Altar Calls-Non-Catholic/Orthodox

[Nicea325]

Peace to all!

Have any of you ever seen on tv when the pastor calls people up for altar calls? First of all, I thought these groups do not believe a physical altar is necessary? Second, they attack ancient liturgical churches for sacrificing Jesus over again? Finally, if such is the case, then where is the altar he or she call people to approach? :ehh:

 

[twopekinguys]

Peace to all!

Have any of you ever seen on tv when the pastor calls people up for altar calls? First of all, I thought these groups do not believe a physical altar is necessary? Second, they attack ancient liturgical churches for sacrificing Jesus over again? Finally, if such is the case, then where is the altar he or she call people to approach? :ehh:

We would call it the Sanctuary, others would call it a stage.

 

[Nicea325]

We would call it the Sanctuary, others would call it a stage.

But the altar rests on the sanctuary. Where is the altar they call people to approach?

 

[IgnatianPhilo]

I’ve heard this and seen vague hints of it, what is it? Some sort of Public confession before the congregation?

 

[Georgia]

In the fundamentalist, independent Baptist church, where I grew up, altar calls were at the end of every service. We had no altar. I suppose that means the term was figurative, but we were invited to come forward to lay it all on the altar without one.

The purpose was to announce having been saved in order to be baptized, to ask to move one’s membership from a church of like faith and practice, or to repent from certain sins. The altar call, often called the invitation in some similar churches, was right after the sermon and ran to the end of the service. In some cases, the people who went forward would be invited to take the microphone to speak to the congregation.

It began with a prayer, people being asked to have their heads bowed and their eyes shut, and then went into songs such as 'Just As I Am". If people went forward, they were met by the preacher who quietly talked to them. Once people stopped going forward, the preacher would ask people to look again and would announce, say, someone declaring he had been saved. In the context of that church, being saved meant that the person had an emotional moment wherein he decided to follow Christ and to submit to an immersion baptism. It was believed that a person who had a salvation experience could never lose salvation and had a guarantee of Heaven.

The more emotional moments were when people went forward to announce they were backsliders, a term for those who had not been strictly adhering to our faith’s requirements. That could be those who regularly skipped church, who smoked, who used alcoholic beverages, or who did other pursuits we considered too worldly. Those people would often speak to the congregation and would ask for prayer and assistance in “getting right with the Lord.”

 

[Primum_Non_Noce]

An alter is a structure or place where a sacrifice is performed.

A stage is used for performing.

Catholics make Christ’s sacrifice present to us on an alter, whereas Protestants listen to an inspiring sermon given by a pastor on a stage.

 

[Jessie5000]

An alter call is a practice where the individual gives themself to Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit. Although Catholics do not do this I have seen it at Catholic retreats. What is the big deal as we are called to give our lives to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

The difference is that conversion process is a little different between evangelicals and Catholics. For evangelicals, they can identify a date they were saved while for catholics we see it as a process that we much renew daily- a process where we work out our salvation with fear and trembling and not just one event in our life. Also, evangelicals view this event as personal relationship and catholics see the need for a personal relationship which also has a communal aspect with the people of God (Church).

 

[IgnatianPhilo]

An alter call is a practice where the individual gives themself to Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit. Although Catholics do not do this I have seen it at Catholic retreats. What is the big deal as we are called to give our lives to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

That isn’t done in baptism then for the evangelical I take it?

 

[Indifferently]

I am a Protestant. Sermons are delivered from an elevated stand which we call a pulpit.

 

[twopekinguys]

But the altar rests on the sanctuary. Where is the altar they call people to approach?

Altar: a usually raised structure or place on which sacrifices are offered or incense is burned in worship

In most protestant churches when they refer to the “altar”, they are talking about the elevated area where their clergy are.

It doesn’t have to be a table of sacrifice.

 

[twopekinguys]

I am a Protestant. Sermons are delivered from an elevated stand which we call a pulpit.

Not always.

Many protestant churches don’t use a podium. Many ministers simply walk back and forth, or through the crowd.

