My 5 Acres

 

Altar Calls?

The reason I wrote The Parable of Joe is that I believe churches are failing in their altar calls to clearly communicate the true meaning of repentance and to explain the cost of discipleship. Typically, at the end of a service, the pastor will ask everyone to bow their heads and close their eyes. They might even invite some musicians to come up and play softly. The pastor will then emphasize the importance of accepting the Lord as Savior, and if someone raises their hand, they’ll thank them.

Once the pastor feels that everyone who is going to raise their hand has done so, they will ask the congregation to stand. The pastor will then lead those who raised their hands, and sometimes even the whole congregation, in what is often a made-up "sinner’s prayer" or simply the Lord’s Prayer. After that, the service ends.

I have asked why they don’t invite people to come forward, either before or after the prayer. The response I’ve received is that they want to make becoming a Christian as easy as possible. In my opinion, this approach is fundamentally wrong. Repentance and discipleship involve commitment and understanding.

 Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV)
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Are We afraid to tell them what true repentance is and are we afraid to tell them what true discipleship means?

Strong's 3340.
metanoeó: Repent
Part of Speech: Verb
Definition: Repent
Meaning: I repent, change my mind, change the inner man (particularly with reference to acceptance of the will of God), repent.

The Cost of Discipleship 
Luke 14:25-33 (ESV)
Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not *hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

I will probably be posting more on this subject in the near future, not that anybody really cares about what I post.