One of the traditional mainstays of the church service is that it concludes with "the invitation," sometimes called, "the altar call" during which the preacher calls upon the congregation to come down to the front of the auditorium while the choir sings a hymn, usually, "Just as I Am" or "Almost Persuaded." He calls on them to come to the front for four reasons: to receive Christ; to join the church; to be baptized; to rededicate their lives to Christ.
FROM THE PASTOR'S VIEW
The preacher stands patiently at the front awaiting those who will be coming. If no one comes, he feels that he's a failure. When a goodly number respond, he considers himself a success, until the next Sunday when it's once again time for the invitation. In the process, it's rare if he ever stops to examine where and how all this started. As far as he and the congregation are concerned, it just is and has always been. But that's not true.
FROM A HISTORICAL VIEW
No one used the invitation method until Charles G. Finney started using it in the nineteenth century. According to one historian, Finney seems to have had an ulterior motive: When people came forward during the altar calls of his revivals, he would often recruit them to join the abolition movement. On the altar lay sign-up sheets to join their ranks.
A PROBLEM
There are many problems with the invitation system. One of them is inconsistency in the use of the method itself. If television is bringing the service into the homes of the nation or community, we can see the inconsistency in living color. The preacher will turn to the camera and invite the viewers to trust Christ in their homes or if they're listening on the radio, in their cars. When one is invited to receive Christ by faith in their home, and they do so, they're saved. He doesn't tell them to walk down an aisle or come forward. The only people he tells to walk the aisle are those in the auditorium or stadium. Those at home or driving their cars have saved themselves a trip.
At a funeral, when the dutiful pastor has declared the gospel, he doesn't tell people to come to the front. That's inconsistency.
In the hospital, after the pastor has witnessed to someone who's ill, he simply asks the person to believe that Christ died to pay for their sins and rose again but he never makes walking the aisle an issue.
The altar call is also a fertile ground for abuse as witness the following two stories of horror.
HORROR STORY NUMBER 1
One pastor gives this account of the mess that developed over the invitation period. "We had an evangelist come for meetings held from Sunday to Wednesday. Prior to the meetings, he had almost insisted that he give the invitation. I related to him that I did not object to people coming forward as long as he told the congregation they could be saved without coming forward.
"At the Sunday morning service, he gave the invitation to come forward to be saved, but would not tell the people they could be saved right where they sat. There was no response. After the service we ate together and I again, emphasized to him to extend the invitation to be saved to those who did not wish to come forward. Again, there was no indication on his part that would not do it. At the Sunday evening service the same thing occurred.
"After three verses of a hymn, interspersed with the invitation to
come forward to be saved, he had not even hinted you could be saved without
coming forward. The whole invitation rested upon coming forward for
salvation. No one had responded. He then announced we were going to
sing five more verses before closing. At that point I went to the pulpit
and finished the invitation. Needless to say, he was very upset and so
was I.
"The next day I called him at the motel and asked him if he would come prior to the meeting and we could discuss the invitation. He refused and advised me he had been highly insulted and this was the first time anyone had ever interfered with his invitation. He informed me he would not continue the meetings.
"I
related to him that he also was the first evangelist who refused to tell people
they could be saved without coming forward. I asked him if we could
discuss it personally instead of over the phone. He would not agree and left that night. I finished the meetings myself."
Those meetings turned into a tragic horror story, one that demonstrates just how ingrained the invitation is in the psyche of the churches and evangelists. Evangelists and pastors usually try to justify the invitation biblically by baptizing it in Matthew 10:32 and the only way they can do that is tear the verse away from its context which begins at Matthew 10:1.
In Matthew 10, Christ is sending out His disciples to Israel with the good news that their long-awaited King has come. The disciples will come under persecution on their mission. They are to be faithful to identify with Christ and not deny Him under family or governmental pressure to do so.
Matthew 10 has nothing to do with asking people to walk an aisle. They, the disciples whom He's sending on their first mission, are to identify with Him even under severe opposition. If they deny identifying with Him, He will deny them rewards in the kingdom (Matt. 10:40-42). Context is king.
HORROR STORY NUMBER 2
Then there's an another horror story of ecclesiastical abuse during the invitation period. Mrs. Henderson walked down the aisle with her husband to join the church and be baptized. When the pastor then introduced her to the congregation, he said, "This is Mrs. Henderson. Mrs. Henderson, realizing she has been living in sin, is asking for baptism." No joke. It's unfortunately a true story. She wasn't living in sin. Maybe she should have revoked her membership in such a group immediately.
This brings up another issue: where did "joining a church" come from? We can save that for another day and time.
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