Monday, April 09, 2007

The Invitation

This post has been a long time coming and I probably will make someone mad but I don't really care to much about that. So I am going to start with a question, give the answer, show the history, give the problem, and provide a solution so hold on to your pants cause here we go.

Question
:Why in the Baptist Church do we feel a need to issue an "Invitation" at the end of ever service?

Answer:The church answer, view point, to the question is that we are extending an opportunity for those who have never accepted the message of the gospel to accept the Good News of Jesus Christ and make that public.

History: This is where you have to hang on with me. In the life of church history an invitation was something that has come about in recent church(by recent I mean 19th century). The invitation was something that when someone who heard the message of the gospel and responded to it would make that acceptance public. They would generally be introduced before the congregation at the very time they responded. I think this is a great idea. I think the body of believers should accept those who have responded to the gospel message with joy and prayer for the new believer and doing it at the very moment is fine.

My Beef: The reason for the invitation is two fold 1) Response to the Gospel message and 2) make that response public. Thus my beef with the invitation is two fold. I will start with the second part of the purpose of the invitation.

First:In the church I attend, presentation of a new believer is not done at the end of the invitation. We present new members the following week. Now I am not saying I think sticking to history is a good thing nor am I saying I think that presenting new members the following week is a good thing either. I am simply stating the facts of Church I attend. I believe the minute you ask Christ Jesus in to your heart you are saved and the public profession before the congregation is nothing more than obedience to the commands of Christ. But a public profession before the body is not required for salvation. Now some bible scholar out there is going to say that making your salvation known is a requirement for salvation. This is correct but is not speaking with a pastor, another believer, your spouse, etc. making that known? Does that not show that you are not ashamed of the Gospel? In the New Testament one of the main purpose in confessing Jesus is Lord was to show that we are not ashamed of Christ(there are others too so don't start bashing what I am saying). So again I say that a profession before the congregation is not required for salvation. There are a whole host of other things that do require the profession before the body but salvation does not! (Hope I was clear enough with that!)

Second: Now it is time to tackle the first part of the purpose of an invitation. The opportunity to respond to the Good News that Christ died for our sins so that we might have eternal life with God. You would be hard pressed to find a believer in Christ that says that this purpose is not a good thing and you will not find one here either. But I will say this....I don't think the modern invitation is living up to this opportunity. How may church services have your been in where the pastor extended the invitation longer than it should have been extended? A lot of times when a pastor does this he is also talking to you trying to get you to respond. The problem is for a non-believer this ends up becoming about the emotions of a decision. Let me be clear here....following Jesus is not an emotion! Emotions manifest from following Christ but it isn't the other way around! If you ask most Christians if they feel saved in the morning after 8 hours of sleep they are going to tell you no. But if you ask them do they know they are saved after 8 hours of sleep they will say YES! That is because salvation isn't an emotion. So when a pastor draws out an invitation he can play to the emotions of a person and if they accept Jesus because of an emotion we are doing this person wrong. Think I am wrong? Look at the numbers, a large number of people baptized are out of the church and claim they don't believe within 5 years. I credit this to people accepting Christ when they are emotional(the other part is lack of discipleship to the new believer but that is another post for another time).

Also besides the emotion I have heard pastors make the statement, "I know there is someone in the audience who needs to respond to message presented here today." Hey bud don't be so arrogant as to believe that your preaching was so good that someone has to respond. The only way someone should respond is if the Holy Spirit is moving in their lives and you can't know if the Holy Spirit is moving in someones life by simply gazing out over an audience. If someone wants more on this I will be happy to go in further detail but not in this post.

Solution: I hate to present a problem that I see without giving a way to resolve it. The solution is plain and simple. The invitation does not have to be given at the end of every service. If you are preaching from or listening to a sermon from I Kings chances are that the message is more about growth in your walk and less about accepting Christ. Thus you don't need an invitation. I am not down playing the work of the Holy Spirit to speak to a non believer thru I Kings but simply making a statement at the end of the service that if someone would like to speak with the pastor or other church staff member that they will be available in the same location every week is enough. When you preaching about the Gospel then an invitation is needed and should be offered but don't draw it out. If someone doesn't move from the chair then cut the invitation short and make sure they know that the pastor will be available to speak to after the service. I think it better to preform the invitation in this manner than to have Non-Believers accept the Gospel based on emotions.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just read your blog on invitations, and I agree with most of what you say. I agree that pastors do sometimes handle the invitation in the wrong way. That is one thing that (surprisingly) my church handles well, but I've been places where it isn't. I would bring up though, that I don't think most pastors intentionally hold out an invitiation too long. Many are genuine in their belief that the Spirit is indeed working in someone. While I agree with your comments on the danger of emotion in making a decision for Christ, I know some people, who for whatever reason, needed that extra few minutes to make a genuine decision. I'll grant you that those who are manipulated into it are more common, but be careful to judge the heart of someone coming forward to quickly. Sometimes we just have to trust God that He will do an amazing work in that person.

Another thing that struck me was your purpose of the invitation. I think it is 3 fold, and therefore should be done every week. I think the third purpose is to give believers a chance to repent and get their lives right with God, as well. In our church we encourage anyone who needs to come to the altar to come. So in that regard, I think it is very beneficial to have the invitation every week, regardless of what is preached from the pulpit. Just thoughts. I agree with your criticisms. Many invitations are handeled in a bad way. I would just say be careful not to generalize every situation the same way.

Brandon said...

Phill, I agree with you that the invitation is 3 fold in modern times. The opportunity for believers to come and repent at the alter is another part. In this post I was simply dealing with the historical purpose for the invitation and even more specifically the baptist church. The only thing I will say to you is why can't this people make there decision outside of the "service setting". If we let new believers make there decisions outside of the service setting the pastor can actually talk with them and make sure we are guiding them in to a true relationship with the Lord.

disciplebygrace said...

We won't let people make their decisions outside the church setting, because we are selfish and want to see the results so we feel good about ourselves. Because, obviously we are the ones responsible for them making their decision :).

No I understand what you say, but I still think giving time in the service is valuable. Especially in the case of current believers. Like me for example, if I am given too much time to think, my flesh takes over and I am less likely to commit to whatever I was thinking about in the service if I don't do it immediately. My mind basically talks me out of it. (sometimes)

But as for becoming a believer, I really can't say. I could argue either way, so I'm just not going to do either, because you probably already know what I would say for both, and I don't have much time at the moment :).
But if nothing else, and invitation provides the opportunity for all present to reflect on what was just said and presented. Regardless of any kind of decision made at that moment, it is of value.

Why can't people make decisions outside the service setting? They can. We can't stop them.

Anonymous said...

yes,I believe an invitation should be extended at the end of each service.Even though I believe you can be saved anywhere at anytime as long as God is dealing with your heart and convicting you of your sin It says in the Bible that no one can come to me unless the spirit draws him.The spirit seems to be present more often in church.What if someone was at a church service and the invitation was not extended and he did not except.That person leaves and later dies and had never excepted he then would be lost forever.So therefore I believe any invitation should be welcomed just incase someone is there that needs to except the Lord.