A Letter From my Heart Concerning the Church

Have you ever been in a season when life comes full circle, and suddenly decades of wisdom, trials, pain, and joy integrate and make sense? In 2018 the Lord asked Rachel and I to lay everything down to follow Him away from Kansas City. We had no idea it would lead us back to our home state.

In the 25 years between leaving Florida and returning, I have had the privilege of being a husband to Rachel, a father of three sons, a missionary pioneer in an international prayer movement, a Bible school president, a pastor, and an itinerate preacher. I was some of these things in various seasons, but in this season, I strangely feel as if I am all of these and yet none of them.

My life is like yours—full of tension. I have spoken before stadiums of thousands and discipled a few twenty-somethings in my living room. I have been part of strategy meetings with great men and women of God who dared to finish the Great Commission in their lifetime, and I have stood alongside the hospital bed of the sufferer and held their hand, praying and hoping for a last-minute miracle. Both are beautiful in their own way, and both are holy to the God who governs the nations and cares for the one.

Every minister of the gospel feels this same tension. Jesus will not come until the nations are reached, and yet, all is lost if I lose my own soul, my children do not know Him, and I have not lived the gospel at the point where my feet touch the ground the most. The reality of a remnant from every nation, tribe, and tongue worshiping Jesus is right before us, and yet the Lord is highlighting the necessity to build right where we live on the right foundations.

In the nations, I will give myself to pioneering Excellencies of Christ Ministries — a global resource ministry committed to making Jesus known and loved. I will function as a teacher, prophetic preacher, and mentor to leaders. At home I will serve as the Lead Pastor of Open Door Church, committed to building our spiritual family and living New Testament Christianity in the Treasure Coast. Hopefully and prayerfully, in both, I will be seen primarily as a father, and in doing so, I will walk in the way of Jesus and Paul and all the genuine apostolic hearts through the ages who dare to resist the empire and build the Kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love (Col. 1:13).

All for Jesus,

Allen Hood