In the 19th century, during the period of American Revivalism, a rogue Presbyterian minister named Charles Finney (rogue because he rejected the teachings of his Presbyterian denomination) employed what he called "new measures", ways and methods to make revival and conversion easier. This meant the invention of what Finney called the "anxious bench", an invitation to come forward and to receive salvation by making a personal decision for Jesus. The "anxious bench" is what is called the "altar call".
Nothing like this had ever existed previously in the history of the Christian Church. Some ministers in the Wesleyan tradition had invited people to walk down the aisle to receive counseling and prayer, but the idea of walking down the aisle to "make a decision for Jesus" was entirely brand new on the landscape of Christianity. It was an entirely new innovation by Finney, who regarded conversion as not a supernatural miracle, but as something that could be affected through the right methods.
From a
Christianity Today article on the history of the altar call,
"A revival is not a miracle," Finney wrote. "It is a purely philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means." In other words, preachers might create revival if they used proven methods, chief of these being the "anxious bench" or "seat of decision." "The object of our measures is to gain attention," Finney said, and for that "you must have something new."
It would be adopted by other evangelists in the period following Finney, including Dwight L. Moody and Billy Graham, and since then has been a staple of American Evangelicalism.
-CryptoLutheran
