Four Reasons Not to Give an Altar Call on SermonCentral.com
July 23, 2009 · Print This Article
A recent article published in Christiantiy Today caught our attention. It states, “The mainline American churches up until the middle of the last century held in healthy missional balance social action and evangelism. But slowly the evangelistic mandate got squeezed out. A myopic concern for the social undermined the church’s spiritual mission. This has led to spiritual decline, from shrinking membership to a loss of spiritual vitality to faddish theology.”*
That’s the reason behind Dr. Moyer’s featured article in Sermon Central this week – Four Reasons Not to Give an Altar Call. While targeted to preachers, this article contains some great truths for anyone about asking someone to trust in Jesus Christ. He’s written several articles in the last year for Sermon Central and this one has already generated a lot of response.
If you’re interested in this topic and others like it, check out his other articles:
- Wasting Your Time in Preaching
- Preaching that Penetrates a Hard Audience
- Three Things Your People Hate to Tell You about Your Preaching
- Is the “Sinner’s Prayer” Essential to Salvation?
*The Greatest Social Need,” Christianity Today op/ed, January 2009
“Four Reasons Not to Give an Altar Call” is an interesting article, but it is not – Four Reasons Not to Give an Altar Call. Tee-ing off on subjects such as minipulation, ego, etc. are easy to hit out of the park (which he does) but have nothing to do with the larger issue. Plainly stated if someone “prays the prayer” because they simply want someone off thier back or felt “tricked” into walking down to an alter space, I would assume that there will be no real conversion.
That does not negate the fact millions of people respond to Christ every year all around the world due to the fact that some one gave an invite to meet them down at this alter.
I never went to the alter when I recieved Christ. So what. Many people I know today are going to Heaven because one day many years ago they did. And still do.