The Culture of Conversionism and the History of the Altar Call

by Jason Cherry

How is it that the history of the central methodology of the American church has remained largely ignored, unprobed, and untold? For two hundred years it was the routine of American Evangelicalism to give an altar call at the end of church services. Many people may think they know the history of the altar call. They know is started around the time of The Second Great Awakening camp meetings and they may connect it in some manner to Charles Finney. And yet there has been a gaping hole in American church history regarding the foremost evangelical methodology. This invigorating new history of the altar call fills that hole, describing the cultural and theological context out of which it was born, the individuals who systematized it, and the lasting results that persist in the present day.

164 pages, Paperback

Published January 8, 2016

Reviews

[Jeffrey Brannen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Conversionism is how the author defines a uniquely American way of creating disciples through the method of requiring a crisis conversion experience. He opposes this to a developmental view where children of believers are disciples and who grow organically in their faith. Eventually they do commit themselves to Christ personally, but it’s generally less of an event and more of a process.

The pragmatic approach of the altar call, originally added to the worship service on the grounds that “it works”, is questioned. The author works through the history of its development and implementation. Core problem: it creates decisions for Christ, but not disciples.

If you were raised in an altar call culture as I was, there were a lot of historical details that surprised me. Not a long book but a good jumping off point for further reading.

[Elizabeth Blakeney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Timely

The radical free will aspect of synergistic soteriology is a root of our current cultural moment, a moment of moral anarchy. This book succinctly reveals the history of the logical end of synergism- conversionism- and explains its inconsistencies with orthodox Christianity.