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Invitations with Integrity ٠ 93 cite as the inventor of the modern altar call for the invitation. 6 Noted historian Leon McBeth, citing Steve O’Kelly, observes that Separate Baptists in the southern United States are known to have extended invitations for people to come to the front of the service with the singing of a hymn to make immediate commitments to Christ as early as 1758. 7 In 1799, at a Methodist camp meeting in Red River, Kentucky, an altar was erected in front of the pulpit where seekers might come for prayer and instruction. So popular were these altars that they became a permanent fixture in many Methodist churches. 8 The nineteenth century saw the ministry of Charles G. Finney popularize the modern pattern of coming to the front of the service at the time of invitation to commit to Christ. 9 Charles Haddon Spurgeon employed a type of invitation similar to the eighteenth century model, due in part to the physical limitations of the Metropolitan Tabernacle. 10 Although Finney certainly is credited with the paradigm with which we are now familiar, the spirit and practice of public invitations is well documented in church history. What about the charge that calling for a response in a public invitation is adding human means to the grace of God? In extending a public invitation, the preacher should make every effort to separate the need for an inner decision to the call for an external expression. A person is justified solely by the grace of God and apart from human effort (Rom. 4:1-5). The Apostle Paul argued to the Romans that we are right with God based on the inward condition of our heart (Rom. 4:29). And yet, the one who has a genuine inner relationship of the heart will validate it in an external expression. After Peter’s sermon at Pentecost, when the people asked, “What shall we do? Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins …” (Acts 2:37-38, NASB). In the tenth chapter of his letter to the Romans, Paul describes the relationship between inner decision and external expression: “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved” (Rom. 10:9-10, NIV). Outward expression is to be evidence of inner grace. To claim inner grace without external expression is to cheapen the gospel of grace. The concept of cheap grace or “easy believism” is often made by those that are of the Reformed tradition. Truly, one is saved not by walking an aisle, raising a hand or praying a prayer. One is saved by committing oneself to Him as Savior and Lord. 6 Ibid., 92. 7 H. Leon McBeth, The Baptist Heritage, Four Centuries of Baptist Witness (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1987), 231. 8 Henry B. McLendon, “The Mourner’s Bench” (ThD dissertation, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1902), 10. 64. 9 David L. Larsen, The Evangelism Mandate (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1992), 10 Streett, 97.
94 ٠ JBTM Vol. 6 No. 2 The Proclamation of the Gospel However, to question the integrity of the public invitation as a means of external expression is to eliminate a legitimate and biblical means of external expression. Others have abandoned the practice of extending a public invitation in favor of relational evangelism. The preference for relational witness has become an exclusive preference: relational evangelism as the only means of proper witness. Adherents of this position do not merely prefer relational evangelism, they see it as the only legitimate way to evangelize. They do more than merely minimize the legitimacy of the public invitation; they question its very integrity. This view would disparage those that would extend the public invitation as well as those who would practice direct conversational evangelism with a casual acquaintance or a stranger. Although personal relationships can be a valid, perhaps even the preferred means of presenting the gospel, should it be the exclusive approach? It was not the exclusive approach of Jesus Christ, who witnessed to individuals after a brief introduction (John 3:1-21; 4:1-26), as well as to the masses (John 7:37-38). I am passionate about the public invitation. God used it the night I came to faith in Christ. I am also passionate in my desire to see it implemented with clarity and integrity. It is shameful to extend the invitation in an attempt to manipulate or coerce. I resent coercion and manipulation in any context, particularly in the setting of a public invitation. At the other extreme is the practice of extending the invitation in a passionless and perfunctory manner. To extend an invitation in a casual, unprepared, and careless manner is another type of abusing the invitation. An invitation to Christ should be done with urgency, passion, and even persuasion. Paul told the Corinthians, “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences … Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:11, 5:20, NASB). The church needs a revitalized view and practice of the public evangelistic invitation. We do not need to implement a practice that is dishonoring to God. Nor do we need our implementation or methodology to dishonor the Lord. It is my contention that we need to recognize that the public evangelistic invitation is a tool if great integrity, biblically and historically. Further, when it is implemented properly, its integrity is maintained through the character and methodology of the minister. May the critics refine our methods and our motives. May God revitalize our passion and our practice. May we stand to proclaim the gospel as God’s gracious gift of redemption and salvation, and may God entreat people through us, as we beg the multitudes to be reconciled to God.
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JBTM VOL. 6, NO. 2 THE PROCLAMATION
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Preaching the Forest and the Trees
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Paul vs. Athens ٠ 147 The preacher
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BOOK REVIEWS Green, Joel B. Body, S
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Back Issues of the Journal Availabl
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Issues in Baptist Polity, Pt. 2 Vol
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Foundational Doctrinal Issues for B
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