As I have grown up going to church and have attended more services than I could ever count, I have been in many services where there were altar calls. This is a sampling of what I typically hear.
"...and now I would like to ask you to close your eyes and bow your heads. As you heard in the sermon earlier today, blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah. Blaahhh, blah bla-blah blah blah blah blaahhh blah-bid-dee-blah. So, if that applies to you please come to the front of the room or at least raise your hand."Not only do I occasionally have a hard time concentrating on sermons, I even have a hard time concentrating on the altar calls at the end of the sermons. When it comes time for the call to be given I am rarely really sure if I am expected to respond or not. It's usually a safe bet for "not," but I do get queasy when I here or see a lot of movement that indicates that almost everyone else is responding. That happened yesterday morning, so Golden and I left a little early to pick up NJ.
Another thing that I noticed is that when I am actually paying attention I usually get an itch somewhere on my head at the same time that people are supposed to be raising their hands for salvation, healing, or whatever. I sometimes wonder how many of the people counted as raising their hands were only scratching their ears. Maybe I'm the only person with that experience, though.
5 comments:
I hear you on that. My mind always seem to drift on a thought or verse that was said earlier and as I am contemplating on a spiritual truth, I miss out on the intent of the altar call.
Another hard one is when they ask for a commitment to do x or y. X and Y is something that I support and try to put into practice. It is good to do X and Y and I have already commited myself to do X and Y. But everyone is responding to the call to do X and Y and if I stay in my seat, it makes me look like I do not think that I need to do X and Y.
No harm in recommiting though.
Church culture, good times.
My mind wonders a lot too. At Imago, Pastor Rick generally doesn't give alter calls. After the sermon, it goes straight back to worship until the band decides their done.
I forgot to put deodorant on, so I wasn't Sure. : )
I can totally relate to having trouble concentrating on everything a pastor says. Pastor Phil was very difficult, but our current Pastor keeps my attention much better.
I was also very sensitive to Pastor Phil's altar calls. I would always think, Should I be going forward? But I usually did not feel a strong conviction to do so. The one time I went forward, BB felt inclined to join me strangely. It was always interesting at OPAG because the same people always seemed to go forward each week. Are they especially sensitive or just in the habit of going forward, like it's the thing to do at church.
I must be one of the sensitive ones. I seemed to raise my hand a lot, but not without a sincere moment of soul searching. I hate the ones that forrest mentioned - I already try to do that, so do I still raise my hand???
I have the itch problem a lot. I'm sure I've inadvertently added to the number of hand raising with a momentarily scratchy scalp.
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