Quote:
Originally Posted by Eliseus
Has your church ever taught on what to do at the altar with people?
Or is it pretty much learned by example? Trust the Spirit to lead you? That sort of thing?
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Eli, this is an EXCELLENT topic!
When I was raised, our altars were a free for all. And, like so many other things in Pentecost, if you were raised in the church, you understood certain terms and nomenclature that seekers didn't understand.
So, we would tell them to "just let go", and someone else would say "hold on, hold on", and I"m sure the poor seeker was confused.
I've seen people lay hands on the seeker so hard they nearly broke their necks, lol. Sometimes people got the Holy Ghost IN SPITE of the altar workers, not because of their efforts.
But, on the other hand, I"ve seen people truly led of the Spirit who said just the right things at the right time to help the seeker break through.
I definitely think there needs to be training of some sort for altar workers, and I've seen some good material. Good altar workers can still be led of the spirit, but stay within certain protocol.
I'm not sure how many churches train altar workers, but in my experience, the ones that don't outnumber the ones that do.