Question (Edited):

What are your thoughts about altar calls? (ie - the event that happens at the conclusion of every Billy Graham crusade). There are many evangelical churches today employing these tactics, so that altar calls have become virtually equivalent with the Gospel. I originally come from a church environment that employs such practices, but after doing some personal research, I've found that such practices lack any biblical precedence. Also, it seems like a modern invention, tracing it's roots back to Charles Finney.

The reason I ask is I'm debating whether or not to participate as a counselor at a youth camp headed by my old church out in California . These youth camps always make a plea to accept Jesus Christ or make a choice for Jesus Christ via the altar call. A lot of emotion happens during these times and much of it is attributed to the Holy Spirit. But it just seems like the messages that the pastors preach are filled with blatant isagesis of biblical texts, taking of verses out of context, suiting the pastor's agenda to fit the biblical text, reducing the Gospel to "saving souls" or "saving the lost" as well as reducing the Gospel to a moral code of do's and don'ts. I've been reading Jonathan Edwards' The True Believer: The Marks and Benefits of True Faith and The Religious Affections and he's really hitting home that even though you may play church really, really well and seemingly appear to be Christian in many respects to others, you may very well be unsaved. I think this is the case that goes on in these camps.

When a person responds to an altar call, everyone cheers that another soul has been won in the name of Christ. However, I see many cases where they show no clear sign of regeneration or affection for God. Right now, I'm leaning towards not attending b/c of all the factors noted above - I think much of the practice may be unbiblical. There are many things that are good at these Christian summer camps - like fellowship and praying for one another - yet I think there's just too much "feeling is believing" going on and not a serious look into biblical doctrine or theology. A lot of the youths' biblical knowledge and doctrine has been shaped by popular Christian music and Christian pop-culture in my opinion. What are your thoughts on altar calls and decisional regeneration?

Response:

First of all, I understand the frustration, but I think these issues you have raised have always been part of the ministry. How do we present the Gospel? How do we help people come to a decision to either accept or reject Christ? How do we help those who claim to have accepted Christ remain in Christ? In many southern evangelical traditions, these questions are answered via preaching and altar calls.Although preaching has tremendous biblical precedent, altar calls do not. At first this may seem concerning, especially after we discussed Altar Theology several weeks ago. We know it is wrong to build an altar in an attempt to invoke God. However, I don’t think this is the intention of many of these traditions. Rather, the premise works like this: 1) God has revealed Himself, through the Message of His preacher, and 2) people are responding publicly to God’s Message.

There is nothing wrong with asking people to come forward and make a faith decision as the result of the preaching of God’s Word, even if it is to some sort altar. Nowhere in the Bible is someone condemned for building an altar after God reveals Himself. The second issue you raised is much more difficult. Is the altar call a form of repentance and part of the regeneration process? It can be, but it can also contribute towards unrepentance and hardening of heart. For those that accept Christ and choose to remain in Him, preaching and a public response to preaching can be very helpful in the process of regeneration. However, for those that have not accepted Christ and are “playing” church, such public displays will only serve to create more distance from Christ.

So, what is the resolution? Matthew 18: Church Discipline. If someone makes a public confession of faith in Jesus Christ, the Church has the loving obligation to enforce Church Discipline. An altar call may be a method of reinstituting someone in the Church, but if it ends there, I fear that we are creating a stumbling block for the blind. Rather, if someone chooses to accept Christ and/or return to Christ (such as through an altar call), we ought to help that person remain in Christ, through confession, accountability, fellowship, prayer, and the Word of God. If we don’t do these things, then we are failing them as ministers of the Gospel. I think these things are best achieved in small groups or home churches.

As for your personal calling for this summer, I would suggest that you pray for “the wisdom from above” to help you make your decision. If someone responds to an altar call, you should ask them why they did it. If they don’t give you a “repentant-like” answer, perhaps you should ask why they bothered? After all, if they are not ready to 1) confess/repent of their sins and 2) subject themselves to Christ’s authority, then their actions meant nothing. However, I would suggest tempering this with the idea that repentance may happen in stages, meaning that someone may be ready to repent of certain sins, but not others. In these cases, we still have an obligation to work with people, even if the depth and breadth of their sin is still hidden from them, since they are working towards regeneration. As for theology and doctrine, it is important, but not as important as helping someone overcome a sin that he/she knows is wrong.

In Christ, Marty

Note: For those interested in this topic, the Reformed theology of the Visible and Church is worth investigating.