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doyle

Do you give an altar call at funerals?

doyle · Acts-celerate Owner Posts: 6957 **10/11/15 8:39 pm**

During some funerals I have attended, the deceased is hardly mentioned. Some ministers say little about the deceased. Instead, the time is spent in either preaching a sermon or exhorting those in attendance to prepare for eternity. Some ministers put pressure on people to accept Christ.

Listen, I am totally on board with people making a profession of faith and publicly accepting the Lord. In Acts 4:2, Apostle Peter was speaking of Jesus when he rather emphatically said, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

A funeral certainly is a time to speak of faith and eternity. There is the opportunity to speak about faith and eternity to entire families and their circle of friends at one time. I have no hesitancy at all in speaking of faith and reminding people of the need to prepare for eternity, but I am uncomfortable in putting pressure on people to accept Christ during a funeral.

Am I wrong in that? Should I be more forceful? Yes. I do present the plan of salvation but while emotions are running high and some are feeling desperate from their grief, pushing for an altar call comes across to me as taking advantage of their grief.

How do you go about presenting the Gospel and reminding people of their destiny with eternity?

Doyle
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Old Time Country Preacher

Acts-pert Poster Posts: 15570 **10/11/15 9:49 pm**

I've never given an altar call asking people to come forward, but always, at the end of the celebration of life, I give a challenge regarding eternity and encourage those present to accept Christ, then close in prayer.

Quiet Wyatt

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 12802 **10/12/15 8:03 am**

I have never felt led to give an altar call at a funeral. I always preach the gospel at funerals. It could be the only chance some may have to hear it, and everyone naturally thinks about their own mortality at a funeral.

bradfreeman

Acts-dicted Posts: 9027 **10/12/15 8:17 am**

I haven't.
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FG Minister

I Have Changed My Funerals

Acts-celerater Posts: 875 **10/12/15 10:50 am**

For the past several years I have asked for two eulogists who knew the individual well to tell us about the person. If they are shy or emotional, we videotape it and show it at the funeral. I start my remarks talking briefly about the person, then present the gospel while interweaving the deceased into the sermon. I have found this works much better especially if I don't know the person well. It's also better if the eulogies are humorous. I tell the eulogists they have 4 minutes. I speak for about 12 minutes. Add a couple of songs and we're done in 30 minutes. As John Osteen used to say "brevity in the pulpit is your friend."

doyle

Excellent idea FG

Acts-celerate Owner Posts: 6957 **10/12/15 11:10 am**

On a number of occasions, there have been people who would liked to say something about their friend at a memorial but they were terrified of speaking in public.

With smart phones, it would be easy to video them talking about their friend and then show that during the memorial. Excellent idea. That is an idea I will use. Thanks for sharing it.

Doyle
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The largest room in the world is the room for improvement.

wayne

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1274 **10/13/15 12:09 pm**

wayne

Re: I Have Changed My Funerals

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1274 **10/13/15 12:10 pm**

Link

Acts-perienced Poster Posts: 11849 **10/13/15 12:48 pm**

I think a lot of Pentecostals and other Fundamental-Evangelicals have made a sacrament out of an altar call. The Bible doesn't have an altar call. Ezra didn't have people come down to the altar and offer themselves as a literal burnt offering.

The 'altar' in the Bible is actually a place of burning animal sacrifices, after all. The Roman Catholics saw Christ's sacrifice as something repeated at the Lord's Supper, and called the table where the priest sanctified it an 'altar'. That was at the part of the church building where Evangelicals would later go forward for 'altar calls'.

Also, given the fact that a lot of preachers don't explain the gospel before giving the altar or call to repeat a prayer from the pew/chair--e.g. leaving out the cross and/or resurrection-- you have to wonder how many people get saved. Going through the motions of repeating a prayer or going to an altar don't save without faith. I think sometimes we want to push people through our microwave-oven process. Some people do that with one-on-one evangelism, when they have one-on-one time with people. I've probably done that in the past. You can get a middle school kid to say yes a few times and repeat a prayer after you.

I don't see a problem with presenting the Gospel and just letting the people mull over it, or just letting them know that you will be available after, or letting them know where they can find out more, hear another sermon, discuss. You could mention the deceased's church if he or she was a believer, or mention the night of a seeker-focused evangelistic type meeting.

In the Bible belt, the funeral altar call may be a bit less shocking than if you were doing it in some place where the church folk did not do the altar call at all. It would probably be considered quite weird in Philadelphia or New York if you did it at an Irish or Italian funeral.

What I wonder is why so many funerals in churches focus on the deceased being 'in heaven' and the need for the audience to die and go to heaven, when there isn't any direct scripture about your disembodied spirit going to heaven when you die. Paul does say he would rather be absent from the body and present with the Lord. But some people even take that passage as a rapture passage, seeing the body as the temporal body, a tent that will be shed and replaced with the incorruptible.

