, do you give altar calls anymore?
Laymen, does your church have altar calls?

Has anyone analyzed the change, and whether it has been good,
bad or indifferent?

Mark

You are right, Mark. The altar (mourner's bench) has not been in the church long and is decidedly a American religious cultural item. we do have altar calls. In our reshaped worship where we open with a hymn/chorus or two, and then I preach, we move into the music of worhsip then. At the end of the message I try to apply what I have brought from the Word and ask a question that we must answer in the context of the Scriptural truth we just heard. Often this results in people praying at the altar during the music and during the pastoral prayer following as we continue the serach our hearts concerning the truth we just heard. We are having far more "altar response" now than before. Few came to the altar during the traditional altar call.

What we call the Communion Table is the only piece of furniture that goes back to the days of the Temple and was brought into the New Testament church. The name was changed from Altar of Sacrifice to the Table of Sacrifice. In the first 300 yrs of the church, that is where offerings were brought as the church gathered for worship, and where people came to participate in Communion. Passing the offering plates and taking the Communion elements to the congregation as we have been used to, was not part of the method of the early church. As I have taught me people aobut the symbols in our worship many of them say when they enter the worship space, seeing those items now helps them enter a spirit of worship. While there is nothing sacred about this Table, it is what it represents that gives it its meaning. I'm finding my people having very positive response to the use of symbols once they are taught the meaning involved. We evangelicals have missed many things that could help us enhance the spiritual depth of our people, as well as a sense of worship when they enter the worship space.

I think your question is a really good one and can spark some good conversation and insights.

[Barb Bouldrey]

Yes, we still have "altar calls" many Sundays.

John often extends an invitation to know Christ right before we receive communion, also. In our 5 years here we have had 4 people become Christians right before communion.

Barb

[Barbara Moulton]

Not every Sunday but often.

[Jenny Mitchell]

I do altar calls frequently but not always. I think it's a cultural thing, though: adults in my congregation seem unwillingly to go to the altar, and I've heard other pastors in this area mention the same thing. I know it isn't the altar, but sometimes people seem much more likely to respond to calls for salvation, etc. if I allow them to raise their hands from their seats.

[Donna Adams]

Yes we have altar calls. But will little to no response.

[Kevin Bockus]

We have "open altar" every Sunday morning and altar calls most Sunday mornings. I had five respond to the altar calls during Advent, one of them on Christmas Sunday. The response over time varies. We may have no response for some time, then we see many. It is almost like a roller coaster ride. Also, our altar calls are not always for salvation. Some messages deal with specific issues (i.e. anger). The altar call would invite people to respond to how God may be speaking to them about that issue.

[Barb Bouldrey]

Isn't it interesting how a mass of people will walk all the way to the front of the stadium at a Billy Graham crusade, but most people are afraid to walk 15 feet to an altar in a church with a small crowd?

In some African cultures our missionaries have found that when people respond to an invitation they stand to their feet, raise their hands and say out loud, "I choose Jesus." Then they go forward to pray.

Maybe people are more afraid of admitting they are sinners today than before....or too proud to humble themselves in front of others.

Barb

[Brad Mercer]

No, we don't do altar calls. We do, however, regularly see people in our church getting saved and sanctified. If altar calls accomplish that purpose, I'm all for them; if something else does, I'm all for that. The important thing, in my estimation, is to become all things to all men that we might by all means save some.

Brad

[Hans Deventer]

Yes, every Sunday. Though the purpuse changes. Usually, it is before the sermon, after the praise songs. But at times, it is after the sermon, and has a more specific purpose then. But in either case, at least some 20 people come forward.

[Donna Beukelman]

No our church does not have the traditional Nazarene alter call. Yes, we have the opportunity and time for people to connect with God. We often have opportunities for people to respond to God in a more experiential way. We often have various worship stations set up around the sanctuary, and people get up and move around to one or more of the stations, or they can remain in their seat and watch a music DVD. They can take communion, write a note to God (either on paper or sometimes we'll set up many laptop computers), go to a prayer station and have someone pray with them, or pray for a clean heart and symbalically wash their hands clean. There are many other creative experiential ways to help people connect with God. For our congregation, they respond openly.

