ABOUT PORCH AND ALTAR

We are a parachurch discipleship ministry focused on helping the Body of Christ and leadership to keep Jesus as their first love and keeping their heart burning for Jesus. We do teaching, preaching, biblical counseling to churches, small groups and our own events and one on ones. 

maurice and angie ROBINSON

PRESIDENT & FOUNDERS

Maurice is a pastor, teacher, and disciple-maker with a passion for helping people know Jesus  deeply and live lives fully surrendered to Him. 

Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Maurice was familiar with church from an early age. His life  was forever changed as a teenager when he discovered that God desired a personal relationship  with him. From that moment on, he committed himself to growing in God's Word, following the  leading of the Holy Spirit, and serving the local church. 

For more than 16 years, Maurice has faithfully served in pastoral ministry, investing in people  through discipleship, biblical teaching, and spiritual leadership. Throughout his journey, he has  witnessed the transforming power of God through healing, freedom, and lives changed by the  gospel. His greatest passion, however, is seeing people become mature disciples who keep Jesus  at the center of their lives. 

Together with his wife, Angie, Maurice founded Porch and Altar Ministries out of a desire to  help believers return to their first love—Jesus. The ministry exists to equip people to grow in  intimacy with God, become rooted in His Word, and walk confidently in their God-given calling  through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Maurice and Angie have been married since 2011 and are the proud parents of Jasmine and  Ethan. Their own journey has been marked by God's faithfulness, healing, and grace, giving  them a deep compassion for walking alongside others through every season of life.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

  • Joshua Devine

    Joshua Devine

    Vice President

  • Brian Henry

    Brian Henry

    Secretary

  • Cameron Terrell

    Cameron Terrell

    Treasurer

  • Maryanne Reabe

    Maryanne Reabe

    Board Member

  • Mike Rebich

    Mike Rebich

    Board Member

  • Angela Madden

    Angela Madden

    Board Member

Mission statement

The mission of Porch and Altar Ministries is to the body of Christ (the Church) and ministerial leadership into a lifestyle of intimate living in the secret place (presence of God). That Jesus will be and remain our first love in our own life, family, service, and ministry. We teach and cultivate within people a devoted life to Jesus while modeling an intimate relationship with the Godhead.

We believe when our foundation is rooted in love, fellowship and remaining in the presence of God, that’s where our flesh dies and we are changed by Him. Through godly support, discipleship and biblical spiritual counseling, we facilitate a healthy dynamic of family and ministry. By these means of accountability, we help believers prioritize individual soul care. We ultimately seek to guide called leaders toward spiritual and personal soundness, integrity, and power to advance the kingdom of God.

  • To live a lifestyle of continually falling in love with Jesus and continue burning for Him

    Often as leaders, over time of doing the work of ministry, we can get stagnate and eventually have a hard heart. By overly focusing on the job of ministry it can be easy to stop our intimate relationship with the Godhead. We lose our first love in Christ and need reminded that our life source is from the Father. We can not do the work of ministry correctly, if our relationship with God is disconnected and we first don’t have our own intimate time with Him. When that lack happens, the lifestyle of the leader starts getting off track and sin can take place.

    (Rev 2:4-5)

  • Healthy dynamic and balance of family and ministry/church life

    I’ve heard many leaders in churches say church first and family second, but that’s not biblically correct. It’s God first (not church), then your spouse/family, and then ministry.

  • Soul care

    Too many times in the 5 fold ministry leaders prioritize time helping and ministering to others so much so that it causes neglect of taking care of themselves. Leaders need counsel and accountability as well as they continue to grow higher and closer to God. By taking good care of the soul, they can be sent out to do what God is calling them to do with His power.

    (1 Corinthians 2:4) (Joel 2:16-17)

WHERE DID THE NAME COME FROM?

As I was in prayer I was listening to worship music and a song from Eddie James was playing called Prepare/Holy Visitation. And I was reading in Joel 2:17 in that context (verse 12-17) God is speaking through Joel to the children of Israel saying to turn their heart to God and to rend (violently tear, rip) their heart and not just their clothes.

And for the people to gather together in fasting, prayer and weeping between the porch and the altar. The porch and altar refers to the tabernacle which has an outer and inner court and the third section is called the Holy of All. In the tabernacle the priest and levites would minister and take care of it. Along with doing offering and sacrifices for the people. In the New Testament we learn that our bodies are the temple of Holy Spirit so our body to our heart is the porch and altar and in the same way we should live our life as an offering and sacrifice to Jesus.

So we should live a life of death, not our will or desire but His. Romans 12:1 says it this way “that we present our bodies a living sacrifice to God. So we are living to die on the altar for God can be formed in us by the sacrifice that Jesus gave through the power of Holy Spirit, not in our own ability.

Essentials of the Christian Faith

The Authority of Scripture

The Bible is the divinely inspired Word of God and is the ultimate source for knowledge about God. The Scriptures arc inerrant, infallible and irrevocable in the original writings and are the supreme and final authority in all matters of faith and practice.

The Existence of a Triune God

There is one God, eternally existing in one Essence, yet three co­equal and distinct Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This God is self-existent, eternal, unchanging, omnipotent, omnipresent, holy, righteous, and loving. God created the universe from nothing and He rules over His creation sovereignly including both human and angelic beings.

Man is a Physical and Spiritual Being

Man(kind) was created in the image of God, voluntarily sinned, and thereby brought not only physical death, but also spiritual death, which is separation from God, upon all humanity. For the salvation of sinful mankind, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.

Jesus Christ is Fully God and Was Fully Man on Earth

Christ was in the beginning with God and is God. He entered into the earth by the conception of the Holy Ghost, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died vicariously for our sins which atoned for all mankind through His shed blood, physically rose from the dead, and ascended to Heaven where He makes intercession for believers and will one day return in power and glory to deliver His people and to judge the world.

The Church as God's Ordained Institution

The church is headed by Christ, is composed of all believers, and is organized for worship, for fellowship, for the administration of the sacraments, for spiritual growth and support, and for evangelizing the world.