But the emphasis when it comes to this topic is certainly the return of Christ and the rapture. Paul refers to the deceased as asleep in Christ. He even tells believers, when talking about death to 'comfort ye one another with these words'. What words?

'The dead in Christ shall rise first, and they which are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet the Lord together in the air, and so shall they ever be with the Lord.'

If Paul commanded believers to comfort one another when someone dies with words of the resurrection and rapture, why isn't this THE verse that is always read at funerals? Why skip this verse and talk about something that the Bible doesn't emphasize or even directly mention-- dying and going to heaven? I can't find the 'hope of heaven' in the Bible. I've heard it in sermons. I can find 'the hope of the resurrection' and the hope of Christ's return.
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Eddie Robbins

Acts-pert Poster Posts: 16509 **10/13/15 1:24 pm**

It seems to me that becoming a believer is a well thought out process and an emotional "come to Jesus" is probably not a long lasting commitment. I think if the person was a Christian, you're could explain why they are now with Jesus and what that means. Answering an altar call doesn't save anybody anyway. But,my he presentation of the Gospel is a good thing since there are probably people there who may have never heard it.

Link

Acts-perienced Poster Posts: 11849 **10/13/15 2:50 pm**

When the listeners on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 heard the gospel and were cut to the heart, they said, 'What must we do?' The Ethiopian eunuch asked what was to prevent him from being baptized. In both these cases, the hearers showed a bit of initiative, wanting to respond. They weren't herded, disinterestedly, through a process ("Hey, everyone in the room, repeat this prayer whether you believe it or not.")
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4thgeneration

Its not an evangelical crusade...

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1603 **10/14/15 5:42 pm**

IMO a funeral is a time to honor a life that has passed from this life, and bring comfort to those who grieve. It isn't a minister’s captive audience evangelical crusade. I’ve seen a couple of preachers literally shove the casket aside, declaring that the deceased would want them to challenge the congregation about being saved today. I wondered if the person in the casket had told them that, or it was a good line to use in excusing their actions.

How saved are those who repeat a prayer more moved by the grief of a lost loved one than genuine conviction of sin, repentance, and a turn to God? And why do we seek out such emotional responses? Is it just so we can count up numbers on our monthly reports, or brag on Sunday about how many raised their hands? Is there any follow up with those who said the prayer in an effort to disciple them, and lead them in a life of walking with Christ? I wonder how many of those who repeat the prayer actually connect with a church, and begin genuinely living for the Lord. But alas, it makes for a good story in a sermon…

People in a funeral are often broken, grieving, living in the fog of emotional shock that comes through the harshness of death. The deceased was a person who lived, touched others, and left their imprint on those who loved them. It is the cherished value of the deceased’s life that brings the depth of grief to those who remain. Often there is a spouse, left here while a big part of them has been taken, or a parent stricken with the inexplainable sorrow of losing a child, children left without the one they need most, and friends who have lost a deep, meaningful connection with someone they held dear. To ignore the reality of their pain, grief and sorrow in order to preach “hell fire and brimstone” is a travesty IMO. To have no one that can speak to the life of the one deceased leaves unspoken those memories and stories which often have healing, comforting effect.

As to spiritual matters, I feel that the reality of this life as only a brief part of our existence, the importance of showing our love for each other in real ways, the importance of Christ, faith, salvation and eternity should be addressed. I normally speak of the hope of the resurrection for those who are in Christ at the committal.

And then, because I’m in the South, we go to the fellowship hall, family life center, or the family’s house and have fried chicken, all the fixin’s, desserts and sweet tea! And during the meal you will hear memories shared amidst outbreaks of laughter, and see busy people reconnect, drawn together by grief. And the healing begins, brought on (we southerners believe) by the fresh oil flowing from the fried chicken.

Link

Re: Its not an evangelical crusade...

Acts-perienced Poster Posts: 11849 **10/14/15 6:19 pm**

4thgeneration

Re: Link

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1603 **10/15/15 7:44 am**

Man we've moved on from lard, past Crisco (except when we make biscuits) and into the finer qualities of cooking oil! Laughing

We even sometimes use extra virgin olive oil now that we figured out it isn't just for anointing oil at church! Wink

Da Sheik

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1860 **10/15/15 11:04 am**

I don't do altar calls at funerals. I do present the Gospel in a concise and brief way. I gather as much information about the deceased (especially if I didn't know them) and try to honor their memory and weave a little tasteful humor in. Almost every human being has some humorous story that their family will enjoy you retelling at the funeral.

I think coming to Christ is an intellectual, spiritual, and emotional decision. In that environment, emotion tends to reign supreme. As long as I have presented Jesus and honored the deceased, I feel that I have fulfilled my obligation to the Lord.

Nick Park

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1021 **10/15/15 11:10 am**

The wishes of the family would be the key factor. If they want an altar call at the funeral then I'm happy to do one. Otherwise I won't.
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