 

[ltwin]

Have any of you ever seen on tv when the pastor calls people up for altar calls?

Before it was on TV, it began in the revivals. It continues to be practiced in evangelical churches across the world.

First of all, I thought these groups do not believe a physical altar is necessary?

The term “altar call” is more of a modern name for it. It used to be “tarrying at the mourner’s bench.” The “mourner’s bench” being the section at the front of the congregation where those who were being convicted of sins sat and prayed.

While “these groups” do not have stone altars in their churches, they all historically had wooden tables at the front of the church on which the bread and wine were prayed over. They also had “altar rails,” where people went to pray. Therefore, the traditional call to come and pray for the forgiveness of your sins became known as the “altar call.”

Many modern evangelical churches no longer include a wooden table commonly called an “altar” nor do they feature “altar rails.” However, the term “altar call” is still used because its the customary language.

Second, they attack ancient liturgical churches for sacrificing Jesus over again?

We are not sacrificing Jesus over again. The sacrifice is of ourselves. The idea is that at the “altar” we lay down our old lives, the old man, our sins and our problems. When we rise up from the “altar” we do not pick back up all these things. We turn them over to Jesus for good.

Finally, if such is the case, then where is the altar he or she call people to approach? :ehh:

It is the altar of prayer. The “altar” is a place of prayer. It is a place where we “meet” God. It can be a “mourner’s bench” or a closet in your house for that matter.

 

[ltwin]

I’ve heard this and seen vague hints of it, what is it? Some sort of Public confession before the congregation?

No. The “altar” in an evangelical church is (usually) the area in front of the church. An evangelical church usually will have a nave were the congregation sits and at the front will be a stage or platform. This is where the pulpit sits and where the piano and other instruments are placed.

Across the edge of the platform facing the congregation, there is (traditionally though now this is no longer the case in newer church buildings) a wooden rail. It is at this rail that people walk up to and kneel down and pray.

It doesn’t have to be to “get saved.” It could be that your marriage is falling apart or your child is sick or whatever. It’s a place where you can pray. More important, its a place where members of the congregation can gather around you and pray with you.

Many evangelical churches have trained altar worker teams to pray with people who come forward.

 

[ltwin]

The difference is that conversion process is a little different between evangelicals and Catholics. For evangelicals, they can identify a date they were saved while for catholics we see it as a process that we much renew daily- a process where we work out our salvation with fear and trembling and not just one event in our life. Also, evangelicals view this event as personal relationship and catholics see the need for a personal relationship which also has a communal aspect with the people of God (Church).

The evangelical “soteriology” is more complicated than that.

 

[ltwin]

That isn’t done in baptism then for the evangelical I take it?

Baptism is an “outer symbol of an inward grace” to put it simply. If someone becomes a Christian in an evangelical church, the general pattern (but certainly not every single case) is that someone attends the church for one reason or another. They listen to the congregational singing and the sermon and they feel “convicted” by the Holy Spirit.

The pastor will issue an “invitation” or “altar call” at the conclusion of the sermon. Those who are being drawn by God’s grace are invited forward for prayer. During this prayer, a person makes their initial confession of sin and pledge to live a life of repentance. We call this a “conversion” if the person actually does repent and began to live a Christian life.

Following conversion and the person’s public confession that Jesus is Lord and Savior, the new convert will be baptized. It is for the person an expression of faith, for the congregation it is a sign that the person is actually choosing to commit to live a Christian life, and for any non-Christians present it is a proclamation of the gospel.

 

[SteveVH]

An alter call is a practice where the individual gives themself to Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit. Although Catholics do not do this I have seen it at Catholic retreats. What is the big deal as we are called to give our lives to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

There is no problem whatsoever in giving people an opportunity to make a commitment to give their lives to Christ. The problem arises when people think that’s the end of the story as far as their salvation is concerned. Its only a beginning. We then need the Church and the sacraments in order to live out that commitment. Our salvation is not determined at some defined point in our life. It is determined the day we die.

