As a result, I had a very different perspective when I turned 30 a couple of weeks ago…

Folks, don’t try this at home…

My biggest beef with the altar call is the term “altar” itself. If we still need an altar, then Christ’s sacrifice was not enough. Christ’s sacrifice did away with the need for any altar.

I don’t understand the idea that the front of the church is more holy than anywhere else. We worship in spirit and truth and our God has never been hampered by location.

Perhaps the front of the church / walking there, etc. becomes more of a psychological step which assists people in coming to a decision and making it public. But, I cannot find explicit scriptural basis for such practices. But, neither can I find scriptural references for “Sunday School” either. So, that does not make either inherently bad in and of themselves.

I don’t understand the “new” need to oversimplify things — perhaps it is a reaction to the church’s past history of over-complicating issues. We come to God with a child-like faith, but we should not stay there (else Paul is wasting his time when he chastises the Corinthians for being unable to chew “solid food”).

It seems to me that we need to find some balance between being “Bereans” and searching, analyzing, and studying the Scripture and allowing ourselves to feel / experience emotion in worship. And since when is worship just singing? Studying, praying, preaching, discipling, obeying, and living holy lives are all elements / acts of worship.

One of the most troubling experiences in my life was when I went to a U2 concert on my 25th birthday. I was less than 50 feet from the stage and they played most of my favorite songs. Upon leaving, I felt this emotional high like I had never felt before — it literally lasted for about a month. I really started to question whether emotional high was necessarily an indicator of God’s presence or absence.

When I recently almost choked to death, I felt a peace that transcended any emotional high I had ever felt and I certainly was not enjoying myself! I just realized that this could be the end of my time on earth and the only thing that could save me from eternity in hell was God’s presence in my life which was provided by the sacrifice of Christ…

I don’t entirely fault preachers for making people feel, based on emotional pleas for Christ, that they need to walk down the aisle again. Its easy to start feeling overwhelmed with guilt, fear, etc. once you make a decision to accept Christ and try to become more holy. That is a very normal thing for a baby Christian to do and is something that should be explained to them immediately after they accept Christ.

I also place a great deal of responsibility on the person, especially if they are an adult. We are one of the few cultures in the world who are brought up from birth to expect that everything be given to them…handed to them with little or no work. If an adult makes a commitment to Christ some of the responsibility for picking up the Bible and going to church to learn, etc. has to fall on them. I think one area where churches can improve is in emphasizing more of the commitment aspect of accepting Christ rather than just presenting it as a way to escape hell.

I also think it is important for people to recognize that there are different churches with different callings/missions and it is important as a believer to be in the right church for where you are in your life. This is something else I think is important to teach new believers…you have to be hearing stuff that challenges you to grow, etc.

In my experience, I remember seeing the same people walk the aisle every week for salvation, despite being taught that salvation was a single event. What, did it not “stick” the first time?

Or then there were the other people, the outsiders not raised in church, who walked down the aisle but never returned to church. I began to wonder if perhaps the method of convincing them to walk the aisle in the first place — using more fear of hell, than desire to commune with God — was flawed.