Are 50 Minute Altar Calls Biblical

Is going home after the first few minutes biblical? My lunch is drying out in the slow cooker and I didn't plan on church going extra innings.
 
There have probably been more false conversions through “altar calls” than any other programs in modern churches.

“With every head bowed and every eye closed, raise your hand if you are not saved. I see that hand. Brother song leader sing just one more verse because there are people that need to come to the altar and I don’t want anyone to leave here unsaved. You can be saved if you just take that first step. I’m not going to end the invitation yet no matter how many verses it takes because I know by the hands raised there are lost people here and I want to give everyone a chance to not leave here lost. One more verse of Just as I Am brother, and then one verse of Almost Persuaded because I feel the Spirit is dealing with hearts right now.”

I was in one service where a visiting preacher stormed off the platform because no one came to the altar during the invitation and he scolded the congregation for needing to get right with God.
 
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Maybe this shtick would work better:

"Every head bowed, every eye closed, no one looking around. If you know for sure, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that you are saved, please raise your hand. Thank you, thank you, I see those hands, hands going up all over the auditorium. Okay, you may lower your hands now. And now, some of you could not raise your hands. You know who you are. You need to come forward now, while the organist is playing and the choir sings. Organist, let's please have another song while we wait on those who could not raise their hands. . . ."

Evangelist Fred Brown told of a church where he was invited to preach an evangelistic message. The pastor asked him for a list of invitation songs to be played after the sermon, expecting a bed sheet list, and was shocked when Evangelist Brown gave the name of only one song. He said, "We are only going to sing one song - and we may not sing all of the verses."

I was in a Baptist church where the preacher gave an altar call after every message. He expected a response after every sermon, and once he said, "If you haven't come forward to kneel lately, that would indicate a big enough problem in your life for you to need to come forward and kneel." The same few members always came forward to kneel in prayer after every service, some teen-age boys, and a young man. I genuinely looked up to that young man and regarded him as a spiritual giant, because he always went forward to kneel in prayer. But then he dropped out of church and we never saw him again. The pastors tried to visit him - as they approached his house, they saw him sitting on the front steps drinking beer, and when he saw the pastors coming, he ducked indoors and shut the door.

Then there was the Pilgrim Holiness church I visited, where we sang the same 7-11 ditty (7 words sung 11 times, but in this case more like 50 or 60 times) and we kept going and droning on, until finally the congregation died down and was quiet. Then the pastor said, "You know, I believe the Devil wanted us to quit" so we had to start up singing it again, another 20 or 30 times.
 
illinoisguy said:
Maybe this shtick would work better:

"Every head bowed, every eye closed, no one looking around. If you know for sure, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that you are saved, please raise your hand. Thank you, thank you, I see those hands, hands going up all over the auditorium. Okay, you may lower your hands now. And now, some of you could not raise your hands. You know who you are. You need to come forward now, while the organist is playing and the choir sings. Organist, let's please have another song while we wait on those who could not raise their hands. . . ."

Evangelist Fred Brown told of a church where he was invited to preach an evangelistic message. The pastor asked him for a list of invitation songs to be played after the sermon, expecting a bed sheet list, and was shocked when Evangelist Brown gave the name of only one song. He said, "We are only going to sing one song - and we may not sing all of the verses."

I was in a Baptist church where the preacher gave an altar call after every message. He expected a response after every sermon, and once he said, "If you haven't come forward to kneel lately, that would indicate a big enough problem in your life for you to need to come forward and kneel." The same few members always came forward to kneel in prayer after every service, some teen-age boys, and a young man. I genuinely looked up to that young man and regarded him as a spiritual giant, because he always went forward to kneel in prayer. But then he dropped out of church and we never saw him again. The pastors tried to visit him - as they approached his house, they saw him sitting on the front steps drinking beer, and when he saw the pastors coming, he ducked indoors and shut the door.

