Altar Calls

I've driven the GD out to Winnipeg to return her to the bosom of her family and have much to write of the trip through Saskatchewan and our holy pilgrimage to Rouleau but I want to download my pictures first....so later.

On the trip I spent some time thinking about the service we had Sunday in Coaldale. It was Settlers'Days last weekend and is our custom all the churches organize a joint service for the Sunday. It was in the field behind the Sportsplex and about six different churches had representatives involved. It was a nice service with some good music lead by a praise band from one of the Mennonite churches. I really enjoy our ministerial when I get to it and they had done all the work organizing the service. All I had to do was show up and do the final blessing.

I don't really remember our conversations about what the theme would be other than that it was good for us as Christians to gather together. I had to chuckle though when much of what was said was a kind of altar call. The guest preacher told the story of his own conversion, of how he was raised in a good home and thought he was a Christian until a young woman he was interested in told him he wasn't. He was drinking and brawling and she told him he wasn't living like a Christian and six months later he fell down on his knees and gave his life to Christ. Now we might think we are Christians but maybe aren't and need to give our lives to him.

Looking around the congregation of folks meeting on a beautiful July morning in a field in the middle of town I thought it rather unlikely that there going to be many people there who would respond to such an altar call. It seemed likely most of them probably think that they are Christians. They might struggle with faith, they might anguish over their sinfulness, but I think they probably understand themselves to be Christians involved in this struggle. Sanctification was probably more of an issue than justification.

But maybe I'm wrong and someone was responding in their heart to his words. My problem is that I've never found altar calls all that moving. Years ago I attended a friend's Pentecostal church with her and they had a visiting preacher who was determined to convert that congregation. He preached an altar call that was still going on after two hours when we slipped out that door. He was determined that people were going to come up and give their lives to Jesus but he really was preaching to the converted.

The sermons that have grabbed me heart and mind are not the ones that raise doubts about whether I've actually 'given my life to Jesus' because isn't the point that we are always 'justified and yet still sinners'? I know that my following of Jesus is fraught with moments of doubt, looking back, distraction, losing my way. I give and then I try to take it back all the time. The times that call my attention back to what I have set my heart on are the times when I see others following Jesus and I realize I'm going off in the wrong direction. The preacher told us that when he was drinking and brawling he wasn't really a Christian and after he prayed in a particular way he was. Maybe. But his story sounded a lot more to me like the story of the prodigal son who had lost his way and then came to his senses and started home again. I wished he had told us more about what it was like when the father welcomed him home. I wanted to hear more about what it is like for him to be a follower of Jesus. It is always the lives of saints that convict me of my shortcoming and spur me on to a new commitment.

The Kingdom of God is a Banquet

Tonight the Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in Coaldale hosted a banquet and invited representatives from all the churches to come. Last year they gave lovely gifts to all the pastors and this year they decided to expand their gift to lay leaders in the congregations too. So I went with one of our lay readers who is also the head of our hospitality team.

It was a delightful evening. They had a delicious meal catered and members of their church, all dressed in black slacks and white shirts, served it to us. Helen and I sat with six people from the United Church in town and we had a great time. The conversation was really interesting and they had a pianist and violinist playing while we ate.

After dinner they handed out gift certificates to folks and then prayed for the town and a member of one of the congregations who is in the ICU. And then we went home.

There were a couple of things that really stood out for me about the evening. There is a church in town that has never participated in anything in my ten years in Coaldale and folks from that church were there tonight. The folks at Abundant Life have brought us together in a way we've never been together before. So often those of us in 'mainline' churches talk about ecumenism but then have a hard time getting together with anyone who is really different from us. Yet this church actually lives a generosity of spirit that is inspiring. The other thing that really stood out for me was the warmth of their hospitality. We don't often talk about the virtue of hospitality but it must be one of the most important of the Christian virtues.