[Kim Hersey]

we did today... but it didn't look like an altar call... it involved making a fingerpaint handprint on a mural or taping up the "gifts" you'd drawn/written about onto a wall... symbolizing your gifts and/or your life as given to the Christ-child (yep, it was Epiphany Sunday, for us. By the way, can anyone actually figure out if Epiphany sunday is this week or next? I got both answers on the web, so I defer to my naznet friends!)

Can you tell that my sr. pastor was out of town and this student min. pastor got to preach? :D

Donna, I think I'd like your church :)

kim

[Stan Hall]

Yes, we have altar calls about every other week. It's not a regular schedule but it averages out to about that. It's a wonderful time for people to receive Jesus or just get connected again.

Stan

[Nelson Bradford]

Seldom - unless it's during our twice/year revival. And that grieves me.

I've often wondered how many people came to church hoping there would be an opportunity to go forward publically and pray and accept him, yet that time of invitation never came.

IF I were king, there would be - even if brief - an opportunity/invitation in every Sunday service.

It's almost like my wife fixing a wonderful dinner with all the fixings but never inviting our family and friends to come to the table.

Sorry if that offends anyone.

-neb

ps - Isn't God good?!

[Lori Jeffrey]

Our church has "Family altar time" in which it is a time that a person can go to the altar and pray. This happens before the sermon.
We do not seem to have any "altar call" time after a sermon. It is occasionally mentioned that the altar is open anytime, but I actually miss having it said after a sermon.
I think because of that, when there is an altar call after a sermon the response from the congregation is stagnant.

If it hadn't been for an altar call after a sermon then I would not have become a Christian. It was the invitation from the pastor and the Holy Spirit that prompted me to go forward and give my life to Him. Then there were other times that I needed to go forward and ask for help and guidance. The Lord met me there and also sent another leader to come and pray with me. A Spiritual leader who let me know that she will continually pray for me.

There have been many times that the sermon preached was powerful and I felt as though if only the pastor would call to those who needed to come and pray. The offer wasn't given and I felt that the Spirit of God had been left hanging in want of those who needed him.

We need more altar calls given.

Lori

PS. Nelson I agree with you. And yes God is good
PS. Nelson I agree with you. And yes, God is good

[Bruce Carriker]

Weekly, though not the traditional American revivalist altar call.

[Jim Franklin]

Altar calls are just one of the many ways of reaching the lost. I, for one, would be very disappointed to see it done away with. I remember altar calls being particularly effective when the special songs that were meant for the "drawing of the net" as pastors and evangelists used to identify that special time of the service. Such songs as "Why not tonight," "Jesus is Tenderly Calling," and "Coming Home were particularly effective in having individuals focus in on their need to seek the Lord at the altar. I have heard some decry the "open altar" as a feel good excuse for not going to to the altar to really seek the Lord for redemption.

[Bruce Carriker]

But at what point, Jim, do the "fire and brimstone preaching" and the "special songs of invitation" cross the line from presentation/invitation of the Gospel and become emotional manipulation?

Emotionalism is not restricted to the charismatic worship style in a lot of Pentecostal churches, though that's what is usually being referred to when we hear "emotionalism" discussed today. It can also be, among other things, the classic "Catholic guilt" of the confessional, or the "browbeating" of the congregation so an evangelist can report that he had a full altar.

Whatever form it takes, anything that substitutes a cathartic emotional experience for genuine spiritual transformation; or automatically identifies one with the other, is equally dangerous, IMO.

[BobHunt]

Naw, we dont have altar calls any more, we just tellem to go home and pray! (Just kidding!) We have the open altar time each Sunday morning and after some sermons Pastor has a show of hands who wants to pray the sinners prayer of repentance and then he leads them.