I answered the altar call
and Jesus wasn’t there
and I melted, disappointed,
but was determined to find Him
and I did.
He was helping someone
and He looked around at me
and His look said,
“About time you got here;
I’ve been expecting you!”
So I asked Him about the altar
and He pulled me closer to help
and His look said,
“I’m done with that;
and the cross and the tomb.”
He formed my fingers
in the way I needed to help
the one He was helping
like He formed them in the womb.
Then He was gone.
But His look still said,
“You stay here and help.
I have to go.
Someone else just answered
the altar call.”
– for my friend Mike
Blog In My Own Eye 
Ah, Keith. I receive that with a smile and with a nod of joy. The altar call isn’t to the front of the auditorium for a momentary release. It’s an invitation to live the way of Christ — in the highways and byways. Thanks for the good words.
I really like that a lot. SSo, which one of you guys wrote that, or was it someone else. Please tell us.As a sometimes poet, I appreciate the conciseness and brevity which hold so much meaning. Thanks!
That’d be me, Dee. I wrote it for Mike because he used to drive me a little bit crazier by not offering an invitation to close his sermons.He’s helped me mature since then … to figure out that offering that call is a call to perfection – not always something you should be willing to do on the spur of the moment – and that it is a call to a salvation that begins at that very moment. A call to be like Jesus, live like him, help others like He did.So I wrote it to honor him, and say thanks for helping me see astonishing truths with wider eyes.
For a historical perspective on the development of the “altar call” or “invitation,” see Tom Olbricht’s essay < HREF="http://www.restorationquarterly.org/Volume_005/rq00501olbricht.htm" REL="nofollow">The Invitation: A Historical Survey<>.