I Surrender All...but when?

I grew up in a church tradition where the Sunday sermon culminated in an "invitation" for those who were being "moved by the Spirit" to "come forward" to the front of the church where you typically took the preacher's hand, said some words of confession or commitment and got whatever settled.

Now, I'm certainly not against the idea that God's Word doesn't and shouldn't produce some kind of response. Just the opposite, in fact. Every time I teach/preach (whatever you want to call it) I do so believing that God's Word gets results. It brings changes about in our lives when we become doers, not just hearers.

But I also wonder if the mindset created by the "come forward" and get it right philosophy hasn't built a false sense of fulfilling God's expectancies for us. Witness the twice a year "revivals" so common in some camps. Every year the evangelist preaches compellingly and every year the saints walk the aisle to "rededicate" their lives. Then too many of them go right back to living the same old mediocre lives, putting God somewhere down the list behind NASCAR and fishing.

Is this a journey we're on or an event, over and done with in a moment? Shouldn't the "rededication" come every day with the realization that His mercies (especially if I blew it the day before) are new every morning? It was Paul who wrote, "I die [to self] daily". And why wait until Sunday or "revival" to get things right with God? That aisle isn't a yellow brick road leading to Oz. So let's not treat it like it is.