"Why Don't We Give an Altar Call?"

"Why Don't We Give an Altar Call?"

By Rev. Peter A. Butler, Jr.

I was recently asked why we in the Reformed Church and here at Second Reformed Church do not give – or issue – an altar call at the end of the worship service. This is my answer.

The altar call is a method used in a number of Protestant denominations whereby at the end of the sermon – or at the end of the worship service – all are commanded (invited) to believe in Jesus, to come forward to the pulpit as a sign of wanting to receive Him, and to receive prayer and/or instruction.

What is positive about this method is that it takes seriously the call to all humans to believe the Gospel and repent of sin. Yet, we do not use this method, because:

1. The altar call is nowhere commanded or practiced in the Bible.

What is commanded and practice in the Bible is preaching the Whole Word of God.  Jesus said that the Whole Word of God is about Him. “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to the in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27, ESV). Thus, every sermon ought to be Christo-centric, (and this will occur in various ways). The sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) declared what the prophets said, interpreted them in the light of the Saving Work of Jesus, and then Peter stopped. There was no call to faith and repentance, nor was anyone asked to come forward or sign anything. The response came after the service as God stirred the people to life and faith (Acts 2:37-41). Then Peter instructed them to be baptized.

Let us remember: we are to call people to faith and repentance, but it is not possible for any human to have faith or to repent prior to God's regeneration. In other words, we are born dead (Ephesians 2:1), and no one can respond unless and until God brings him or her back to spiritual life. No one can have faith and repent until he or she is a Christian. God chooses and makes a person alive and a believer in Jesus. God gives him the faith to believe. Then he or she can repent.

2. The altar call may give someone the false belief that coming forward, feeling emotional, and/or signing a card is the same as salvation.

Mere confession of the facts of Jesus being the Savior, coming forward during a service, and/or signing a document – sinner's prayer – what have you, saves no one. As stated above, our job is to proclaim the Whole Word of God; God saves people – God brings people back to life as it pleases Him. God is Sovereign in Salvation, and everyone that God intends to receive Salvation will receive it. God will lose no one, and we do not – and ought not – have to set up an emotional and pressure-filled method to bring about a confession.

Even Rev. Billy Graham has commented in recent years that the altar call method is flawed, and a significant percentage of those who walked down the isle in the heat of the moment, believing something had happen, later realize that nothing happened, they did not believe, and they go back to their "normal" lifestyle.

3. The altar call puts the focus of the worship service on the people in the congregation – and particular, the non-Christian.

As stated above, the good behind the altar call is the desire to see people believe in Jesus Alone for Salvation and repent of their sin. However, in arranging the service such that the apex of the worship is non-Christians coming forward to make a profession of faith – or to see non-Christians coming forward to make a profession of faith – puts the focus on the on-Christian.

The worship service may deteriorate to the point where it is nothing more than waiting to see who and how many respond to the call to come forward.

4. The altar call makes the worship service primarily about calling unbelievers to faith and repentance, and that is not the purpose of the worship service.
I
f the purpose of worship is not to call unbelievers to faith and repentance, what is the purpose of the worship service? It is to worship God! Primarily, first and foremost, the worship service is for believers to worship God.

D. Elton Trueblood said that most people think of the worship service in this way: God is the prompter, the pastor is the actor, and the congregation are the listeners. But this understanding of worship makes it no longer worship! – at least not the worship of God. Trueblood says the biblical model is the God is the listener, the pastor is the prompter, and the congregation are the actors.

In worship, we come to worship God – to show His Worth – to proclaim His Worth. The
pastor helps the congregation to express themselves towards God in an appropriate and God-
honoring way. In hearing the Word of God read and preached, in receiving the sacraments, and in praying, the Christian better understands Who God is, and in so doing, the Christian is drawn more deeply in love to God, and the urgency and delight of worship increases.

One can see, then, that as the Christian worships God, the Christian becomes better equipped by God to be the person God has called him or her to be. The secondary part of worship is the edification and the increase of knowledge and experience of the Christian that he or she would better be able to worship and glorify God through doing all those things that God has planned for him or her to do. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV).

The fact that people come to faith and repent under the preaching of the Word is a tertiary purpose to “regular” worship (evangelistic preaching is a different topic). It is true, as Jesus explains, that our congregations are not just of Christians, but mixed Christians and non-Christians (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43), still the worship service is for the worship of God, conversion in the worship service is by God as God is pleased to convert.

That is not to say that there is never to be a call to faith and repentance in the worship service – it is just not central to the worship service. There are texts where it is absolutely appropriate to – in the context of the worship of God – show humanity’s desperate need to believe and repent. (An explanation of this would be better saved for another essay.)

Thus, we do not have an altar call because:

1. The altar call is not practiced or prescribed in the Bible.

2. The altar call may confuse people as to how one is saved – justified – made right with God.

3. The altar call makes the non-Christian the focus of the worship service.

4. The altar call makes the purpose of worship evangelism, rather than worship.

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright an pure” (Revelation 19:6b-8a, ESV).