The altar call is a practice of evangelical Protestant Christianity in which, at the close of a sermon or service, the preacher invites those who wish to commit or recommit their lives to Christ to come forward publicly to the front of the church. Rising from one's seat and walking to the front, "answering the call", is understood as a visible, deliberate response to the preached gospel, a public act of decision that marks conversion, rededication, or the seeking of prayer. The invitation is typically extended with an appeal to the conscience, often to the accompaniment of a softly sung hymn, and those who come forward may pray a prayer of repentance and faith, be counselled, or be prayed over.
The practice in its familiar form is largely an American development of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century revivals, refined by evangelists into a standard instrument of mass evangelism, in which the public step forward both seals the individual's decision and serves as a countable measure of a meeting's effect. Supporters value it as a means of calling for the definite response to which they believe the gospel summons every hearer; critics within Protestantism have questioned whether the emotional pressure of the moment produces genuine and lasting conversion, and have noted that the practice has no direct precedent in the New Testament. It remains a defining feature of much evangelical and revivalist worship.