The idea for this paper began to germinate about six years ago. I was sitting in a recliner on the deck of the Disney Magic cruise ship in the harbor at Saint Thomas.  I sat there, with the umbrella shading me from the tropical Bahamian sun, reading Sam Doherty’s book How to Evangelize Children.  I came to the part that read, “I never ask children to raise their hands, or look at me, or stand up, or come to the front if they want to be saved.  This can easily result in a quick and emotional response which has not been thought through, or there might even be the possibility of following the leader, when children do what they see others doing.”

I couldn’t believe it.  This guy was promoting a children’s sermon that ended without the traditional pentecostal altar call.  At first I was taken aback by the thought, but the more I pondered it, the more Sam made sense.

For these last thirty-three years, I have served in children’s ministry.  In this time, I have participated both along side of the children, and as the leader during countless altar services.  I have seen children come to Christ and have experienced the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit filling children to overflowing.  I have participated in many prayer services where children have been saved, healed, and delivered at altars.  It is not about these sweet times, that I write today.  For the purpose of deeper study and increased enlightenment in the area of altar calls and children, I must focus for a moment on the negative.

Matthew 19:14 reads,  “Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them…”  He did not say, “Drag, coerce, push, force, threaten, or brow beat them to come to me.”  Over the years, altars calls for, and with, children have included many different styles, uses, and sad to say, abuses.  I have witnessed people holding children down until they received.  At one camp an adult was shaking a child by the shoulders, and demanding that the child receive.  I have even heard an agitated altar worker yelling at children to repeat phrases in order to be filled with the Spirit. 

In 1878, Edward P. Hammond wrote, “The devil knows how much easier it is to get children to come to Jesus than the old hardened sinner.  Therefore it is that I believe he is the more keenly on the alert when any attempt is made in this direction.”

I do not doubt the sincerity of Hammond’s words or the possibility of satanic disruption of the direction and intent of altar calls and altar services.  Some of what I have seen could scarcely be conjured up by human design alone.  Much of what I view as abuses of the altar call and the child participants may not be credited to the enemy of our souls, but rather to the ignorance or innocence of the altar leader.  Had that person been confronted with a few ethical imperatives prior to leading the service, his approach and the results may have been godlier.

It is my assertion that a positive ethical approach can be made to this important aspect of ministry to children.  The altar call given without ethical consideration may do more harm to the children present than good.  I will begin this hike down the trail of ethical considerations by looking at an ethical response to the age of accountability.  This will be followed by three segments addressing: (1) Faith or Fear; Setting aside scare tactics and letting God be God, (2) Pressure or Pleasure; Relaxing the altar time so that children can enjoy the presence of God, and (3) Let or Limit; Allowing children to come to Jesus rather than engaging in psycho-spiritual coercion.

I trust that by the end of this work, you will have a better understanding of ethical considerations in giving altar calls to children.  It is my prayer that in better understanding these,  that those who read will endeavor to lead altar times with children in a godly, loving manner.

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