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"I have a personal conviction against responding to altar calls."

Especially since the gospel itself is all the invitation anyone ever needs. The danger of altar calls, in my opinon, is that the evangelist tends to take over the Holy Spirit's job of giving people the assurance of salvation. It would seem that many people leave these crusades with a false sense of security.

We rarely do altar calls anymore, either.

But, this can be awkward... in most Baptist churches, that's how you join. We don't have a good mechanism for joining, except calling the office during the week... quite awkward, that.

More importantly, if someone feels the Holy Spirit call, and wants to respond, do they always know what to do? Wouldn't it be good to have a pastor lead them, whatever the call? Better at least than just standing there, not knowing what to do or who to talk to, right?

Sure, its waaaay overdone in a lot of churches, but you don't have to throw out the baby with the bathwater...