Reimagining the Altar Call
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Reclaiming and Reimagining the Liturgy of the Altar Call in Christian Worship
The Altar Call
As an evangelical kiddo, the altar call was one of the most important parts of our weekly worship services — arguably THE most important. The “Altar” for evangelical christians is less about a specifically-designed table where the communion is consecrated and is more about an open space where the people of God are welcome to re-committ themselves to the work of Jesus Christ — publicly. If you asked most folks in an evangelical church where the “altar” is, they’d point to the steps near the pulpit. A lot of methodist congregations have a fancy railing with cushions so you can comfortably kneel. Either way, the looks didn’t quite matter. It was a place for prayer. It was a place for conversations with God. It was a place for conversion. It was a place to lay down the burdens you’d carried throughout your week. For many, it was the place they met God for the first time. For many it was a place where they found relief they’d never felt before. For a significant number of people, it was unfortunately a place where shame and guilt reigned supreme.
In addition to that, the altar call in many progressive congregations has been liturgically sucked dry of any emotion or significance. It is merely a placeholder for a bygone era of mass conversions and spiritual commitments.
Throwing the Baby Out with the Bath Water
As humans often tend to do when feeling deep trauma about something particular, the baby gets thrown out with the bath water. For many progressive-leaning congregations, that meant eliminating the “altar call” altogether. Perhaps for some congregations, that is the healthiest way to reframe how God includes us into their loving community. I would argue, though, that just like the Lord’s Supper or Baptism, the invitation to the altar is just as much an “ordinance” or “sacrament” as anything else.
The Liturgy of the Altar Call
There is immense beauty in the invitation for parishioners to collectively respond to God’s call through public movements. The alter call is inherently liturgical in the sense that it is the work of all congregants as they seek to communicate with and understand God’s love for each and every one of us. To publicly kneel at the altar and bring one’s burdens to God is a humble and liturgical act. Whether someone comes to pray, to profess their faith, dip their finger in water, or some other liturgical act, they are coming back week after week to declare God’s love for them and their inherent goodness in God’s eyes.
Perhaps think of the altar call as the evangelical version of the eucharist in the Anglican or Catholic traditions. For Catholics, the eucharist is a weekly necessity for nourishment and salvation. In each bite and sip, one consumes the life-giving salvation of Jesus’ true body and blood.
For a Baptist or Pentecostal tradition, the altar call arguably brings that same nourishment of the eucharist— perhaps even more inclusive in a progressive space, though, because everyone is welcome at the altar.
Liturgical Diversity and Imagination in the Altar Call
The beauty of the altar call is that it isn’t exclusively for “getting saved” or transferring one’s letter from another church — what a dry and boring liturgical act. Yep, I said that!
In contrast to the eucharist or communion, the altar call serves as a gateway to a diversity of liturgical acts. For example, some congregations will invite congregants to come forward as the spirit leads to dip their hands in water to remember their baptism or tie a knot on a cross to remember their interwoven-ness with God. Those are simple examples.
Some more examples could be to use the altar call to invite congregants (as the spirit leads, of course) to dance, come forward and draw, write something on a note to be burned, speak names of those who should be remembered by the congregation, etc, etc. The options for liturgical imagination are endless.
To imagine a new liturgical future for the altar call is to weave our heritage and traditions of yesteryear into the inclusive, liturgical theology with which we now participate in together.
The Invitation is Open
Regardless of whether your church reimagines the altar call, keeps it the same, or altogether forgets about it, let it be known that it can be a liturgical space for openness and invitation. All are welcome to explore the liturgy of the altar. All are welcome to commit to God’s saving work in the world. All are invited to respond to the ways in which God has spoken. Amen.
Are you interested in imagining this with me? Email me at gtcpresident@outlook.com and we can talk more!
