“The Invitation” AKA “The Altar Call”

This cracks me up every time I watch it.  That sigh at the end says it all. 

The reason I was looking up the altar call today is because I went to a conference this weekend that employed a form of the altar call.  It wasn’t for salvation per se rather repentance for sexual sin of various kinds.  It seemed to be assumed that the people responding were already Christians.  The first invitation went out specifically to “a leader in Christian ministry that is involved in inappropriate sexual perversion.”  Of course I want people to come clean and not walk in darkness and I do not want to discount the genuineness of those that responded to such an invitation.  However, it reminded me how unmoved I am by these things personally now.  As I mentioned in the post He was Speaking to ME about My Ways, I am bothered by the method such as using the mood music to accompany the work God is allegedly doing.  I was wondering where this started.  I did a search "mood music for altar calls" and I read several articles against these practices for theological reasons.  Such as "Why We Don't Use the Altar Call", "Where's the altar call", or "The Anatomy of the altar call, anonymity is key".

There was a time I was excited about the altar call.  I wanted to celebrate every decision for Christ no matter what human method was used. I believed God could use it for his purpose.  I then began to be bothered by the unbiblical or misused scriptures such as “accept Jesus into your heart”.  I wanted to celebrate that these people were moved by the message but I worried about what they were actually getting when they raised their hands and went forward.  Now it all seems so cheap and hokey to me.  It seems to do a disservice.
I don’t want to be cold and unemotional and entirely discount both the speaker for employing such human methods and the hearer for responding.  I don’t want to sit there all smug as if I know it takes more then a emotional appeal and soft music playing in the background to live out the Christian life.  I do want to be able to rightly evaluate what is taking place whether or not it is a problem with me or a problem with the method that causes this turmoil within me.
What is your experience with the “altar call” type approach?