Sinner's prayer

The sinner's prayer can be abused. I've seen it.
"Do you want to go to heaven?" (well who doesn't)
"Yes".
"Repeat after me........bla bla bla".
"Bla bla bla".
"You are now in the family of God".


It was disturbing, but I was very young and barely a Christian myself, so I just sat there and said nothing.

I don't think I would handle it the same way now.

 

Regeneration is the work of the Spirit and can work in many different ways. The codifying element is, I suppose, something of a cognitive ascent to faith, coupled with a heart reaction.

 

I was meekly led to a back room as a teenager and told, "Repeat these words after me." I did as told since I was shy and afraid to talk back to an adult. My dad had trained me well by breaking my spirit and making me too afraid to do anything except what I was told.

I had no idea what the words meant and got off my knees just as lost as when I got down on them. Some people are in such a hurry to lead someone to Christ that they don't bother to find out where that person is spiritually, and I was nowhere. I suppose I believed there was a God, but that was where my knowledge and belief ended.

There is NO pat "sinner's prayer". The publican in the Bible simply said "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." It is recorded that he went away justified--whereas the Pharisee standing and boasting about his accomplishments, his giving, and his goodness got him nowhere.

A prayer of any kind must come from the heart of the individual and not from someone else. A little prompting for the person who isn't sure what to say might help, but no one should tell the person to, "Repeat these words after me."

 

I have changed over the years I have been in ministry, and that largely because of growth in Scripture and theology versus observed practice.

I came up in a religious setting (Protestant) where there was never an altar call of any type. The best part of the service was the liturgical benediction (always exactly the same except on special holiday Sundays) and we knew that our ordeal was over and we could get back home to try to do "good stuff" so that God would like us enough to bring us to heaven some day -- mostly we missed, and the concept of sin was always with us, but never in a way that the Bible describes sin -- death and eternal separation from God that only a new birth would cure.

I ran from God and that religious setting during a life crisis and it was after that, that God came looking for me. The church I ended up in after getting saved (I was saved apart from any church or direct human intervention) the altar call (10 verses of Just As I Am) was forceful, coercive, manipulative, and intentionally emotional. If there were not enough people responding, the sermon started over... When enough people responded in some manner to make the preacher happy, we could finally go home to "the roast that won't burn while we do God's business... (Sound familiar to anyone?) In any case, I learned to do the sinner's prayer, the altar call, etc., from that first church and found it weird when I got into a church where that was not the practice.

After a number of other churches, different styles, different tactics, etc., but all holding some form of altar call, I started modifying my own practice in the churches I led. Sometimes I would go whole bore (ha!) with the altar call, and at other times, I would end some other way and let God do the talking. I noticed after a while that on the days I left it up to God that I got a better response (more authentic and meaningfully lasting) than when it was mostly a religious manipulation based on shame or guilt.

In my current church (I am not on the pastoral staff) there is really no altar call, but at the same time, there is -- but the form is very different from any other church I've seen. We celebrate the Lord's Table in every service after the sermon, and we do that by having the entire church rise and come to the elements as they desire (no order, just people, as God leads stepping up to the persons hosting the elements, and hearing the Scriptural words spoken over each as they take them, then returning to pray, praise, etc.) while the worship team plays and sings. This takes a bit of time for a service with 500 or so people, but it also gets finished surprisingly fast (usually one song). We also offer our worship through giving at the same time, dropping our offerings into baskets held by deacons or other servants of the church as we pass by to the elements which are staged in several places in the sanctuary (we typically have 5 stations where people can take communion - they break a piece of bread and dip it).

Right before we take the elements, the pastor or one of the worship leaders will hold the loaf of bread, break it and explain the Table. He will offer the cup -- wine or juice as one's conscience allows -- and then say, "If you are a Christian, this table is for you. We ask you to come and commune with us and with Christ. If you are not a believer, we ask you to take Christ, and you can do that with our pastors right now to the right of the sanctuary (we have a set of rooms there for counseling). People can go and talk to a pastor, pray or counsel, whatever the Lord lays on their heart, while the rest of us take the Table.

We go on to sing another several worship songs and end with a benediction, then quite a few of the people go to some ministry setting and serve during the next service so that those serving during this service can enjoy their own time of worship. So, for many of us, we are in two services per day (we have 2 in the am and 2 in the pm, all the same service, same preacher, etc.).

We are seeing around 100 baptisms a year without a typical altar call, and the persons who "take Christ" are doing so in a very informed manner, realizing the full implications of the gospel and publishing their testimonies of salvation for all to see. No simple "take the hand of the preacher" and "repeat after me" stuff here. What is even better is that it is working... We are growing fast, even though under the loose cultural setting we are very emphatic about the truth of the gospel and a covenant relationship with the church including church discipline. It is not easy to become a member of our church, but members know what membership means and they are active.

Our system may not be perfect (I've not seen one that is) but it works and like I said, we are growing -- fast. We're now 10 years old as a congregation and at 1000 members and average attendance of 2250 per Sunday on 3 (soon to be 5) campuses.

