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.

I am convinced the Holy Spirit is wanting Kingdom movements and global initiatives birthed from spiritually and emotionally healthy leaders, families, churches, and communities. The larger Excellencies of Christ’s global footprint grows, the more the Spirit desires a deeper and more vibrant expression of His life in me and the people I walk with daily. This is not an option; it is the way of the Kingdom. One cannot give away what one has not personally acquired. Thus, the Spirit is convening God’s servants and inviting us to be more than entrepreneurs, vision casters, and strategists. He wants us to be fathers and mothers who father and mother families, ministries, businesses, communities, and kingdom initiatives.

Jesus said, “I only do and say what the Father is doing and saying.” This is a powerful orienting statement concerning the life and ministry of Jesus. Everything He envisioned and built was through the paradigm of the Father. Cosmic redemption was not a mission or vision. It was a family affair. Redemption, for the Father and Son, is the reconciliation of God’s family.

While church structure in the New Testament is debated, Paul’s paradigm of ministry and leadership is not. Paul states, “You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly we behaved toward you believers, encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children,” (1 Thess. 2:10-11). To Corinth he would declare, “For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers,” (1 Cor. 4:15).

The Spirit is wooing us out of the previous season of celebrity Christianity where powerful executives and founders build massive religious empires around the cult of personality. He is calling us to embrace the meek and lowly apostolic model of Jesus who, as the Head of all things, lays down His life for God’s people. He does not leave behind a religious superstructure but a life perfectly lived and poured out for the ones He loved. On His last night before the cross, Jesus washed the feet of His followers and called them to do the same.

Paul follows in the way of Jesus. Apostles are first in position but last in privilege (1 Cor. 12:28; 4:9-13). As fathers, they carry the responsibility of leading the saints into maturity by proclaiming the primacy of Christ and modeling His selfless and sacrificial love. I am convinced Excellencies of Christ Ministries can do no less. As the global footprint grows and our resources and training schools start to influence the broader Body of Christ, the local work must be deeply entrenched in authentic Christian living that builds the local expression as a family affair from the hearts of mothers and fathers who lay down their lives for the next generation of fathers and mothers to take their place. 

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