Are you more familiar with being at a church that has a weekly “altar call” to get you started on your walk with Christ, or were you in a church that had more of a structured faith-formation/catechism/discipleship pathway?

Both provide a scheduled opportunity to take your first steps, make a confession of faith, and be obedient in baptism. Those are good.

But where the set-pathway approach begins from a point of regularity, instruction and inclusion to the body of Christ, it would be very odd to see it presented with a deep, emotional appeal. You don’t see the Pastor at a Presbyterian church getting into a lather trying to manipulate people into beginning their adult catechism classes. 

It’s a lot more matter-of-fact in liturgical churches.

• This is who we are.
• This is what we do.
• If you want to be part of this as a faithful response to the work of Christ for you, then come and be obedient and submit to the leadership of the local church & join the community of faith. Learn with us, find your place in service with others, and grow in your faith here.

There’s less opportunity for that emotional appeal, and less reason to want to do it. 

Here in the west, back in the 1800’s you would have heard the name “Charles Grandison Finney.” He was part of a movement dubbed “The Second Great Awakening,” and was known for his fiery preaching and calculated, intentional, emotional manipulation of those who gathered to listen to him. 

Aside from the fact that he was a heretic, denying many core doctrines of the faith, he was also, and admittedly so, more interested in numbers and personal impact in the zeitgeist of the day than he was for pastoring the hearts of people.

He developed “the anxious bench,” a point of specific, increased emotionalism and manipulation where people would have more extreme reactions and filed the fires of his “revivalism” that made group reactions and regional responses (again as a calculated intentionality) a marker of his effectiveness rather than actual discipleship of faithful converts into a life lived Coram Deo (before the face of God.)

He, and those of his ilk, took no steps to grow people. They just wanted numbers. Numbers impressed, told a story and built a reputation. But actual surrendered lives? True discipleship? Real spiritual and emotional healing? Actual regeneration and sanctified lives?

He wasn’t concerned with those things.

His methodologies were then and are now recognized as a pathway to mark-and-avoid by faithful practitioners of the Gospel, and for those who seek to honor God by faithfully walking out the Gospel message and His instructions in Scripture.

Finneyism and Revivalism are idolatrous pursuits meant to increase the fame of those who pursue them, and instigate a culture of emotionalism that degrades the actual life of the church, and gives a false impression of the intent of the life and work of Christ. Very often, they are paired with an equally poisonous doctrine: the Prosperity Gospel.

Why bring all this up?

Why mention Finney, Catechisms & Altar Calls together?

Well, an unfortunate side-effect of Finneyism is that our modern, western church adopted many of the elements that formed the structure of his methods.

Should our hearts be engaged and emotions at work when we talk about the goodness of God, the work of Christ & the movement of the Holy Spirit among the people of God? 

Certainly.

But when emotionalism and revivalism are intentional “tools in the toolbox” to seek to force a response through specific chords in the music, and through crafted, manipulative language? That becomes dishonest, and the goal isn’t Christ at work in them, but those same motivations that drove Finney & so many others.

Does this make altar calls bad?

No, not at all.

Does this mean that only catechism pathways like the mainline churches use are right?

No, not at all.

What we want to avoid is manipulation & wrong motives.

What we want to pursue is real shepherding, real discipleship and real opportunities for the sanctifying work of God in the lives of His people.

Jesus told a parable in Matthew 13, Mark 4 & Luke 8 that we call the “Parable of the Sower.” In that parable, we see God (the farmer) sowing seed (the Gospel) across the hearts of men (the 4 soils.) And where good, Biblical shepherding seeks to produce fruit, those manipulating emotions are fine with weed-choked and rocky soil receptions where people fall off into faithlessness…because it makes the numbers look good. 

They don’t mind if the “back door” of the church is wide open so long as more people keep coming in the front door. An assembly line process that never accounts for the individual keeps things flowing, and doesn’t account for maturity. There’s no accountability, no supports, no long-term growth.

We can’t be the Holy Spirit, and we can’t make those final determinations whether the soil of someone’s heart will be weedy, rocky or fertile. But we can be kind shepherds and mindful stewards.

But the question of motivations comes down to the hearts of those making the appeal.

For the individual: Are you aware of the emotional appeals that tend to bypass your discernment & the command to “take every thought captive?”

For church lay-leaders & pastors:

Are you aware of your own motivations, the modern echoes of the apostasy of Finneyism/Revivalism and how your services are organized to draw glory to God over seeking a response from those attending? 

John 12:32 – “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”