An invitation that demands a decision

We had weekly altar calls at Camp Glisson. Older campers didn't need to be encouraged to come forward. Come Thursday night it was expected that most would come forward to the altar. This was an expected part of the Glisson experience.

We decided to mix things up once. It was a middle school week - still plyable in mind and adaptable to change. We removed the altar from the equation. Thursday night we arrainged the pews to face the center of the chapel and stored the pews, stacked one on top of the other, in a corner of the stage. We offered the youth the grace of God - and explained that it was a decision of the heart. They could sit in the pews and ask Jesus into their heart. It wasn't about the location of their knees, but about the trust in their heart.

It backfired. Horribly. Wonderfully? The youth crawled over one another to the stacked altars. They unstacked them and knelt at the altars. There's something compelling about that altar. It is the place where faith is formed.

We have been trying to open the altar up for prayer during our contemporary service. All attempts have failed. We couldn't fix the first problem ... what success can we have with this one?