Once Upon An Altar - Rhonda Hanson

If anyone should be able to forgive, it should be a minister. Week after week, the young, handsome Pastor Grant Sellars stands in the pulpit preaching the gospel and its message of forgiveness to his congregation, while he nurses a past wound that has never healed. He has been devoted to his anger, stoking its heat and telling himself that he deserves to feel the way he does, and that no one is going to take that away from him. Over the years, he has chosen to cope by filling his time with working out at the gym, running endless miles around the park and hanging out with his buddy, Fred.

Fred is soon to be married, and Pastor Sellars will be forced to officiate at the wedding, even though the very thought of a wedding reminds him that his anger is still there, just waiting to be unleashed. It is a humiliating and painful thing to be left at the altar and to become the object of pity, as everyone sits staring at the groom when the undeniable truth is revealed that no bride is coming down the aisle to meet him. Now, the last thing the minister wants to do is to join two people in matrimony, and his brand of premarital counseling is distorted, at best.

Grant's profession often requires him to serve in this capacity, as well as dedicate babies, visit the sick, and preach funerals. It is while preaching a funeral as a favor for an incapacitated minister that the dam that has been holding back years of bitterness and wrath finally breaks, and leaves the hurting, young pastor leaning against the windows of the local gym, staring out at the parking lot with hot tears running down his face, whispering, "I'm not okay, God. I'm not okay."

A beautiful actress has arrived in this small Mississippi town and stands in need of forgiveness, but she knows that the local pastor is the last one willing to offer it to her.