 

The abuse of the Sinner's Prayer and invitation have led to bloated church rolls, and Sundays where attendance by 50% of those members is cause for rejoicing.

Baptist churches in Romania (I've been in some of them) generally run at least twice their membership in their Sunday worship services. They don't do altar calls or the Sinner's Prayer.

 

our altar call is this: if any had come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and would like to join himself to a body of members of like conviction, the church's doors is open for membership.

that's it.
given every once in a while as the pastor is led.

 

That's a far cry from the modern sinner's prayer isn't it?

 

I have transformed the altar call to a time of praise and dedication- praise mainly.

I encourage the people to praise the Lord for the truth they have just learned about him.

For example I spoke Sunday about what the Shepherds experienced.

I noted that only a handful in the history of the world have ever seen THE angel of the Lord, this theophany, and that God revealed himself and his glory to Enoch, Abram, Moses, Daniel, Isaiah... and these shepherds.

I encouraged them to praise God for revealing himself to common people like you and I.

We sang during the "invitation" O Come Let Us Adore Him- I said, "Praise our God who revealed himself to you! Praise our God whose glory outshines the sun! Praise him for robing that glory in the flesh of an infant so that he might die for us!"

It gives the folks an opportunity to ponder upon and praise God for the truth they have just seen from Scripture- seems to me to be a far better use of that time.

 

Psalm 51 is an example of a born again child of God feeling conviction for sin and turning to God for forgiveness.

The truth is, there is no such thing as a sinner's prayer as people use the term today. There is no prayer that results in God regenerating a sinner. That is because no unregenerate person is seeking after God. The thief on the cross wasn't an unregenerate man asking the Lord to save him from hell. He was a man whose heart had been changed so that he went from casting insults at Jesus to seeing Jesus as the King. There was no gospel preaching at the cross, no altar call, but yet this man suddenly changed his entire attitude towards Jesus while the other thief did not. He then looked at Jesus and say not the blood, sweat, spit, bruises but rather saw the King and desired mercy from Him when He came into His kingdom, meaning he understood more about the Lord's kingdom than even the disciples did at that time. How is this possible but that the man's heart had already been changed by the Holy Spirit? His statement came not from an evil heart, but out of a clean heart.

 

This has been my experience, Ann.

I hesitate to share this for fear of being taken as a braggart- I give God all the glory- in fact I share this for that very purpose- to glorify God's ability to work in the hearts of sinners.

I live in the country- there are three thousand people in my COUNTY. I have personally baptized about 40 in the past four years. About 30 of them did not pray at an altar. They heard the Gospel and called upon the name of the Lord and were saved and came to me and asked to be baptized.

Those people usually stick.

 

That is absolutely awesome!!

Thank you very much for sharing this.

 

How do you know what went on in the thief's head?

While he was regenerated, you cannot state when and how this occurred. It's your opinion.

 

It's not opinion. Jesus said that one must be born again before he can SEE the Kingdom of God.

The Bible teaches that the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. So that gives us some insight into what was going on in the thief's head as well as webdog's head and every other person who has ever been saved.

 

I've never seen this done, but I dream that I will some day.

In churches where an invitation is extended at the end of the sermon, I dream of watching the pastor exhort the lost in the audience to repent and trust Christ for salvation.

With no music. No piano, no organ, no choir, no audience singing an invitation hymn, nothing.

Silence.

Waiting.

The audience seated.

Believers praying.

After 30 seconds or so, the pastor ends the invitation, but invites anyone interested to see him right after the service.

Benediction. Done.

I have a dream.

 

I couldn't agree more. No manipulation or coercion; just the Gospel & the Holy Spirit.

 

Bro. Pinoy,

This is very similiar to the way we ORBs do it, too. At the end of each of our meetings, the closing preacher will usually say something like this, "if there is anyone here, who has been praying on account of their sins, and wants to make this church your home, come and give us your hand while they are singing." We also will baptize someone, even if they want their membership at another ORB church. If no one responds, we then usually let the visiting people give out their church's meeting times, and then we have a prayer of dismissal. But we NEVER do an altar call. If we can beg them in, someone can beg them out.

 

Well, next time you're in Georgetown, stop by and we'll show you.

 

Wow, I'm tickled to hear this. Walk us through the process, if you will.

No frills, nothing, huh?

 

Food for thought for those whose "dream invitation" involves a quick dismissal/a teaching elder telling people to "see me later":

"If we make men think that conversation with ourselves or with our helpers is essential to their faith in Christ, we are taking the direct line for priestcraft. In the gospel, the sinner and the Savior are to come together, with none between. Speak upon this point very clearly, “You, sinner, sitting where you are, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, shall have eternal life. Do not stop till you pass into an inquiryroom. Do not think it essential to confer with me. Do not suppose that I have the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, or that these godly men and women associated with me can tell you any other gospel than this, ‘He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.’”" —Charles Spurgeon, An All-Round Ministry