Its musical tone, which Hall says is different and more progressive, incorporates more of a rock sound than their previous, more polished studio efforts.

The 18th best-selling Christian album of the 2000s, The Altar and the Door has sold 1.2 million copies and has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

While not as successful as "East to West", follow-up singles "Every Man" and "Slow Fade" were both top five hits on the Christian Songs chart.

The main ideas for The Altar and the Door were inspired roughly eighteen months before the album's release.

[2] He noted that this situation isn't unique to teenagers and that while at church "we [Christians] want to serve [God]" but when "we get out there in the world ... it’s just different.

[2] Hall elaborated in a separate interview that "Somewhere between the altar and the door, it all leaks out and I'm out here wondering what to do, rationalising things instead of living the life that's in me.

Although Hall says that he "always think[s] lyrics first", he felt that "Once we [Casting Crowns] got into the recording I knew we were in for something different, a more progressive approach to the music.

The strings on The Altar and the Door were arranged by Bernie Herms and recorded by Bill Whittington and Steve Beers at The Sound Kitchen in Franklin, Tennessee.

[7] "Slow Fade" deals with how moments of compromise and mistakes can lead to a "downward spiritual spiral";[8] it urges listeners to make the right choices.

[3] "What This World Needs" calls the Christian church out for making Jesus' message confusing by adding things to it;[3] it also looks at the current state of society.

[5] Deborah Evans-Price of CCM Magazine gave it four out of five stars, commenting that "With this new set, [Mark] Hall and his companions again deliver songs that are musically engaging and lyrically insightful ... Few acts more eloquently capture the complexities of being a Christian in today’s tumultuous world, but these fine folks continue to help light the path for the rest of us".

The Altar and the Door leans closer to the masterpiece than the flop but leaves you with a sense that they have even greater things to come ...

The Altar And The Door' is clearly a Casting Crowns album in sound, content and style but this is far from being a negative thing and will appeal to both existing fans as well as draw in new ones".

[7] Brian Mansfield gave it two-and-a-half out of four stars, commenting that "[Casting Crowns] concern themselves with the space between the title’s two fixtures – that is, between intention and action, between doing good and getting in the way, or, as one song puts it, between “the God we want and the God who is.” That’s a space worth exploring, and the band’s motives may be the best, but their anthems are as predictable as a televangelist’s tears: start soft, build big, then cue the strings".

[6] Justin Mabee of Jesus Freak Hideout gave it two-and-a-half out of five stars, calling the lyrical content "slightly better [than the band's previous works]" but deriding the music as "more of the same".

[25] It has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),[26] signifying shipments of more than 1 million copies.

[33] The Altar and the Door was the 18th best-selling Christian album of the 2000s decade[34] and has sold over 1,000,000 copies in the United States.