Charlie Wear’s Notes

I was in my 20s when I first prayed the sinner’s prayer. It was a fluke really. Raised in a denomination that was more about believing in doctrines and refraining from sinful practices, I had been baptized at the age of 13. I certainly believed that I was a member in good standing of my denomination. I was active serving in my church. Our church was big on performance and not so big on assurance of salvation.

So when I found myself on an airplane flight to Washington, DC, I was honestly unable to answer the pointed questions of my seatmate about my eternal destiny. Now, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t think I needed to be "born again." But the persistence of my neighbor, and honestly, the desire for some peace and quiet on the rest of the trip, caused me to go along with him and pray the "sinner’s prayer." "Good," I though, "I got that out of the way."

The "decision" I made on that plane flight wasn’t really that deep or that committed. With no follow-up care my discipleship quotient didn’t go up very much. I have had many more decision points to bring me to my current place on my "journey." But I still remember that first "sinner’s prayer."

Years later I was discipled by John Wimber. Now, this discipling was not the one on one or small group kind of mentoring that people need. I had become interested in church growth and was visiting the Vineyard in Anaheim regularly on Sunday nights. The bookstore had lots of recordings of conferences and teaches by Wimber and piece by piece I bought the entire inventory and listened to hours of John Wimber’s teaching. One of his sayings that came through from time to time was, "I want to grow up before I grow old." Another was, "Sometimes you need to be born again, again."

These days the sinner’s prayer has fallen out of favor with some folks I know in the emerging church. They have rightly criticized the reduction of the gospel to praying a prayer to insure heavenly reward without making the commitment to discipleship and obedience that is so clearly taught in the Bible. They talk about spiritual disciplines and transformation. I don’t know what they would say to a crowd gathered in a stadium if asked to preach the gospel, but I am pretty sure they wouldn’t think it was a good idea to have an altar call.

Really, the first altar call was on the day of Pentecost when Peter told the gathered crowd, "Repent." A large group of people decided to accept and follow Jesus that day and they were immediately (if you can read between the words) assimilated into a newly formed body of believers, fellowshiping, praying and learning to follow Jesus.

As I watched Greg Laurie closing the memorial service for his son Christopher, I was strangely moved by his altar call. And once again I prayed that sinner’s prayer along with Greg. You see, even for an old man, from time to time I need to be born again, again.

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