The Altar You Don’t See
June 1, 2026
The Altar You Don't See
There Is an Altar the Church Has Never Talked About
Every minister knows the altar at the front of the church. It is the place of prayer and surrender — where people come undone and are put back together by the Spirit of God. It is holy ground, and it should be celebrated as such.
But after more than two decades of ministry, missionary work, and walking closely with men and women who have given their lives to the call, I became convinced that there is another altar. One that never features in commissioning services. One that does not appear in any order of service or on any church plan. One that most ministers carry in silence, often for years, without anyone ever naming what is happening there.
My new book, The Altar You Don’t See: The True Cost of Answering the Call, is an attempt to bring that altar into the light. What follows is an excerpt from the preface — the passage that frames everything else in the book. I hope it finds you where you are.
The altar you see is the one at the front of the church. It is the place of prayer, of surrender, of encounter. It is where people come undone and are put back together by the Spirit of God. It is holy ground, and rightly so.
But there is another altar. You will not find it on any church plan. It does not appear in any order of service. It is not spoken of in most ministry training programmes, and it rarely features in the testimonies we celebrate on Sunday morning.
It is the altar where the minister stands.
It is the place of private consecration and private cost. The place where what is offered is not someone else’s burden, but your own life — your health, your family, your finances, your friendships, your emotional reserves, your very sense of self. It is the altar that demands not a single moment of surrender but a sustained, daily, lifelong laying down.
This book is about that altar.
I want to be honest with you from the very first page. I did not write this book from a place of bitterness. I wrote it from a place of love — love for the Church, love for the men and women who have given their lives to serve her, and love for those who are standing at the threshold of the call right now, wondering what they are truly signing up for.
This book is for all of you. It is for the seasoned minister who has never had a safe space to name what ministry has cost them. It is for the emerging leader who is full of fire and needs to count that cost with clear eyes before the fire meets the wind. And it is for the congregation — the people in the pews who love their pastors and yet may never have considered what Sunday morning actually costs the person standing at the front.
What I know now that I did not fully know then is that I needed to live more of ministry before I could write this honestly. A thesis would have been researched. This book has been experienced. The pages you are about to read are not merely the product of study, though study has informed them. They are the product of years — years of standing at altars, years of pouring out, years of watching fellow ministers flourish and fracture, years of learning in my own body and soul what it means to carry this call across every season of life.
I want to be clear about what this book is not. It is not a manual for avoiding the cost of ministry — because the cost cannot be avoided, and any book that tells you otherwise is not telling you the truth. It is not a grievance document, a wound catalogue, or a case for leaving the ministry. Quite the opposite. It is an honest look at what ministry demands, written by someone who, having seen the full bill, would still answer the call again without hesitation.
The altar you see is the one at the front of the church.
But there is another altar. And this book is about that altar.
Come and look at it with me.
The Altar You Don’t See: The True Cost of Answering the Call is available now. Whether you are a minister, a ministry spouse, a leader in training, or someone who loves and supports those who serve — this book was written for you.
Order your copy on the books page
I am a licensed minister, missionary, and Doctor of Ministry. I am the author of over twenty-five published books and the founder of the Asantoa Foundation. I live by the motto: Live Full. Pour Out. Die Empty.