Question for Pastors

[JohnDeereFan]

I tend to stand with Paul Washer on this:

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVjqklGXpJk

 

[OldRegular]

What is the longest invitation that you recall presiding over, and what were the circumstances that made it that long?

I like the invitation the Old Regular Baptists used to give. Best I remember it was something like this: The doors of the Church are open to anyone who has had an experience of Grace. Hopefully if I am wrong some Brother or Sister will correct me!

 

[saturneptune]

Since I don't do the "and now, with every head bowed and every eye closed, repeat this canned prayer after me" thing, probably just a couple of minutes.

We do not do the sinner's prayer, as it does not exist in Scripture. We sing some verses for a short period to see if anyone needs to talk to the pastor.

 

[DHK]

I like the invitation the Old Regular Baptists used to give. Best I remember it was something like this: The doors of the Church are open to anyone who has had an experience of Grace. Hopefully if I am wrong some Brother or Sister will correct me!

Usually the invitation is extended for the unsaved. My parents (RCC) told me I had a work of grace when I was baptized (as an infant). I think the unsaved would find such an invitation rather confusing.

 

[kyredneck]

I like the invitation the Old Regular Baptists used to give. Best I remember it was something like this: The doors of the Church are open to anyone who has had an experience of Grace. Hopefully if I am wrong some Brother or Sister will correct me!

That's pretty much nails it.

"anyone of like mind and kindred spirit wishing to express a desire to join our group"

 

[convicted1]

I like the invitation the Old Regular Baptists used to give. Best I remember it was something like this: The doors of the Church are open to anyone who has had an experience of Grace. Hopefully if I am wrong some Brother or Sister will correct me!

The way I say it is like this; if you have been praying on the account of your sins, and believe God has saved you, as we sing, come and give us your hand, and we will take you and lay you in your liquid grave in baptism. We then give them an opportunity to make their statement of grace and what He did for them(confession of faith, iow).

 

[preacher4truth]

We don't look for a public profession of faith (as anyone can claim that so they're guaranteed heaven by some preacher) as much as we look for a public demonstration of repentance and regenerative grace.

 

[John of Japan]

Well,at least it was called a stand then, and not an altar.










Should I,or should I not make a smiley-face?

Yeah, I don't like that term altar for a church myself. And by all means, put a smiley on there! :laugh:

 

[salzer mtn]

In my area the free willers will either jester toward the altar in a invitation and say, come to Christ and be saved or come to the altar and be saved. So they make a piece of wood, Christ.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

We don't look for a public profession of faith (as anyone can claim that so they're guaranteed heaven by some preacher) as much as we look for a public demonstration of repentance and regenerative grace.

Yes...:thumbs:

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

In my area the free willers will either jester toward the altar in a invitation and say, come to Christ and be saved or come to the altar and be saved. So they make a piece of wood, Christ.

Then what...aabracaadabra? :tear:

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

When my daughter came to faith in Christ, I told her, "Not every professor is a possessor." I explained how raising a hand or going forward at an altar call meant nothing. In fact it could actually be a danger because individuals would place their trust in something they did as opposed to something God did. It is not the emotional response that saves; it is work of the Holy Spirit.

Of course I know that those who practice altar calls do not deny that salvation is only the work of the Holy Spirit. Many of them will say that going forward or raising a hand provides a moment in time they can point to as to when they were saved. I get that. But I cannot help but see the false hope and guilt trips associated with this practice. I still recall Jack Wyrtzen's words at a camp meeting in front of hundreds of people in Schroon Lake, New York when he said, "If you can't stand up for God in a place like this, surrounded by His people, then you'll never be able to stand up for him anywhere." This was said during a gospel invitation. Even then, long before I became a Calvinist, those words caused me to cringe. Is that what the gospel is? A guilt trip?

People try to "dumb down" the gospel way too much. Now, I am one who wants to see sinners come to Christ, and I want to see it done via the gospel route. Now, the gospel never saved one soul, much like faith.....the grace of God saves sinners....but without faith or the gospel, there's no saving grace. I want to present my message(s) in a way that it doesn't "dumb down" my gospel message, but also, that it's not too complex that it "whizzes" over their heads either. All we can do is witness/preach to the lost, and get out of God's way and let Him do the saving. Too many want something to gloat about, and altar calls are one avenue for it to come to fruition...

Jesus called His disciples and expected an immediate response from them, a "standing with Him" as indicative of an outward, visible sign of their choice to follow Him. Obviously, Judas response was false, and we don't even read in the Bible of his being called.

