Prayer at the Altar
“I grew up in a church where the alter was always "open" as far as during prayer we could come down and pray and then at the end of most services there was an "alter call". I have been to several services at Rossville and this never happens. Please share your beliefs and feelings on this. I have also attended the Dayton United Methodist Church an they also have an "open" alter so I don't believe it is a denominational thing.”
- Feeling shut out of Prayer
I also grew up on a United Methodist church that was constantly inviting people down to the altar at the end of the worship service. Through the years, I began watching this altar phenomena. It seemed to me that two things began to happen. One was that the pastor seemed to start begging people to come down and pray at the altar. It was as if the people were voting on the quality of the pastor’s sermon by coming forward. And, because of this, the same people seemed to be the ones who kept going forward.
Maybe in my young Christian heart I didn’t fully understand the spiritual work that was going on and these saints of the church needed to go forward each week to discuss their commission for the week. It seemed to me, that there was much energy spent on something that was more visual than it was spiritual.
As I have grown in my faith and have attended a few classes in what is current thinking in church life, I keep hearing a few facts. One of them is that people want to attend church and feel like they are a part of the crowd and not being singled out. For example, a few years ago, we would introduce visitors with us on a Sunday morning. We would even ask someone we didn’t recognize who they are. Most people don’t want to be singled out like this any more.
In the same way, I don’t think that most people want to leave the comfort of their seat and be singled out to come forward to pray.
It is my personal thought that God can hear us in our seat and in our home and in our car and anywhere else we might like to pray. If we train people that they can only commit themselves at the church’s altar, I’m afraid that we will limit how and where people will feel free to pray.
Because of these factors, I am reluctant to offer an altar call at the end of the service.
On the other hand, during the time of personal prayer, I generally model praying at the altar. Although I don’t verbally announce that any or all are welcome to join me at the altar during prayer, I assumed that my actions have said that. I suppose I should be more verbal with this point.
Wait, doesn’t that contradict what I just said? Maybe. I know that some people really enjoying praying at the church altar. I know I do. I believe that by making it available during the prayer time, will allow people to clean up their business and hear the message with a clean heart.
Thank you for your question. Now I see that I need to make sure that people understand that the altar is open and available during the worship service.
