Giving Invitations

We have a small pamphlet that expresses our concerns. I'll touch on a few of the author's points.

The title is *The Dangers of the Invitational System* by Jim Ehrhard. These are his main concerns from the pamphlet.

1) The danger of promoting a method that is not in scripture.

2)The danger of eliciting an emotional response based upon the personality of the speaker or the persuasion of the appeal.

3)The danger of confusing the *coming forward* with salvation.(this is a big one)

4) The danger of counting great numbers who only discredit their profession by their lives.

5) The danger of giving assurance to those who are unconverted.

We think there should always be a plea for those to repent and come to Christ....just not the way man has designed to elicit a response in a worship service.

Molly

 

In every Baptist Church where I have been a member, there has always been an "invitation" given at the end of the preacher's sermon.

It is a time that a person can tell the church about any decision that they have made.

It is a time that a person can ask for prayer for a decision that they are making.

It is a time that a person may join the church.

I believe that it is a time when one can confess with his/her mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and their personal savior.

The pastor ends his sermon with prayer and then the congregation sings. They continue to sing until no one comes forward and the pastor says this is the last verse unless someone comes forward.

When a person comes forward, that person speaks with the pastor and then goes with a counselor to a room to discuss the decision.

Later in the service, the decision may or may not be announced to the congregation.

A person does not have to "go forward" to accept Christ. Usually, they go forward to say that they have accepted Christ as their Savior.

"That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
Romans10:9

 

Betty described our service perfectly. I would NOT ATTEND a church that did not offer an altar call.

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Diane

 

Thankful,we allow for the same responses from people in a prayer room where they may meet with an elder...it does not occur in the service. They defintely can respond to God's Word through prayer with an elder,ask questions,receive biblical counseling. We want to make sure they understand repentance,have a knowledge of the gospel,instead of someone just coming forward and us accepting without giving biblical couseling...we want to make sure easy believism has not occured and they actually understand what taking up their cross really means.

We have been in churches that have invitations,too....just because that is how it has been done over the years,does not mean it is right or best for the person.

Molly

 

Just finished watching Billy Graham on TV. Here's what he said:

"I'm going to ask you to come forward publicly. You say, 'Why publicly?'

"Because every person that Christ called, He called publicly."

Is Graham referring to the calling of the disciples?

Roscoe

 

Great post, Thankful.

Sometimes we forget what happens during the invitatiion. Truth be told, for many churches, the invitation is the starting point. People come forward and meet with counselors who work with them to determine their needs. Counselors explain what salvation is all about and what is needed to receive it. From there, steps are taken to begin discipleship, something Bily Graham, for instance, has been insistent on.

As some of you know, lots of work and prayer go into training the counselors for this important ministry. So the invitation, in actuality, is a lot more than simply going forward.

People may have no understanding of salvation when they respond to the invitation, but chances are, they have a good grasp of it when they meet with the counselors.

In some cases, the counselors "fill in the holes," so to speak, by explaining the Gospel in detail.

Roscoe

 

maybe it's like when Jesus called Zaccheus out of the tree. ???

but it's much different from during a service, right? </font>[/QUOTE]This probably the case with most of the methods we use in the U.S. -- 2,000 years away from the culture in which the early church operated.

For instance, I'm sure the early church didn't have sunday school on Sunday morning the way we do. I'm sure they didn't use organs for worship and they didn't do a lot of things in the exact way that we do here in the U.S. today.

But where do we draw the line? How technical must we be in this regard? How far can we go without having a specific Bible reference on which to build a practice?

Just curious.

Roscoe

 

In acts 2:38 Peter calls on his hearers ot repent and be baptized.

Acts 2:38, "38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

After his second sermon he said in Acts 3:19, "Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;"

Dr. Roy Fish writes on page 12 in his book, Giving A Good Invitation,

“True enough, we do not find an exact example of the modern evangelistic invitation in the Scriptures, but this fact does not condemn it as unscriptural. Many Christian practices and institutions now in use are not mentioned in the Scriptures, yet we do not consider them unscriptural.

We find no references in the Bible to Sunday,@ schools, young people's societies, women's missionary organizations, church buildings, ushers, hymnbooks, offering envelopes, church bulletins, communion cards, church pews and the like, but who would cast them all aside for this reason? Anything that helps us'to carry out the principles and teach- ings of the Scriptures in a more effective and practical way is Scriptural. The evangelistic invitation does exactly that: it is a practical aid in bringing men to Christ openly and publicly, and that work, according to the New Testament, is the main business of Christians.”

In Exodus 32:26 Moses gives a public appeal when he says, “"Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!"

Joshua 24:15, “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

1 Kinds 18:21 Elijah said, "How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.”

Ezra 10:5, "Then Ezra rose and made the leading priests, the Levites and all Israel, take oath that they would do according to this proposal; so they took the oath.”

2 Cor. 5:11, "Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences."

How do you think they knew that there were 5000 saved in the bok of Acts. Somehow it must have been a public invitation and confession.

