Altar call
The altar call , also called the call to decision or the call to decision , belongs to the form of evangelical and charismatic worship services and evangelization meetings. This is understood as an appeal to the worshipers to go to the altar after the sermon or simply to come out of the row of seats near it. Evangelicals understand this as a sign of a publicly made decision for the Christian faith. With charismatics, it is also understood in a broader sense as the willingness to be prayed for.
To the subject
The older term altar call is being replaced more and more by the term call or call for decision . One of the reasons for this is the fact that in the liturgical center of many free church congregations there is not an altar , but a communion table or often the pulpit . Another reason arises from the fact that many evangelistic events, at which a decision is called after the sermon, take place in secular buildings, tents or in sports arenas.
history
The practice of the altar call is generally traced back to Charles Grandison Finney , who in the 1830s called for public choice for the Christian faith after his evangelistic sermons. Finney reserved chairs at the front of his evangelism campaigns for those who wanted to join “the Lord's side” after the sermon for concern for their souls. These people then received counseling and prayers for them. The aim of Finney's altar call was to make a decision, to bring about a visible result of the evangelism, and it came to impressive results.
Finney's method was adopted by Lutheran Samuel Simon Schmucker and the Camp Meetings of the Sanctification Movement in the second half of the 19th century. For example, in the early days of the Salvation Army, those who wanted to start a new life in faith were called on to sit in the first row of seats, where experienced employees were available for - often hours - discussions about pastoral and practical emergencies and prayed with those seeking help .
The custom has been adopted with slight variations by Dwight Lyman Moody and many well-known evangelical preachers of the 19th and 20th centuries. The custom was so widespread that as early as the 19th century numerous hymns, the so-called "Altar Call Hymns", were written, which thematized the altar call and which can still be found in the hymn books of Mainline Churches to this day. In traditional evangelical churches these songs are still often played as background music to the altar call.
Theologically, the altar call is justified with the confession of sins in the Psalms ( e.g. Psalm 51.1-17 EU ), the call to repent in Mark 1.15 EU and with the public confession of Jesus in passages like Matthew 10.32 EU .
In the middle of the 20th century, Billy Graham in particular made the altar call known worldwide in the evangelical movement, which earned him the slightly derisive term “fundamentalist sacrament” . Through Graham's evangelistic campaigns, the altar call also became known in the German-speaking world, and here, too, some corresponding songs were written, such as “The way I am I come to you” by Bodo Hoppe.
Current practice
Even today the altar call is a common element of evangelism events. In addition to the invitation to come to the altar or the "stage", there has recently been an increasing request to document the decision to believe by standing up or by a show of hands. Other expressions of decision are also practiced. In Taizé, for example, people express their surrender of life to Christ by lying on the floor in front of the so-called Franciscan Cross. At the Thomasmesse , visitors willing to make decisions light a candle.
Often the altar call developed from the first decision to the renewed public confession of Jesus Christ, which was followed by a considerable part of the assembled (and long-time believing) congregation, which is also the case today at some evangelism events. Nevertheless: The altar call is perceived as significant by various groups of people, such as those who have distanced themselves from the church as well as those who previously had no denomination and who converted to the Christian faith.
Apart from evangelism, the altar call is also used by evangelical youth movements and some non-denominational movements such as the Promise Keepers .
A new variant of the altar call arose in the 20th century in the Pentecostal movement, where people are asked to come forward to be prayed for - a practice that is an integral part of healing services in particular .
During his major evangelizations, Reinhard Bonnke calls for conversion , baptism in the Spirit or a healing prayer, depending on the occasion .
In the controversial neo-charismatic Toronto blessing movement of the 1990s, calls were made to receive the blessing by the laying on of hands, causing extreme manifestations such as falling, trembling, laughing or even animal sounds.
criticism
The practice of calling the altar soon met with criticism: it was resolutely rejected by Calvinist churches , who saw it as an inadmissible contribution of man to his redemption from a Calvinist point of view , and called Finney a heretical representative of Pelagianism . In Lutheranism, too, a counter-movement developed, especially in the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod , which saw the altar call as an impermissible emotionalization of the worship service and the dilution of divine grace.
From the evangelical side, even by people who do not completely reject the altar call, it is argued against it that it fixes the conversion, which can be a long process, on a certain date, or that it is an inadmissible shortening of the evangelistic process by the ritual Answer to the altar call is confused with genuine repentance.
A major argument against the altar call, which is also often used against mass evangelism in general, is that it is often an impulsive emotional decision that does not last.
The practice is also often criticized, especially because of the often very emotional atmosphere that can influence the individual's free decision. A far more differentiated view is now offered: Calling the front may May be of help if it is clear what function this has: the possibility of professing one's faith, but not being forced to do so now.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Joel A. Carpenter, Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism
- ^ "Theological Contributions", ISSN 0342-2372 , 12-5. Volume 43, December 2012, p. 377
- ↑ Relinfo: Toronto blessings
- ↑ Laurence A. Justice: Why We Don't Use The Altar Call ( Memento of December 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ William MacDonald: Evangelistic Malpractice
- ↑ Josh Hornbeck: Just as I am ( Memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Walter Klaiber: Call and Answer. Biblical foundations of evangelism theology. Neukirchener Verl., Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1990, ISBN 3-7887-1365-8 .