Why do Preachers do this?

That's one of my pet peeves -- the organ (or guitar, or piano, or combination) playing softly in the background for just about everything: prayer, collection, etc.

 

You can become a Mennonite. :laugh:

 

:laugh: I have no problem with instruments during singing, but that background stuff is just too sappy for me.

 

Ah, just one more verse! That'll make the difference!

 

Let's be careful not to always equate exhortation with the modern invitation. When Paul told the Athenians that God commanded them to repent, that was exhortation for sure. But not an invitation. Peter's exhortation followed the response of those pricked by his sermon in Acts 2, not preceded it.

In both sermons the exhortation was "repent." In neither did they invite anyone to walk the aisle or come to the altar.

 

If you all had grown up in a church that never had an altar call or any mechanism to respond to the Holy Spirit, you might me more appreciative of invitations. No man made institution is perfect, but it is better than nothing.

The purpose of the altar call/invitation is deeper and more profound than looking for precise verses in the Bible to tear it down. Usually, those verses are what a person thinks they say rather than what they say.

 

Amy, you've probably heard this: "All right, we're going to sing one more verse. If no one comes, the invitation will be closed."

Sorta like, you probably can't be saved after we quit singing. But once the closing prayer is finished, you're dead meat for sure. We go to Sunday dinner after church, and the Holy Spirit will take a Sunday afternoon nap.

I know, overstatement. Cheap shot. I take it back.

 

Thanks, Tom, but just to save any confusion, I don't think I mentioned them being an American invention. (I suppose they were - at least, I think they were introduced or popularized by Charles Finney).

It is an unfortunate term, to say the least, because it gives the impression that we are following in the steps of Roman Catholics, Anglicans, etc., in imagining that we have an altar at the front of our church buildings.

 

I'm shocked! You mean I'm singing that last verse for nothing when I could be getting to lunch! Life is so not fair! :laugh: :godisgood:

 

I don't want to give the impression that I think we ought not to sing that one more verse--unless it's verse seventeen.

It's this imprecise language that I hear so often. "We're going to close the invitation." As if we could.

"Come to the altar." As if there is one.

"Come to Christ." As if he's down here with me, not back there with you.

"Take that step of faith." As if you can't have saving faith unless you're walking down here where Christ is, right here at the altar.

I've even heard (not by my pastor now) "Jesus is waiting for you. C'mon."

And this one "Jesus accepts you just as you are." Pish Tosh! If that's so, why do we have to repent and trust him for salvation?

See what I mean? It just drives me sane!:BangHead:

(Credit to the first one who used Pish Tosh! as a synonym for balderdash)