Our whole cast is back for the latest Mere Fidelity podcast on the subject of weekly worship and its purpose. I lost connection to the call early on, and the others had to go on without me.
You can also follow the podcast on iTunes, or using this RSS feed. Listen to past episodes on Soundcloud and on this page on my blog.
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About Alastair Roberts
Alastair Roberts (PhD, Durham University) writes in the areas of biblical theology and ethics, but frequently trespasses beyond these bounds. He participates in the weekly Mere Fidelity podcast, blogs at Alastair’s Adversaria, and tweets at @zugzwanged.
Alastair's Adversaria 
Shame about your technical difficulties.
I thought you started off as a lone voice challenging received evangelical wisdom, with its non Biblical concepts and presumptions of altar calls, altars, weekly Sunday Services, Sermons in all meetings, etc very much to the fore!
But seriously, do you think that evangelism (not a fan of that word, but ho hum) is most effective when in relationship rather than in public meetings?
I think both relationship and more public meetings (which can take many forms) can play their part, but that either may often prove insufficient taken by itself. Our faith is a faith in community and in relation to the Church as Christ’s body. However, private relationship can often prove more responsive to people in their distinct individuality. Both aspects are needed.
Do you see any NT precedent for our altar calls though?
(Day of Pentecost, maybe?)
Do we know when they became the norm in ‘modern’ evangelism, and whether they were similar to other mass communication phenomena of their time?
No, not really. Events like the Day of Pentecost may set a precedent for calling people to respond to the gospel in the context of public open air preaching. That is a rather different phenomenon from the ‘altar call’ in the regular worship of the Church.