Then there was the Pilgrim Holiness church I visited, where we sang the same 7-11 ditty (7 words sung 11 times, but in this case more like 50 or 60 times) and we kept going and droning on, until finally the congregation died down and was quiet. Then the pastor said, "You know, I believe the Devil wanted us to quit" so we had to start up singing it again, another 20 or 30 times.
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You are right on target. The problem with altar calls today is the pressure to come to the altar for salvation which associates a physical act in the minds of lost people with being saved. As a ten year old boy sitting on the front row on a Wednesday night the preacher asked everyone who was saved to raise their hands. I didn’t raise my hand so he pointed to me from the pulpit and said, “Are you saved?” Being a shy kid I shook my head no and the preacher came down and led me to the altar for a “sinner’s prayer.” I was baptized not long after that in a local river and for the next eight years convinced myself I was saved because I went to the altar, said a prayer and was baptized. The reason there are so many “backslid” Christians is because they have never been saved to start with. I had no desire to live for God and had no problem committing things the Bible clearly condemns because Jesus meant nothing more to me than an insurance policy from hell.
 
biscuit1953 said:
There have probably been more false conversions through “altar calls” than any other programs in modern churches.

“With every head bowed and every eye closed, raise your hand if you are not saved. I see that hand. Brother song leader sing just one more verse because there are people that need to come to the altar and I don’t want anyone to leave here unsaved. You can be saved if you just take that first step. I’m not going to end the invitation yet no matter how many verses it takes because I know by the hands raised there are lost people here and I want to give everyone a chance to not leave here lost. One more verse of Just as I Am brother, and then one verse of Almost Persuaded because I feel the Spirit is dealing with hearts right now.”

I was in one service where a visiting preacher stormed off the platform because no one came to the altar during the invitation and he scolded the congregation for needing to get right with God.
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Compel them to come.

There's nothing wrong with supporting the weak. Who cares about the false conversions? A whole generation of them came out of Egypt with Moses, were baptized unto Moses in the Red Sea, received the law, journeyed to Canaan, then were revealed to be faithless when they heard the spies' report.

Focus on the real ones. Some need to hear of the Judgment to come, and respond in fear, some need to hear the call of love, and be assured of the gentleness of Christ. Some are timid, and need the encouragement.

False converts have nothing to do with the truth of the message. Receive them. Baptized them. Give them a seat at the Lord's table.

He holds the winnowing fork. Not you.
 
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I recall Mike Norris (Franklin Road Baptist Church, Murfreesboro TN) preaching at Lancaster Baptist and for a moment, I got caught up in the emotion during the altar call and it became quite clear that he was manipulating people to "raise their hands" (he got me to - "Get em up!.......Up! Up! Up! Up! Up!") and I believe the Holy Spirit brought this to my attention and I quickly took my hand right back down and repented of it! I believe in being sensitive to the working of the Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit will speak to me about me without such manipulative tactics in order to get a full altar for a nice "Photo Op" or whatever!

What sort of "Altar Call" did Jonathan Edwards have after his "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" message?
 
biscuit1953 said:
I had no desire to live for God and had no problem committing things the Bible clearly condemns because Jesus meant nothing more to me than an insurance policy from hell.
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I wonder how many would have this very same testimony? I went through a season of "Serious doubt" because my "salvation experience" didn't seem to line up with that of many who were supposedly "trusting Christ" during altar calls or even when I was out doing personal soulwinning! I never "raised my hand" or "Responded to an invitation" nor did anyone take me through the so-called "plan of salvation!" I came to faith when a young man witnessed to me at work telling me the story of Nicodemus, being 'Born Again,' and "God so loved the world!" While I was buzzing out an electrical box, I was saying to myself "YES! YES! THIS IS WHAT I NEED! I NEED TO BE BORN AGAIN! I BELIEVE IT!"

After that, he started going off the rails with all these "John Birch Society" conspiratories but I understood the gospel message with crystal clarity and since then, my life has never been the same! It wasn't "Was I sincere enough? Did I cry enough? Did I repent enough? Did I say the right words (and in the right order)?" The problem is we get all tied up in our methodology and can make a real mess of things!

A couple of weeks ago, I was working down at a ministry for seafarers and port workers in Freeport, TX. and I had the opportunity to speak with a truck driver who was "ripe" to the point of falling off a tree and I had the privilege of speaking with him and leading him to Christ! I did use a "sinner's prayer" but was careful to tell him that there was nothing "magical" about my words, just a suggestion as to what he could pray as he called out to the Lord for salvation and he did pray with me! I was careful not to tell him that he was "saved" because he prayed that prayer and told him "I am not going to tell you that you are now saved, this is something that you need to tell me but the scriptures clearly state that "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved!" He got a call on his cell that he sent to voicemail and told me that it was his friend in California who had also been talking to him about the Lord. I told him "CALL HIM BACK AND TELL HIM WHAT JUST HAPPENED" and he did! It was a wonderful day!
 
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