Thabiti Anyabwile has an interesting list of reasons why he doesn’t do an altar call at the end of worship services here (the list is actually a borrowed one). Here is the list.
1. The altar call is simply and completely absent from the pages of the N.T.
2. The altar call is historically absent until the 19th century, and its use at that time (via Charles Finney) was directly based upon bad theology and a man-centered, manipulative methodology.
3. The altar call very easily confuses the physical act of “coming forward” with the spiritual act of “coming to Christ.” These two can happen simultaneously, but too often people believe that coming to Christ is going forward (and vice-versa).
4. The altar call can easily deceive people about the reality of their spiritual state and the biblical basis for assurance. The Bible never offers us assurance on the ground that we “went forward.”
5. The altar call partially replaces baptism as the means of public profession of faith.
6. The altar call can mislead us to think that salvation (or any official response to God’s Word) happens primarily on Sundays, only at the end of the service, and only “up front.”
7. The altar call can confuse people regarding “sacred” things and “sacred” places, as the name “altar call” suggests.
8. The altar call is not sensitive to our cautious and relational age where most people come to faith over a period of time and often with the interaction of a good friend.
9. The altar call is often seen as “the most important part of the service”, and this de-emphasizes the truly more important parts of corporate worship which God has prescribed (preaching, prayer, fellowship, singing).
10. God is glorified to powerfully bless the things He has prescribed (preaching, prayer, fellowship, singing), not the things we have invented. We should always be leery of adding to God’s prescriptions for His corporate worship.
I would probably quibble a bit with # 5, but I think the list is pretty accurate. Thabiti adds a # 11 of his own: “The ‘altar call’ teaches the congregation to evaluate the ‘success’ or ‘effectiveness’ of the ministry on outward, visible actions and results.” I think that’s an extremely important point, particular in American Evangelical churches.
I might add a # 12 to this revised list: The so-called ‘altar call’ is a horribly misnamed man-made element of worship that takes our focus off the all-sufficient atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. After all, we don’t need altars anymore, because we have a cross and a risen Savior.
At the end of the article, Thabiti asks:
What do you think about [the] list? Are you “for” or “against” and why? Would you add anything to or challenge anything on the list?
How about you, dear reader? What do you think?
I like the list and would add one of my own: The church service is for believers, for the worship of God, not for evangelizing unbelievers. If unbelievers show up and hear the gospel and want to talk to somebody about it, great, do that after the service.
Seems like a good list, but is there anything wrong with a pastor inviting people to feel free to contact him after the service or during the week if they have need of counsel or prayer? I think in some churches the objective of these calls is to spare the pastor from the need to provide a listening ear, as they gain a sense of having bared their soul when they go forward. I was told by one pastor that this exercise saves a lot of time in counseling. “People do their business with the Lord at the ‘altar call.'”
Not to put too fine a point on it, but that we refer to an altar as a place ‘to do business with God’ in a Christian church seems to demean the l sacrifice of Christ. We no longer have need of an altar of any sort. Altars were types and shadows and are now obsolete.