Altar Call

[n david]

There are many things the modern church does that isn't supported in scripture as something the early church did. If we want to nit pick every little thing, for starters, we wouldn't be meeting in a building. There wouldn't be Ushers or different parts of the service. There wouldn't be choirs or bands. There wouldn't be sound systems, instruments, lights, etc.

The only thing you would be left with is an offering and a message. That's it. And even the offering is only found in a couple verses. Mostly it was "house to house" and "breaking bread."

So let's recognize that there are a lot of things which have been added to the modern-day church and service which did not originate with the early church.

Are some things we do out of tradition? Absolutely. All of the above: buildings, set times to meet, choirs, songs, ALL of that is tradition. Does that mean it's wrong or bad? Not at all.

JMO, the altar call is important. It's a time for people to pray and respond to the Word which was delivered.

I briefly served under a Pastor who eliminated the altar call service. First service as Pastor, he opened his message by telling the church he would not have an altar call or music after the message. Instead, he would just have a prayer of dismissal and end after he was finished. His reason for eliminating it was because he didn't want people to feel uncomfortable; and altar calls would cause people to feel uncomfortable. I ended up resigning my position, not because of this issue alone, but this combined with other things.

What is the reason for giving a message? To hear your own voice? To show people how much you believe you know? What's the point of the message if not to cause a response; and how can people respond if there's no time at the end to allow for the response?

In every scripture where a disciple preached, there was a response. Sure, it wasn't called an altar call. But there was a moment afterwards where people responded to what they heard.