Music & Rituals

    For my ritual I have decided to speak about something a little lesser known than weddings, graduations, and funerals, although I would imagine at least one or two other students in this class who are from the southeast US have experienced it at some time in their lives. In the Baptist church and in other (mainly protestant) denominations, at the end of most services there is a ritual called the altar call. The altar call practice has been around since the first Great Awakening, but became popularized under the preaching of Charles Finney and the term "altar call" was not coined and widely used until the 1800's. The altar call consists of a designated period of time at the end of service for individuals in the congregation to approach the altar, convert to Christianity, and possibly join the church. Today, the Reverend typically promotes a level of anonymity by encouraging the congregation to keep their heads bowed and eyes closed in prayer except for those who choose to come forward. They may also invite individuals who are under any sort of conviction to raise their hand from their seat to simply request that the Reverend privately pray for them. When the practice first emerged, it was largely debated among Reverends as too high pressure, and apt to lead to a great number of false conversions. The altar call faced a great deal of scrutiny in it's early days, but now most church-going protestants who disagree simply steer clear of churches who uphold the custom. When I was in my early teens my own family became somewhat divided over the necessity of altar calls, excited testimonies, and shouting in praise (all of which have a tendency to happen in the same churches) and we had a bit of a mini-schism. 

    I, being in truth too young to understand the controversy, just wanted to go to church because I was homeschooled and it was my only social outlet. So when my family finally stopped attending, I found another church closer to home that I could get a ride to and continued. This church was much smaller than I was used to and only had one group of musicians who accompanied the services, and I joined it as a vocalist. As well as leading the congregation in hymns each Sunday morning, it was our job to perform the background music for communions, weddings, funerals, and altar calls. During an altar call, singing is usually kept to a minimum in order not to drown out the Reverend and the hymns are played instrumentally for most of the ritual, but the messages of the distinguished and beloved hymns are not lost on the congregation.

Here are two traditional altar call hymns, you may recognize one of them even if you were not raised in a church of any kind. The fact that Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior (Do Not Pass Me By) is one of the most commonly used hymns for this ritual, and was chosen for the scene of the sinking of the Titanic in the 1997 blockbuster film, is no coincidence, it also happens to be one of my favorite hymns.

    I continued to be a part of the church and this practice until my late teens when I began to understand controversy, and I left mine due to one that had little to do with altar calls. I recently got to experience one though. My paternal grandmother passed away a few weeks ago and being the devout Baptist she was, she requested the Reverend run her funeral service like a traditional sermon, complete with an altar call at the end. We used her favorite hymn as the service theme and the altar call song, this is Come and Dine.