32 thoughts on “Altar Calls…For Kids!”

  1. Manipulative Decisional Regeneration….
    “We are so proud of you”… that you have allowed the Almighty, Creator God of the Universe into your life.
    Thank you Charles Finney… for generations of people who have “saved” themselves….

  3. “Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, … wah, wah, wah.” Charlie Brown’s teacher

  4. Charles Finney + Biggest Loser = “Biggest Saver,” a new summer series.

    That’s gold right there. Pure gold.

  5. Stuff fundies like: Aussie accents. Cf. Ray Comfort (who, I know, is technically a Kiwi, but it’s not like fundies know the difference).

  14. Here is a few questions. Who should we be praying to: Jesus (God’s sacrifice and God himself) or God the Father? I mean, you don’t appropriate Jesus for yourself. Jesus’ work is God’s work. We have nothing to do with it. Doesn’t He uses Jesus’ sacrifice when we repent and make him Lord? If you pray to Jesus, are you praying to God the Father at the same time? And what about the fact that real faith is a gift from God? Shouldn’t we wait for God’s timing for the people we want to see saved? Can you ask Christ into your heart and forget to make him Lord of your life?

    These questions aren’t meant to poke a Christianity. They are basic questions that not many have the answer to.

  15. If someone issued an alter call directed at my small children, I’d be royally p****d off. 😕 A 3-yr-old doesn’t need to be told she’s a sinner going to hell.

  16. I’ve never understood the concept of “Jesus will change your life” in reference to 8 year old kids and the like. Unless I live in a too well-off town, I don’t know too many kids who have had screwed up lives so early. Then again…I’m probably quite wrong with that.

    And I’m pretty sure I came close to puking at the very end of that…Ugh.

    And there’s even a Hillsong Kids Altar Call…Fantastic!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydd-SDjZJuY
    (This link is a mockery one though.)

  17. @ Darcy I did not hear any fire and brimstone statements in that video. Just alot of sugar coated manipulation. I agree with you though. Kids should not be told to pray this prayer or go to hell.

    Because kids take thinks literaly the ask Jesus into your hearts terminology difinatley should not be used because they will take it literaly( that Jesus comes into their heart when they pray the prayer).

  18. Phil is correct. Kids have a different understanding of adult terminology. They take everything literally.
    For example, during our fundy years one of our daughters, then 5, was crying on her bed. I asked her why. She said, “Jesus isn’t in my heart anymore.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    She put her hand over her heart and said, “Because I can’t feel him kicking anymore!”
    She couldn’t feel her heart beat at that moment and truly thought Jesus was no longer in her.

  19. Why are we praying if we’ve already made the decision to come to Jesus? Surely not because praying is one of the works we have to do to be saved, right?

  20. @ Daniel

    From what i have always been taught. the bible teaches that we are to pray to God the Father in the name of Jesus.

  21. @mounty
    So we can surprise Jesus with our decision! Then he can genuflect and thank us for allowing him in. (…he said, slathered and smothered in sarcasm…)

  22. @Nathan– you might be surprised how screwed up an 8 year old’s life can be. 🙁
    And Jesus probably isn’t going to change it, no matter how many times they pray.

  23. @RJW. Hm true. Now that I think about it more, I guess a lot of kids do have to go through a bunch of junk, sadly. Good follow-up point too. If only life was that easy that we could just pray and wah-lah! Fixed.

  24. Microwave “christianity.” In less than 5 minutes, it will look good on the outside but the inside is still cold and raw.

    Thank you so much for decisional regeneration. God couldn’t have done it without you!

  26. I remember getting “saved ” at least twice before i reached age 10. I was terrified that i was going to hell, and even asfter being saved. My pastor kept saying that if you sin a lot after you becoem saved, you didnt really “mean it”. I was always on edge thihnking I hadn’t done it right and that I could go to hell at any moment. I took it very seriously and it kills me to think that thousands of other kids are going through this same thing, some of them with a lot less fortunate circumstances than what i had growing up.

  27. @ Sandra and anyone whose interested: look up Seven Reasons Not to ask Jesus into your Heart. It’s and article by the pastor of Duluth Bible Church in MN. Also here is another article on the subject by Pastor Ovid Need called The Other Jesus: The Gospel Perverted. Both articles deal with the ask jesus into your heart methodology. The pastor who wrote the first one is more in the Dallas Theological Seminary Camp.

    1. Yes! That first article is wonderful. Read it many times. The second one I just skimmed through, and usually do a word search (on key bible words to see how they define them), it seems to be along the same lines – prayer without understanding what Jesus did means nothing, and then when the understanding is there, the “prayer” is pointless and only takes away from Christ’s work on the cross.

    1. Yes, the three-year olds are sinful. However, they don’t need decisional regeneration. Instead, they need the actual Gospel: that Christ died for their sins.

  30. “Your leaders are so proud of you!”

    But didn’t you make the leaders say the The Prayer as well? Was that in case they weren’t saved? Just say this magic- I mean, CHRISTIAN incantation and you’ll be saved! 🙄

    I’ll never understand why those who believe in scripted salvation prayers, especially with children, think that if they just add “say it from your heart” or “pray this like you really mean it” then that justifies it. Children think in literal, concrete terms. They can get confused because they want to know what they are supposed to do to “mean” something. Or they might want to know what your heart is supposed to feel like (physically) for the prayer to work.

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