Altared Lives Mins. About Us

About Us

Vision

To empower and mentor young adult leaders in the Body of Christ by providing holistic ministry in line with their culture, by enlisting technology, music, the Internet and multimedia tools to meet spiritual and social needs, so that they'll be motivated to share their love and enthusiasm for Christ among other members of their generation.

Mission

To demolish the strongholds & fallacies of this generation that God is irrelevant, non-existent or unconcerned and that modern-day Christianity is boring, unreasonable or unrewarding by providing holistic ministry via multimedia technology.

History

Altared Lives began as "The Altared Lives Radio Broadcast" on WWAB radio in Lakeland, FL in 1992. The show ran weekly from 1992-1999, with a 2-year break from 1995-1997. At that time, the broadcast included teaching around a theme, and the selection of music matched the topic or theme. It was a unique program for its time, as the broadcast attracted listeners from age 5 to 65 -- quite a different demographic from what one would expect for the type of music being featured: artists such as Mike-E, ETW, Transformation Crusade, P.I.D., T-Bone, and Stephen Wiley (all gospel rap artists) and funky contemporary Gospel tracks like "It Could've Been Me" by John P. Kee, "God's Personality" by Anointed, "Love Is Not a 4 Letter Word" by Scott Blackwell, and "One Step After Another" by Commissioned (Fred Hammond's original group). Other contemporary Gospel artists who were featured on the Altared Lives Radio Broadcast included Be Be & Ce Ce Winans, Dennis Austin, Nu Joi, Angie & Debbie, Bernard Wright, the Winans, and Angelo & Veronica.

Altared Lives "dot com" began in 1999 after the local broadcast ceased. But there was no radio station associated with the web site in 1999. It wasn't until Resurrection Day Weekend 2002 that "Altared Lives Radio," or "ALR" was birthed online, via the Live365.com network of stations.

Altared Lives Radio began playing urban Gospel music primarily. Established artists such as Kirk Franklin, Dawkins & Dawkins, Mary Mary, Ben Tankard, John P. Kee, Kenoly Brothers, Deitrick Haddon, and Papa San were heard regularly on the station.

Unsigned or relatively new artists such as Nu Joi, Pam & Dodi, Ramiyah, Erick Mathews, Damita, Out of Eden, and Trin-i-tee 5:7 were spinned with a holy fervor when ALR first began webcasting.

When the Altared Lives "dot org" web site was launched in 2003 following the incorporation of Altared Lives Ministries, Inc., "Altared Lives Radio" became fully identified with the Altared Lives Ministries web site. At that time, the ministry's founder, Donna McCormick, felt led of God to convert the station's format to 95% Christian hip hop with 5% Rhythm-n-Gospel interspersed in the playlist. And, in 2005, ALR launched out independently from the Live365.com radio network and remains independent today.

Ministry Foundation

Altared Lives Ministries has two foundational scriptures: Romans 12:1 and Joshua 22:34.

Romans 12:1 "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."

This Scripture alludes to coming before God's altar as a sacrifice. It is where the concept of "altared lives" originated. The term "altared" is a play on the word "altered" meaning "changed," as well as serving as a "created" verb from the noun "altar." "Altared" lives thus refers to lives that are continually lived on God's holy altar of sacrifice. In Biblical times, the altar was where sacrifices were dedicated to God. It's the place where rituals were performed to make things right with God, or to make oaths to God. Thus "altared lives" become lives that are lived as sacrificial offerings to God, daily. Those lives are set apart or "altared" FOR God's approval and changed (altered) TO the glory of God.

Joshua 22:34 "And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad called the altar Ed: for it shall be a witness between us that the LORD is God."

This Scripture is from the story involving the 9 1/2 tribes of Israel's war plans against the 2 1/2 tribes who were to stay on the west of the Jordan River after the Promised Land was apportioned. The 2 1/2 tribes built an altar on the bank of the river, which the 9 1/2 tribes saw as a direct act of disobedience to the Lord's command not to worship any other gods or establish an altar other than the tabernacle where the tribes would assemble to worship.

However, the 2 1/2 tribes of Israel had built the altar as a witness that they, too, served the one true and living God Jehovah, since they were separated from the other 9 1/2 tribes by the Jordan River. "Ed" means "witness." So the altar was to be a sign to later generations that Reuben, Gad and the 1/2 tribe of Manasseh also worshiped Jehovah. In that same vein, Altared Lives Ministries takes on the meaning of a ministry that is also a withness that Jehovah is God, and that we serve the same God that our predecessors of the faith did. Although what we do might look different on the surface, or not be in the same kind of edifice as conventionally accepted, we serve the same Lord.

From Joshua 22:34, "altar Ed" is "altared" without the space and capital E. Altared Lives Mins. was originally established as "Altar-Ed Lives Mins." in 1997. But that spelling caused a mispronunciatation of the name of the ministry from those who attempted to say it after seeing it for the first time. Thus, the hyphen and capital E were replaced by the one-word "altared."

So "Altared Lives Ministries" was established as the name of the ministry. And the rest of the story is not only history but remains to be experienced as the Lord uses it for His glory and the advancement of His kingdom. In Jesus' name, amen.