I attended Calvary Chapel, Fort Lauderdale for about 5 years. The altar call always concerned me.
Here, let me at least innumerate that for you:
When I attended, there were 3 Lord’s day meetings, 2 on Wednesday night, 2 on Saturday. Thats a total of 7 meetings a week. 7 x 52=364 meetings per year. Now, at an average, the altar call drew 25 people; many times 100! But for the sake of this conversation, we will stick to the smaller number. I have been walking with the Lord for over 20 years. I left CC about 15 years ago. Lets look at the numbers:
364 x 25=9,100 people who made an altar call commitment.
Let’s continue: 9,100 x 5=45,500. Thats not counting their largest outreaches, easter at the baseball stadium and Xmas at the Sunrise Musical Center.
lets continue: 9,100 x 20 years=182,000 people. Where are they? 182k people; and that was a low estimate. If you took into consideration the big events they held where they drew 200 people up to the altar…..well, do the math.
The altar call is a man made invention started by Arminians. It is theologically inept and reduces God to a begging servant.
~See my paper on this website entitled, ‘A Gospel Call to the Unregenerate’ if you want a biblical treatment of what one should do in regards to salvation.