Alter Call?
Q: I grew up attending a Pentecostal church, but am going to a biblical Christian church now. However,...I dont understand something.
This church never asks if anyone would like to be saved during the end of service. Is that normal for Christian churches to not ask if anyone wants to give their life to Christ during service?? If the pastor doesn’t ask, I feel some people would never know that they need to be saved. Am I way off here?!!
A: Everyone knows they're living in opposition to God; their sin nature desires to rebel. They don't want to go to God because they'd have to give up sin. However believers are to fully and properly share the Gospel so people can come to salvation.
With that said, church is supposed to be for the Redeemed Ones. So, we are as Scripture declares and reveals the process: to go into the world, proclaim the Gospel, and of those who get saved we then bring them to church to join and be discipled.
However there are Christians in church who have unsaved kids and spouse, but the Sermons are Gospel focused in that they preach Christ- to the believer. So...the unsaved hear it.
The believer is to share Christ to their family, and even get help through other believers to lead them to Christ outside of church.
It is very much biblical and OK to not have an alter call. Alter calls in modern times are unbiblical in some ways so more "biblical" churches do not do them. Alter calls done wrong prey on feelings through music and typically have a false gospel connected to them, leading those who were pied pippered into it, right into false conversions.
However some churches still do them, and try to make biblical. Or they say a short a note at the and of service after closing prayer that "if anyone wants to talk to someone for prayer or salvation they can go to the door on the right". That way if it's genuine, there's no manipulation needed to improperly lead people to a false conversion. Theve been convicted by the Sermon, by God, and want to know how to be saved.
The sermon gives the Gospel every week as it's about Jesus.
There is nothing wrong with having a Gospel call at end of service, just don't play music or do it in a manipulative way.
Do share the full true Gospel, not a watered down version with a prayer please
Best way is to close service by noting the prayer room in the right where folk can go to get prayer, get spititual guidance, or to discuss their salvation.
Calling for the immediate, public, personal response to the proclamation of the gospel is certainly found in Scripture and church history regardless if you call it the invitation, public pledge, mourners bench, altar call or decision time. But the old trope that the "altar call" originating with Finney is false - and was promoted by Lloyd Jones and repeated by his followers without any research. The "altar call" had been around as a means of response nearly 100 years before Finney was born and was practiced by early Seperatists. Spurgeon used a form of altar call - even singing multiple stanzas of a hymn. Lloyd Jones himself practiced a delayed response form of it - the only difference being about 5 minutes and 15 feet. Even the strong Calvinists, RT Kendall promoted it in his book, Stand Up and Be Counted.
Shubal Stearns predated Finney by a few generations, and his brother in law - Daniel Marshall - was the founding pastor of a church. Let's also not forget about Bernard of Clairvaux or Anthony of Paduah who called for public responses to the gospel.
Many churches for whom altar calls have long been a standard practice, would be shocked to know that churches NOT using altar calls have nearly as many baptisms every year as those that do (about 15% fewer)—BUT THE DIFFERENCE is “assimilation” (newly baptized members who stay [and later after showing fruit] serve in the church) is much higher in churches that dont use an altar call. Higher rate of true conversions come from those who do not use a typical alter call. (1)
It's a good sign if the church isn't doing a standard typical alter call. Feel free to further ask a decon or the pastor why your church doesn't use it. You'll likely find they're concerned about kids false professions and false conversions in general.
This free book pdf will further help explain also the false gospel taught at many modern churches today, which is equally as important, since if it isn't biblical it decieves & damns. False conversions come from that as well, and can be seen by proving someone's salvation testimony. They'll not focus on God, sin and Jesus sacrifice to redeem them from the Law of sin and death. But it will be a false gospel of life enhancement they embraced instead.
If you're church has chosen to not have one at all, or a call to the prayer room, it is likely the sermins are sufficient to point to the Gospel of Christ, or to save time at the end of the service. It also might be the church is evangelistic and puts a focus on "the believers responsibility" to go into the world and proclaim the Gospel, even to those in your circle of influence and family. God put you there to be a light there.
God bless
Related
Footnotes:
SBC survey by Pastors online, Dec 2024
