Dear Friends,
In 1997 at the Kansas City Municipal Auditorium, I stood at a ministry crossroads. The Church was in crisis on many fronts. The Gospel was tragically deficient and prayer mostly absent. Ministry was consumed with growth strategies, leadership development, and political mobilization. The result was a powerless Church and young people leaving the faith in unprecedented numbers. That evening, Mike Bickle charged the conference that just as in Samuel’s day, “the word of the Lord was rare” and “there was no widespread revelation.” He bemoaned the lack of the true proclamation of the knowledge of God in the pulpits of America. I can still hear his voice thundering in my heart, “Who will be a voice and not an echo? Who will proclaim the knowledge of God and the beautiful splendor of Christ Jesus? Who will give themselves to long and loving meditation on the Word until it is formed in their hearts and written on their minds, so that when they preach men and women are not entertained but cut to the heart.”
I made a radical decision that evening to really know Jesus and make Him known above all things. I did not want to become a professional minister, devoid of real encounter with the person of Christ. I decided that day at the altar to give myself to prayer, the study of the Word, and the proclamation of the surpassing greatness of Jesus. I would be set apart for Him and Him alone. A few years later, I penned this experience as the introduction to my course, The Excellencies of Christ:
Several years ago, I found my heart longing, lonely, and hungry for something authentic. In the depths of my soul something was awakening and being stirred by an unknown hand, an unseen Helper. My heart could barely stand the thought of another “unique teaching” or “keen insight” from one more “anointed” vessel. I was aching for Jesus, wanting Him and Him alone, undone by the piercing depths of His heart, life, and love.
For years in ministry, I fed on many other things, setting my hand to various missions. I have run enough leadership gauntlets surrounding the latest church growth fads and have had quite enough of three-year cycles of implementing the latest relevant approach to ministry. Enormous amounts of time, energy, and resources were spent on methods, applications, and “how-to’s.” During those years our churches grew by the twenties and fifties, but our people remained plundered by disease, debt, despair, doubt, and deception. In the midst of it all I ached for what the apostle Paul called “the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3), wondering if somehow the Serpent had deceived me, just as he had Eve (2 Cor. 11:2–4).
Endless debates on methodology and incessant emphasis on practical preaching, with its how-to’s and down-to-earth applications, have swept us into the seduction of compelling need and the enticement to be “unique.” However, little mystery and majesty concerning the person of Jesus is preached. Our taste for the eternal and the glorious fades as we exchange the burning gaze of the seraphim for the unyielding boredom of Dr. Phils dressed in preachers’ garb. O God, save us from the insightful sages of our day, and give us the ancient once again. Give us that which, throughout the ages, has mystified the saints and terrorized devils.
Could it be that we have lost sight of the one thing needed, the one thing that fulfills all godly and noble desires—Jesus Christ? . . . . Our vision statements, methodologies, and discipleship materials must once again be yoked to the chief cornerstone. We must build upon one foundation alone—Christ! Our greatest need and highest joys are found in Him. The knowledge of God in the face of Christ Jesus is our daily bread. It is our sustenance. Until our lives are rooted in the experiential knowledge of Him, we remain scavenging after food that perishes and drink that never satisfies.
Much of the Church is presently consumed with many things other than Jesus. Scurrying around to address the needs of our day and expending great energy to build our visions, we forget the one thing necessary—sitting at the feet of the One who has the words of eternal life and contains all the mysteries of both God and man.
The Church needed her heart back, and only the knowledge of Jesus Christ could save, heal, deliver, awaken, and set the Church on fire again. We needed a revival of the knowledge of God in Christ! As a result, I joined Mike Bickle’s church staff on March 1, 1999 and helped launch the International House of Prayer on May 7th. I have spent my entire adult ministry beholding the beauty of Jesus in the Word, crying out for revival night and day, and training the next generation of leaders to lead from an intimate knowledge of Jesus.
Twenty-five years after standing in that auditorium, we face a sobering truth. The Church is still in the crisis, exchanging church growth fads and self-improvement talks for the cult of personality, celebrity Christianity, and winning the culture war. The breakdown of the family and the loss of spirituality among the youth have only increased at exponential rates. The knowledge of Jesus Christ was the answer for the Church back then, and it is the answer for the Church today. Another generation of Christian leaders need a moment like I experienced in the K.C. Municipal Auditorium in 1997. They need a decisive moment where they realize He is worth everything, and nothing else is worth the loss of His life and power in the Church.
The good news is that some signs of awakening are on the horizon as history’s largest prayer and worship movement has erupted in the nations and a John 17:21 unity is emerging on the other side of the pandemic. Yet, the next generation needs a life-changing encounter with the person of Jesus like I experienced in the K.C. Municipal Auditorium. Another group of men and women need to be marked by the Holy Spirit to “count all things as loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord” (Phil. 3:8). This is why Excellencies of Christ Ministries was birthed. We must proclaim Christ. We must disciple the next generation in the knowledge of Him. We must contend in prayer for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We must establish and equip communities of love for Jesus all around the nations. We can do no less. He alone is worth it!
For His Name,
Allen Hood