Baptist Worship, Ordinances, and Preaching — Unit 9: The Invitation, Evangelism from the Pulpit, and Revival Meetings

Key Verse

"Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God." (2 Corinthians 5:20, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Explain why Baptist preaching aims at a response and not only at information.

2. State the content of a clear gospel message that a pastor can present from the pulpit every week.

3. Describe the public invitation, trace its history in outline, and explain the debate among historians about its origin.

4. Answer the main objections to the invitation and to revival meetings from a Baptist standpoint.

5. Plan an invitation, a follow-up and a revival week that are honest, careful and centered on Christ.

The Voice of This Unit

This unit is written from inside the Baptist tradition, for Baptist pastors. It is conservative and evangelical. Baptists believe that the gospel is to be offered freely to all, and that those who repent and believe are saved by grace through faith. Baptists have long disagreed among themselves about how election relates to this free offer, as Course 2 explains. Traditional Baptists and Reformed Baptists both preach the gospel and both plead with sinners, though they sometimes differ on method. We state their concerns fairly and then give an answer. The history of Baptist revivals is told in Course 1, and we do not repeat it here.

Preaching for a Verdict

A Baptist sermon is not a lecture. Peter preached at Pentecost, and the hearers "were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do?'" (Acts 2:37). Peter answered with a command to repent and be baptized (Acts 2:38). Paul described his own work as that of an ambassador who pleads: "we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20). The message of the Bible is a message that calls for a response.

Baptists especially feel this weight because of what we believe about the church. Only those who have personally turned to Christ in repentance and faith belong to our fellowship. We do not baptize infants or count a person a Christian because of his family or his country. Each individual must come to Christ for himself. A pastor, then, cannot be satisfied with teaching only. He must ask: Has the gospel been put before the people clearly enough that they can respond?

Evangelism from the Pulpit: the Gospel Every Week

No church should let a month go by without a clear presentation of the gospel in the pulpit. Visitors come, family members come, and some regular attenders may never have believed. A good outline helps a pastor to include the gospel even in sermons on other themes. Here are five parts that the New Testament gives.

God. The one true God made us and rules us, and we owe Him our lives (Acts 17:24-31).

Man. All have sinned and are under judgment. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23).

Christ. Jesus, God the Son, lived without sin, died for our sins, and rose on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

Response. Jesus began His ministry with the call, "Repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). To repent is to turn from sin; to believe is to trust Christ alone to save. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Cost and promise. Christ calls us to follow Him, and those who trust Him will not be put to shame (Romans 10:11).

In a place where most people are nominal Catholics or members of another large tradition, the pastor should not assume that every hearer understands the gospel. Someone may say, "I am already a Christian because I was baptized as a baby." Speak kindly, and explain plainly that salvation is by personal faith in Christ and not by ritual or family. Avoid mocking what others hold dear. Speak the truth in love.

The Public Invitation

The public invitation is a moment, usually at the end of the sermon, when the preacher asks hearers to respond to the gospel in a visible way. In many Baptist churches, people are invited to come forward, to stand, to raise a hand, or to speak to a counselor after the service. Someone may be invited to pray with a church member at the front. Others may be asked to come forward for church membership or for baptism, or to ask for prayer.

The history, in outline

Historians do not agree on where the practice began, and we should state the debate honestly.

Some trace the invitation to the camp meetings of the American frontier in the early 1800s, like the gathering at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, in 1801, where Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians took part. Others point to the "mourners' bench" of the Methodists, where seekers sat in prayer. Many historians connect it to the revival preacher Charles Finney in the 1820s and 1830s, who used what he called the "anxious bench." Other writers point out that earlier Baptists, such as those in the Great Awakening and the Separate Baptists led by Shubal Stearns in North Carolina in the 1750s, saw the same kinds of public responses without a settled form. Baptists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries took up the invitation widely, and it became a mark of many Southern Baptist and Independent Baptist churches. In the twentieth century, Billy Graham, a Southern Baptist minister, held large public meetings in many nations and invited listeners to come forward, with trained counselors to speak with those who came.

Spurgeon in London did not use the form later common in American revivals. He pleaded earnestly with sinners in his sermons, and he gave opportunities to speak personally with those under conviction. All this shows that the call to respond is older than any particular method.

What the Bible commands and what it leaves free

The Bible commands that the gospel be proclaimed and that sinners be called to repent: "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). Jesus called, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). The Bible does not give a single method for the moment of response. Acts shows people responding by asking questions, by being baptized, by staying to hear more. So the invitation is a method, and a method can be used wisely or unwisely.

Objections and Our Answers

Objection 1: The public invitation is not in the Bible, so we should not use it.

Some Baptists and others say that no apostle ever asked people to walk forward, and that the practice is a nineteenth-century invention.

Our answer. It is true that the form we know is later than the New Testament. But the content is biblical: the preachers called people to repent and believe, and they expected a visible response. Peter told the hearers to repent and be baptized, and about three thousand did so that day (Acts 2:38, 41). Many things we do, such as using chairs, a sound system and Sunday school classes, are not found in the Bible either. The test is whether the method serves the command of Scripture and does not contradict it. A church free to choose its own forms may use an invitation, or may use another way, provided that sinners are plainly called to Christ.

Objection 2: The invitation manipulates emotions and produces false conversions.

Critics fear that sad music, repeated verses of a hymn, and pressure from the preacher can move people to come forward without real faith, and that some then think they are saved when they are not.

