CHRISTIAN ARTICLES

Pastors today continue to debate whether the modern phenomenon of altar calls is biblical and should be encouraged. Todd Wagner, senior pastor of Watermark Community Church in Dallas, Texas, believes altar calls are not “unbiblical” but “they’re also not a required biblical act.” Thus, he does not issue an altar call very often at his megachurch. One major problem with altar calls that many pastors and theologians have identified is that they have led to false conversions. Those who responded spontaneously by going forward and saying a prayer to receive Jesus Christ might have done so out of emotion rather than out of conviction. “I’m not telling you that you’re screwing up if you have an altar call,” Wagner said in a recent video. “I’m telling you that you might not be saved if you respond to an altar call and you’re probably wrong as a pastural leader if you say ‘we’ve got conversions’ just because people in a moment came forward.” Jonathan Leeman, editorial director for...

Through the development of social networks and online learning communities, distance education programs can provide spiritual formation just as effectively as the traditional classroom, an expert in online Christian education has argued. Dr. Mary Lowe, Associate Dean of Liberty University Rawlings School of Divinity and co-author of Ecologies of Faith in a Digital Age: Spiritual Growth Through Online Education, said she’s often asked to identify how online spiritual formation differs from an in-person spiritual formation. Her answer is simple: It doesn’t. “Formation is formation,” she said. “At the time of redemption and salvation, the entire person is transformed and redeemed. It’s not just the spiritual component, it’s the social dimension, the intellectual, the moral, the emotional — all of those dimensions of the person are being transformed. We believe that goes to the heart of what it means to be spiritually transformed. Persons who are studying online or at home and dri...