 

[Darryl_B]

The “altar call” appears to be stolen from the Catholic Church. In the Catholic Church everyone walks to the front and receives the host.

It is this that the protestant “altar call” is mimicking, though its purpose is accepting Jesus as Lord and receiving prayer for. Copied none the less.

 

[ltwin]

The “altar call” appears to be stolen from the Catholic Church. In the Catholic Church everyone walks to the front and receives the host.

It is this that the protestant “altar call” is mimicking, though its purpose is accepting Jesus as Lord and receiving prayer for. Copied none the less.

This is not true. The development of the "altar call’ has nothing to do with mimicking a Catholic communion. This article from Christianity Today gives the history: “Walk the Aisle: Popularized by frontier camp meetings and Charles Finney’s “anxious bench,” the altar call became an evangelistic staple of American churches.” It’s worth reading the whole thing but I’ll quote one relevant part:

This common evangelistic method, known as the altar call or the public invitation, has not always been around. Successful evangelists such as George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, and John Wesley never gave an altar call. In fact, they did not even know what it was. They invited their hearers passionately to come to Christ by faith and regularly counseled anxious sinners after their services. But they did not call sinners to make a public, physical response after evangelistic appeals. So where did the altar call come from? When did it begin?

At first, the altar call was used as an efficient way to gather spiritually interested people together for counseling after a sermon. Rather than searching out penitent seekers one by one, a preacher would call them up to the front, or into another room, for conversation and prayer. Some Anglo-American ministers used such altar calls at the end of the 1700s, but only during the camp meetings of the Second Great Awakening in America did they flourish.

Camp meetings were common in frontier states like Kentucky and Tennessee beginning around 1800. These multi-day gatherings were a way for ministers (mostly Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Disciples) to introduce the gospel to rural settlers. Early camp meetings were filled with passionate preaching and extreme responses. Hundreds of listeners would cry out, shriek, groan, faint, swoon, twitch, and weep. Ministers usually viewed these responses as evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work.

By 1805, these spontaneous, bodily movements were less common. Ministers used an “invitation to the altar” as a visible way to measure people’s response to their message. “Altars” were fenced areas near the main preaching spot of the camp where preachers urged sinners to seek salvation. Methodist preacher Peter Cartwright described a camp meeting in 1806: “The altar was crowded to overflowing with mourners.” Another circuit-riding preacher recounted a time when “the enclosure was so much crowded that its inmates had not the liberty of lateral motion, but were literally hobbling en masse.” Methodists experienced exponential growth during the first 20 years of the 1800s partly because of their evangelistic methods, including camp meetings and altar calls.

Many people consider Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875) to be the “father” of the altar call. Ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1823, Finney did not begin giving public invitations until long after Methodists had made the altar call a regular part of their camp meetings. Finney, however, did more than anyone to establish altar calls as an accepted and popular practice in American evangelicalism. Finney regularly called anxious sinners to the front of the congregation to sit on an “anxious bench.” There, they would receive prayer and often be preached to directly. The altar call was also one of Finney’s famous “new measures.” He was convinced that ministers could produce revival by using the right methods, and that the altar call “was necessary to bring [sinners] out from among the mass of the ungodly to a public renunciation of their sinful ways.”

 

[JonNC]

The “altar call” appears to be stolen from the Catholic Church. In the Catholic Church everyone walks to the front and receives the host.

It is this that the protestant “altar call” is mimicking, though its purpose is accepting Jesus as Lord and receiving prayer for. Copied none the less.

While there seems to be some similarity, I would interested if you have a source indicating that those who practice altar calls do so to replace the going forward to receive the sacrament.
Jon

 

[Darryl_B]

This is not true. The development of the "altar call’ has nothing to do with mimicking a Catholic communion. This article from Christianity Today gives the history: “Walk the Aisle: Popularized by frontier camp meetings and Charles Finney’s “anxious bench,” the altar call became an evangelistic staple of American churches.” It’s worth reading the whole thing but I’ll quote one relevant part:

Still sounds stolen to me no matter how you word it.