One special characteristic of the Baptist Denomination is that its churches, at the end of a preaching service, almost always, has a time of commitment, a time in which people are invited to come down to the front of the church and there to kneel at the altar in prayer, or perhaps to meet with the pastor and ask for special prayer or even to give one’s life to Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. It’s a holy time, a time to make a commitment to the Lord of a person’s life or to ask the Lord to help them in some certain way. As a pastor and as a church member, I’ve never seen a Baptist service end without such a time of commitment. At that time, it’s you and the Lord, “mano y mano”, dedicating your heart to follow the Lord in some manner or way. We call it a “time of invitation”, inviting the worshipper to come and “mean business” with the Lord.
With each time of commitment, there is always what we Baptists call, “An Invitational Song”. Of course, the reasons for coming are many. For example, on any given Sunday, your pastor may bring a message on God’s love and salvation. Such an invitational song might be, “Down At The Cross”, which goes like this; “Down at the cross where my Savior died, Down where for cleansing from sin I cried, There to my heart was the blood applied, Glory to His Name.” And the Chorus would be, “Glory to His Name, Glory to His Name; There to my heart was the blood applied; Glory to His Name.”
Another such message might be a message on being a witness or on missions, that is, a message encouraging the congregation to go and share the message of God’s love and salvation, though life and word, all over the world, and especially within the world in which each of us live and have our daily lives. A hymn of commitment there might be, “Make Me A Blessing”, which goes like this: “Out in the highways and byways of life, Many are weary and sad; Carry the sunshine where darkness is rife, Making the sorrowing glad. Make me a blessing, Make me a blessing. Out of my life, May Jesus shine. Make me a blessing, O Savior I pray, Make me a blessing to someone today.”