I think history bears out what is happening in the present and what has happened in the past.
Do you think the churches are more alive or more dead today. It has been my observation that less and less churches are inviting people to Christ both publically and privately.

Of the four other men who were in a Bible study led by the person who led us to Christ when I first gave my life to Christ are still living for Jesus 32 years later. Three of the four have been in full-time Christian ministry. The other is a medical doctor. All us were invited to Christ by the same person.

If the counseling were decent and the counselors were well prepared then you could say that all came to Christ one on one. Many that I have talked with came forward during the invitation time wanting to know more and then met with someone to further discuss their eternal state.

Some are content to let every person bound for hell continue out the door and never hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

Several years ago my wife and I attended a church that was growing wildly. The pastor always gave an invitation. As a student I litened carefully to try and gain some skill in evangelism. At the time that pastor was there the church had a Sunday School class for prospective missionaries. There were about 40 in the class. About 20 left each year to go on the mission field. In eight years the church grew from 250 to 1200. They baptized over 100 people each year. Some of the leadeers were not convinced that invitations were all that good. Today that pastor is gone and an invitation has not been given except when I gave one since 1978. Today the church baptizes about 20 each year. They send out one missionary about every six years now. The church is now about 600 and most of those are over 45. It is slowly declining and baptisms are way down. Evangelism is near zero. Invitations are zero. The people don't invite others to Christ and neither does the pastor. He believes that if he will just teach then people will come to Christ. The facts show that just isn't the case.

If there is no fire in the pulpit then how can the pastor expect there to be fire in the pew.

 

maybe it's like when Jesus called Zaccheus out of the tree. ???

but it's much different from during a service, right? </font>[/QUOTE]This probably the case with most of the methods we use in the U.S. -- 2,000 years away from the culture in which the early church operated.

For instance, I'm sure the early church didn't have sunday school on Sunday morning the way we do. I'm sure they didn't use organs for worship and they didn't do a lot of things in the exact way that we do here in the U.S. today.

But where do we draw the line? How technical must we be in this regard? How far can we go without having a specific Bible reference on which to build a practice?

Just curious.

Roscoe

 

In acts 2:38 Peter calls on his hearers ot repent and be baptized.

Acts 2:38, "38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

After his second sermon he said in Acts 3:19, "Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;"

Dr. Roy Fish writes on page 12 in his book, Giving A Good Invitation,

“True enough, we do not find an exact example of the modern evangelistic invitation in the Scriptures, but this fact does not condemn it as unscriptural. Many Christian practices and institutions now in use are not mentioned in the Scriptures, yet we do not consider them unscriptural.

We find no references in the Bible to Sunday,@ schools, young people's societies, women's missionary organizations, church buildings, ushers, hymnbooks, offering envelopes, church bulletins, communion cards, church pews and the like, but who would cast them all aside for this reason? Anything that helps us'to carry out the principles and teach- ings of the Scriptures in a more effective and practical way is Scriptural. The evangelistic invitation does exactly that: it is a practical aid in bringing men to Christ openly and publicly, and that work, according to the New Testament, is the main business of Christians.”

In Exodus 32:26 Moses gives a public appeal when he says, “"Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!"

Joshua 24:15, “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

1 Kinds 18:21 Elijah said, "How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.”

Ezra 10:5, "Then Ezra rose and made the leading priests, the Levites and all Israel, take oath that they would do according to this proposal; so they took the oath.”

2 Cor. 5:11, "Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences."

How do you think they knew that there were 5000 saved in the bok of Acts. Somehow it must have been a public invitation and confession.

I think history bears out what is happening in the present and what has happened in the past.
Do you think the churches are more alive or more dead today. It has been my observation that less and less churches are inviting people to Christ both publically and privately.

Of the four other men who were in a Bible study led by the person who led us to Christ when I first gave my life to Christ are still living for Jesus 32 years later. Three of the four have been in full-time Christian ministry. The other is a medical doctor. All us were invited to Christ by the same person.

If the counseling were decent and the counselors were well prepared then you could say that all came to Christ one on one. Many that I have talked with came forward during the invitation time wanting to know more and then met with someone to further discuss their eternal state.

Some are content to let every person bound for hell continue out the door and never hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

Several years ago my wife and I attended a church that was growing wildly. The pastor always gave an invitation. As a student I litened carefully to try and gain some skill in evangelism. At the time that pastor was there the church had a Sunday School class for prospective missionaries. There were about 40 in the class. About 20 left each year to go on the mission field. In eight years the church grew from 250 to 1200. They baptized over 100 people each year. Some of the leadeers were not convinced that invitations were all that good. Today that pastor is gone and an invitation has not been given except when I gave one since 1978. Today the church baptizes about 20 each year. They send out one missionary about every six years now. The church is now about 600 and most of those are over 45. It is slowly declining and baptisms are way down. Evangelism is near zero. Invitations are zero. The people don't invite others to Christ and neither does the pastor. He believes that if he will just teach then people will come to Christ. The facts show that just isn't the case.