When Peter preached in Jerusalem on Pentecost, he ended his sermon with what was essentially an altar call.

Acts 2, (NASB)
40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation!"
41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.​

When Peter preached his second sermon at the Temple courts after healing the lame beggar, he again offered what was essentially an altar call.

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;
20 and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you,
21 whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time."

Acts 4
4 But many of those who had heard the message believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.​

When Paul was in Athens, he began his sermon by speaking of the Greeks' altar to "The Unknown God," and ended it by calling for belief and repentance.

Acts 17
30 "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,
31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."
32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, "We shall hear you again concerning this."
33 So Paul went out of their midst.
34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.​

The altar call is every bit as valid today as it was 2,000 years ago. You who reject it have no excuse for your opinion. Just as with Judas, it will be ineffective for some. But for others, it will be the beginning of new life. Your opinion is without biblical support.

 

[Rippon]

TND,nothing in your entire post supports an "altar call" --not even a mention in all the Scriptures you quoted. Actually an "altar call" has Roman Catholic undertones.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

TND,nothing in your entire post supports an "altar call" --not even a mention in all the Scriptures you quoted. Actually an "altar call" has Roman Catholic undertones.

Your refusal to allow the use of the phrase as a shorthand reference for pleading the cause of Christ before sinners is unfortunate. Your adherence to a perverted form of biblical truth prevents you from seeing the way God works. Too bad.

 

[DHK]

October 8, 1871, a capacity crowd filled Chicago's Farwell Hall to hear D.L. Moody preach. Dwight's salvation message went forth supercharged, and Sankey sang "Today the Savior Calls." As Sankey reached the closing words of the third verse: "...and death is night," the loud noise of fire engines rushing past the hall drowned out his voice. Then the great city bell in the old courthouse steeple peeled forth their warning alarm.
Confusion reigned in the street as people rushed by. Dwight, recognizing the audience's restlessness and growing anxiety, decided to close the meeting. Before dismissing the people, Dwight told them to go home and think about what he had preached. He told them to come back the next day to make a decision.
As Dwight and Sankey sprinted out the back door, they glimpsed an angry red smudge in the southwest part of the sky. When the southwest wind rose, the sky became bright with a fireworks display as sparks blew and house after house caught fire from the hungry flames. By midnight the ravenous flames had engulfed much of Chicago.
As for those present among the capacity crowd who had come to hear Moody preach, many of them never returned the next day to make a decision for Christ. At that point, D.L. Moody made a decision. From hereon out, he would always give an altar call in every service. Because there may be that incident where a person present may leave the service, not having found God and die and go to hell.94
The great Chicago fire was certainly a dramatic shock that deeply affected D.L. Moody. It awoke him and propelled him into fervent operations of divine truth. Sometimes such life shaking experiences are necessary to get us out of our apathy and complacency.

http://ezinearticles.com/?DL-Moody,-Preach-the-Gospel-of-Salvation&id=340189

Moody never ended without an altar call/invitation after that. He had come to realize too much was at stake. The eternal destiny of souls is far more important than a squabble over "should one or shouldn't one give an invitation."

 

[Yeshua1]

http://ezinearticles.com/?DL-Moody,-Preach-the-Gospel-of-Salvation&id=340189

Moody never ended without an altar call/invitation after that. He had come to realize too much was at stake. The eternal destiny of souls is far more important than a squabble over "should one or shouldn't one give an invitation."

just make sure that the church also is bog on follow up and getting converts disciplined, as belive that the Billy Graham ministry reports that officially 88-90% of those coming forward after a year have either refused going to church, or even claiming to now being saved!

 

[DHK]

just make sure that the church also is bog on follow up and getting converts disciplined, as belive that the Billy Graham ministry reports that officially 88-90% of those coming forward after a year have either refused going to church, or even claiming to now being saved!

I don't support Billy Graham's methods. For starters he will send the person back to his own church even if he be a Roman Catholic.
He uses psychology. During a large crusade he has all of his workers rise at the invitation and come forward. Then it is not so bad when they see so many others go forward they may just want to be "part of the group" and go forward just because "everyone else is doing it."

 

[Yeshua1]

I don't support Billy Graham's methods. For starters he will send the person back to his own church even if he be a Roman Catholic.
He uses psychology. During a large crusade he has all of his workers rise at the invitation and come forward. Then it is not so bad when they see so many others go forward they may just want to be "part of the group" and go forward just because "everyone else is doing it."

Billy did seem to "mellow" over the years, for if you watched him say in 1940's/50"s. he seemed much more s trickler for what was a real church!