Our answer. This is a serious warning, and honest pastors have seen it. We answer in four ways. First, the preacher must not suggest that walking forward saves. Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ, and a visible step only expresses what the Spirit has done in the heart. Second, the pastor should avoid pressure tricks, such as asking people over and over to "just one more verse" until someone moves, or promising that a person will be healed or blessed if he comes. Third, those who respond should be counseled personally and asked what they believe. Fourth, the church must follow up with teaching, baptism and membership in the weeks that follow. The Lord Jesus warned that some who hear the word receive it with joy but have no root (Mark 4:16-17). The remedy for shallow response is careful follow-up and good teaching, not silence.

Objection 3: Reformed Baptists say the invitation implies that salvation depends on man's decision.

Some who hold the doctrines of grace worry that the invitation makes the sinner's choice the cause of new birth. They believe that regeneration is the sovereign work of the Spirit.

Our answer. Here Baptists differ in emphasis, and we need not hide it. Both sides agree on Scripture: "The wind blows where it wishes... So is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8), and "whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved" (Romans 10:13). Both believe the gospel is to be preached to all. Spurgeon held the doctrines of grace and still called on every hearer to come to Christ. Whether a church uses a formal invitation or invites hearers to speak with a pastor afterward, the preacher should call men to Christ with sincere love and trust the Spirit to do what only He can do. We should not make the invitation an idol, and we should not let a theory silence us.

Objection 4: Revival meetings are emotional, commercial or divisive.

Some who have seen special meetings misused point to showmanship, appeals for money, or visiting preachers who leave a mess for the local pastor.

Our answer. Abuses exist and must be corrected. But Scripture teaches us to pray for revival. "Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?" (Psalm 85:6). Revival is first the work of God among His own people, bringing repentance, joy and fresh obedience. Special meetings are a means that many Baptists have used to focus a church's prayer and invitation to neighbors. The test of a revival is not the noise, but its fruit: repentance, love, holiness, and new commitment to Christ's mission.

Objection 5: Children and young people can be pushed too fast.

Some pastors have seen very young children go forward because friends did, and later become confused about their salvation.

Our answer. Jesus welcomed children (Mark 10:14), and we should not turn them away. We should also not hurry them. Speak to a child in private, in the presence of his parents, ask him in his own words what he believes, and be patient. A child may be encouraged to wait for baptism until his understanding and faith are plain. This is wiser than to count every hand raised in a children's meeting as a conversion.

Planning an Invitation and a Revival Week

Before the service. Pray for the Holy Spirit's work. Prepare your closing paragraph so that it leads clearly to Christ, not just to an emotional peak.

During the invitation. Explain what you are asking people to do in clear words. Use simple language. Tell them that coming forward does not save them. Give people time without pressure. Offer more than one way to respond: coming to the front, remaining in their seat to pray, or speaking to a counselor afterward.

After the invitation. Have trained members ready to listen and pray, with Bibles in hand. Ask each person to say what he understands about Christ's death and his own sin. If he trusts Christ, rejoice with him and tell him the next steps: read the Bible, pray, tell someone, and be baptized and join the church (as taught in Unit 4). Record his name and meet with him within a week.

For a revival week. Plan for prayer in the months before. Choose a guest preacher whose doctrine you know and trust. A Baptist church governs itself, and the pastor and church answer for what is taught in their pulpit. Make clear how any offering will be handled and that it will be reported honestly. Invite neighbors and visit them personally. Hold the follow-up meeting before the week ends, not afterward.

Pastoral Application

A church in a small city holds a week of evening meetings. On Thursday night the visiting preacher gives a clear message, and fifteen people raise their hands. The pastor is joyful but remembers earlier meetings where many came forward and few were seen again. So he asks a mature deacon and two women of the church to speak with each person that night, and he writes down the names.

He visits each of them during the next week. He finds that six truly understood the gospel and are ready to follow Christ. Five are children whose parents ask that they be taught further. Four seem to have come for a family reason or for prayer about trouble. The pastor starts a short class for the six, plans baptism for them in a few weeks, and invites the others to the same class without calling them saved. Two months later, five of the six are attending regularly. The pastor does not count the fifteen as fifteen conversions, nor does he despise the response. He keeps the follow-up going.

Summary

Baptist preaching seeks a response because the church is made up of those who have personally repented and believed. A pastor should present the gospel every week, covering God, man, Christ, the response, and the cost and promise. The public invitation is a method for calling hearers to respond. Historians disagree about its origin, tracing it to frontier camp meetings, the Methodist mourners' bench, Finney's anxious bench, or earlier Baptist revivals. Scripture commands the call to repent but does not fix a single form. Objections that the invitation is unbiblical, emotionally manipulative, a threat to the doctrine of grace, or too hard on children can be answered with careful use, personal counseling, honest follow-up, and trust in the Spirit. Revival meetings should be bathed in prayer, led by sound doctrine, and judged by their fruit.

Further Reading

• Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students (public domain), on the preacher's concern for souls.

• John A. Broadus, On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons (first published 1870), on closing a sermon and applying it.

• The Baptist Faith and Message (2000), Articles IV, "Salvation," and XI, "Evangelism and Missions."

• The Second London Confession (1689), chapters on effectual calling and saving faith (public domain).

• The New Hampshire Confession (1833) (public domain), on repentance and faith.

• Course 2, Units 7-9, on the free offer of the gospel and the Baptist debate on salvation.

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