If there is no fire in the pulpit then how can the pastor expect there to be fire in the pew. </font>[/QUOTE]I think you are confused. yes, an invitation to come to Christ in faith should be the call but not to make a geographical move to come before an altar and repeat a prescribed prayer. the gospel message is for a person to have faith in Christ and it is this trust in Christ alone and not a decision to come forward that can be construded as the event that saved them.

 

At the end of all the services at my church, invitations are given. The biggest or longest ones are the ones given on Sunday mornings, since that is when most new people, vistors, or guests are there, since we bring approximately 500 people in on buses then. Sunday nights are also a pretty good length invitation, although slightly shorter than the morning, and Wednesday nights are the shortest and simplest invitations. Our pastor simply says that the invitation is for you to come to the altar and "do business with God," or to "respond to the message if God is working in your heart or life right now," or to know how you can get saved. We have personal workers at the front of the aisles near the altar, and they have Bibles with them and show any inquiring person the Romans Road and how to get saved during the invitation. Light, soft music plays during all this time as well. I'm sure glad there are invitations, otherwise I'd sit there at the end of the service wondering what to do. I like to have the opportunity to respond after the message if I need to or like to.

 

that is a man made method, the preacher should not direct anyone to anything but Christ. all that your pastor will most likely get, is people that want to make a decision and they will most likely place their assuarance on that event. instead they should place their faith in Christ

 

Originally posted by massdak:

All decisions are surrounded by an event. Whenever God calls upon his people to serve Him only as the utmost of highest priority. I think there is too much powder puff stuff from the pulpits of America. Just look at history and what a decison for Christ could have caused to happen to a new believer. I think people need to be made aware that they are to count the cost of following Jesus and what that means. The majority of people in churches do not really understand that when we give our life to Jesus that means we are one with Him and that we are willing to pay whatever price he demands. I truly believe that if the congregations were confronted with that kind of preaching some would leave and others would get busy about the Lord's work. But in so many cases there is no diference. But when we prreach about what Jesus demanded we will get repsonses of criticism and others of joy.

I have never seen a person who is disobedient to the comand Jesus gave in Mt. 28:19,20 ever produce disciples who are obedient to Him. Jesus gave the vision and program. So often we dream up new ideas to circumvent the real responsibility and make it easy to be busy.

 

All decisions are surrounded by an event. Whenever God calls upon his people to serve Him only as the utmost of highest priority. I think there is too much powder puff stuff from the pulpits of America. Just look at history and what a decison for Christ could have caused to happen to a new believer. I think people need to be made aware that they are to count the cost of following Jesus and what that means. The majority of people in churches do not really understand that when we give our life to Jesus that means we are one with Him and that we are willing to pay whatever price he demands. I truly believe that if the congregations were confronted with that kind of preaching some would leave and others would get busy about the Lord's work. But in so many cases there is no diference. But when we prreach about what Jesus demanded we will get repsonses of criticism and others of joy.

I have never seen a person who is disobedient to the comand Jesus gave in Mt. 28:19,20 ever produce disciples who are obedient to Him. Jesus gave the vision and program. So often we dream up new ideas to circumvent the real responsibility and make it easy to be busy. </font>[/QUOTE]first we should know that in order to be a follower of Christ is Gods work on the believers heart. i do not think it is biblical to believe that an unregenerate person wants to follow the real biblical Christ. as far as inviting one to the altar for a decision is unbiblical and it directs a person from the stone cold fact of in Christ alone.

 

Good parable
Sister Su Wei! Thank you.

 

All decisions are surrounded by an event. Whenever God calls upon his people to serve Him only as the utmost of highest priority. I think there is too much powder puff stuff from the pulpits of America. Just look at history and what a decison for Christ could have caused to happen to a new believer. I think people need to be made aware that they are to count the cost of following Jesus and what that means. The majority of people in churches do not really understand that when we give our life to Jesus that means we are one with Him and that we are willing to pay whatever price he demands. I truly believe that if the congregations were confronted with that kind of preaching some would leave and others would get busy about the Lord's work. But in so many cases there is no diference. But when we prreach about what Jesus demanded we will get repsonses of criticism and others of joy.

I have never seen a person who is disobedient to the comand Jesus gave in Mt. 28:19,20 ever produce disciples who are obedient to Him. Jesus gave the vision and program. So often we dream up new ideas to circumvent the real responsibility and make it easy to be busy. </font>[/QUOTE]first we should know that in order to be a follower of Christ is Gods work on the believers heart. i do not think it is biblical to believe that an unregenerate person wants to follow the real biblical Christ. as far as inviting one to the altar for a decision is unbiblical and it directs a person from the stone cold fact of in Christ alone. </font>[/QUOTE]Eccl. 12:9-11, "In addition to being a wise man, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge; and he pondered, searched out and arranged many proverbs. The Preacher sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly. The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd."

Romans 10:8-11, "But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart"--that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed."

Romans 10:13-15, "for "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved." How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!"

How much does a person need to know to be saved and who will bring the good news?