Lutheran Altar Calls

Why don't Lutherans have altar calls like Baptists Churches?

Why do Lutheran Churches have Altars?

Once I was asked, "Why don't Lutheran Churches have altar calls like my Baptist church back home?" I thought that was an interesting question and I’d share the answer with everyone.

First of all, Baptist churches do not have altars. It always seemed ironic to me that they had altar calls when there were in fact no altars in their churches. I don’t know of any Baptist church that has an altar, do you? That’s too bad, really. Even worse today is that that most non-denominational churches have stages up front for the band and certainly do not have any type of altar. Why is an altar important if so many churches have gotten rid of them?

An altar is important because the witness of the Bible tells us that the altar is where our prayers ascend to God. All through the Old Testament, an altar witnesses to this fact from Abel to Abraham to Moses to Jesus. The culmination of the building of an altar happened in the building of the stone Temple in Jerusalem. There were two altars: one was the brazen altar where animal sacrifices for the sins of the people happened; and the other was the altar of incense that sat in front of the curtain covering the Holy of Holies where the mercy seat of God sat. Incense burned on the altar of incense day and night for the prayers of the people. The Bible teaches us that Christ Jesus fulfilled the need for a sacrificial brazen altar by his sacrifice on the cross for the sins of the world. Upon his death, St. Matthew records that the curtain that separated the Holy of Holies was torn in two from top to bottom. This meant there was nothing now separating God’s holy presence from the altar of incense – the prayers of the people. We all now have access to God’s presence by prayer thanks to the sacrifice of Christ once for all.

In the Christian churches that were built after the destruction of the stone Temple in 70AD included an altar on which incense was burned and the prayers of the people ascended to God. There was also the table for Communion that happened in the service on which bread and wine were blessed and distributed. Over time these two eventually merged into one – an altar on which the prayers of the people ascend to God and the sacrament is blessed and distributed. Every time we Lutherans pray together in the sanctuary and bless the sacrament, we call everyone present to the altar to receive the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. In essence, we have a true altar call every Sunday because we indeed have an altar, we have the real presence of Christ in, among, and within the bread and the wine, and we have God's word rightly preached in Law and Gospel, all of which are the true basis of Christian fellowship, "and they devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers," (Acts 2:42).

So to answer the question, Lutherans do not have altar calls like other Protestant churches such as Baptist churches, but we do have a real and genuine altar call every Sunday. 

God blessings,
Pastor Rob Taylor, sts