The Church Answers Podcast
#158 What Happened When the Public Invitation Died in Many Churches
Welcome to the Church Answers podcast presented by Chaney & Associates. Chaney & Associates are the accounting firm for the church. Now get ready for fast-paced insights on key issues affecting the local church today. We release three episodes each week, so make sure you've seen or heard them all. And now, here is the CEO of Church Answers, Tom Rayner. So the authorized biography of Billy Graham, the late Billy Graham, is a book called "Just As I Am." It's a really fascinating read, Mr. Graham. I had the opportunity to be with him on several occasions and was always really touched by his spirit, his humility. And there is no doubt that Billy Graham was truly used of God for the season of his life. And he left a legacy. He left a great legacy of evangelism, of ministry. I could go on and on and on and on of that. But back to the title, "Just As I Am." Many of you may know what that is, but "Just As I Am" was the most popular hymn that was sung during an invitation. Now, I understand there are a number of my listeners and viewers, hello, you too, who are in churches or have been in churches that never had a public invitation. I understand that it was culturally almost centered in the Bible about South, but it went a little bit beyond that. So I understand that the public invitation is something that has never been in some traditions and in some traditions that was big and now it's faded away. Sometimes it's called the altar call. It has a history to it. It is particularly associated with John Wesley in the 18th century. And then in the 19th century, there was Charles Grandis and Finney. He was very big on this public invitation, the idea of coming forward. As a matter of fact, he even would have in many of his meetings an anxious beach bench or a mourners bench where you would come and just said if you felt like God was working in your life and people would come and pray over you and talk to you. So Charles Finney was that. So he had Wesley in the 18th century, Finney in the 19th century. Of course, he had Billy Graham in the 20th century. So there's a long history. There's a three to four century history to the public invitation. Now what happened is many churches that had a public invitation have done away with them. I get why they have as a matter of fact, I got to the point where I though I grew up in churches that both Methodist and Baptist and non-denominational, I grew up in churches that most of them had the altar call or some would call it walking the aisle because you want to be on a church aisle or the public invitation as we're calling in this podcast. I got to where I was concerned about it. It felt at times like the preacher, the pastor was pushing hard too hard emotionally. Maybe in a few cases, manipulation, but pushing too hard for an emotional response. And it also became a measure of success. Well, how many came forward and that caused some discomfort too. And then was somebody really being changed or were they just responding out of guilt or emotion or whatever the issue was? And it's for that reason that the public invitation of the Wesley Finney Graham three centuries has faded away in most churches, including those churches where it was pervasive and prevalent. Okay, I understand why this methodology does not have the emphasis that it once did. And hear me well, I am not advocating for it to return to the way it was. It was indeed used for a season and maybe we're past that season, maybe we're not. You can debate that on your own, we're not going to debate it here. But what I want to do is I want to say, okay, when the public invitation died, what did it take with it? Let me say that again, when the public invitation died, what did it take with it? Well, it took many aspects with it. One is that it took away the urgency to make a decision if the Holy Spirit was working, but the Holy Spirit was speaking, the Holy Spirit was tugging, today is the day of salvation. The writer of Hebrews said, today is the day to make a decision. And when we did away with the public invitation, many times that sense of urgency began to wane as the Spirit was working through the preach word and people were ready to make a decision. So many times it's taken away the urgency to make a decision. And I would add to this, there are times when it seems like making a decision public is even more profound. Now, for many churches, the act of baptism is the public decision. I get that. That is the public. It is where you're confessing Jesus Christ as Lord through the, and you're making that confession through the act of baptism. But there can be public decisions beyond the salvific decision. There can be public decisions of God calling you in a certain direction. There can be public decisions of repentance. And even though you may not articulate it to the congregation, the fact that you may be went forward, another expression quite often used. The fact that you went forward confirmed that this was something that was very important to you. So why did it go away? Quite honestly, I think it became two things happen. It became routine, style time for the invitation. And it just became something within the order of worship or the bulletin within the church. Okay. So it just became routine. And in some cases, it was abused where it became an emotional tactic. It became something to give pride to the preacher or the evangelist according to how many decisions were made. So I get that. We don't want to go back to those days. But what can we do in our churches today to allow God to do his work with the urgency of decision, to allow someone, if they are feeling some type of decision or the Holy Spirit is working in them to make that decision before the men and women and children who are in the church, a public decision. What can we do? Well, they're different possibilities, and I'm seeing more and more churches move in this direction. Many churches have a time of decision and my church is oftentimes my pastor, my son will say, hey, if God has spoken to you in any way and you feel like you want to know more and you really want to take time to talk to me about it or to one of our elders, he'll say, come and talk to us. It's not a wall type of decision, but even then we have a time where we can come forward and pray and usually some of the elders come and pray over us even if they don't know the specificity of the decision. My point is the public invitation, the altar call, had a purpose. That purpose was to allow someone to respond to the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives and to make a decision. And oftentimes that purpose was to make that decision public. Yes, it was abuse. Yes, and a minority of the cases, it was manipulation emotionally taken place. Yes, it did become routine and tradition. But like many things in the church, when we change them to use the worn out phrase, we throw out the baby with the bathwater. And in this case, I am encouraged that many churches are asking the question, are we really encouraging our people to make some type of decision if God has spoken to them through the preached word? If God has spoken to them through the music and the worship time, if God has spoken to them, do they have an opportunity to respond? I know in many churches, you fell out of card, you turned it in and someone called you. I know that that is a way, but I'm just wondering if we need to be thinking more about some type of response that is happening publicly in the worship service. Maybe not going back to the public invitation or altar call the way we used to do it, but maybe gaining some of the better principles. I'll leave it at that. That's a question. You can let me know. You can contact us and let me know what you think about the altar call, the public invitation. You can drop us a line and we'd love to hear from you. Hey, speaking of hearing from you, thank you for being a part of the church answer. If you're on YouTube, thanks for watching us. Subscribe to us. Be one of those who's a part of this tribe that we love. If you're listening to it on your favorite podcasting app, you're sort of rating our review. Always, we thank Jamie and Associates, our exclusive sponsor, the one who is from a financial point of view and an investment of the heart. Make the church answers podcast happen. 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