Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcFadden  You are facing more than a practice, even a custom, it is a shibboleth. The altar call is a test of orthodoxy and is used to register a commitment to believing in the necessity of the Gospel. Depending on how SBC your SBC congregation is, you may need to be prepared to lose your job over this.
Have you considered extending the offer of the Gospel in the altar call by nuancing it more and more toward a theologically appropriate view? |
There are non Calvinistic SBC pastors who do not have an "altar call", so it's not exclusively a Calvinist issue. I used to belong to a Wesleyan church that did not have one because the pastor was determined to avoid anything that tended to be manipulative. I'm sure it is no less a shibboleth in many Wesleyan and similar Arminian churches either.
There are even some who claim to be Calvinistic who would oppose doing away with the invitation. A Calvinistic woman in the SBC who had a MA from a seminary once argued with me about it, saying "it gives people a chance to respond", etc. with the implication that the chance wasn't there without it.
I would probably start with something like "We Baptists are supposed to follow the Bible and the altar call ain't in there" and maybe adding that altars are Romish and we don't have one to begin with.
However, I do believe strongly that there should be an evangelistic appeal, a clear call to repent to believe, which sadly is absent in way too many churches, and is often very muted in others. I do believe there is a difference between preaching and teaching.