When God Calls You Out of the Golden Handcuffs: Dr. April Jones on Building Wellness for the Kingdom

Dr. April Jones was working two laptops when she heard her name echo through the worship auditorium at Bethel. On one screen: her corporate job as a national account director in pharma. On the other: ministry school, a Wednesday gathering she'd dialed into for the first time live.

She thought she was being called out for multitasking.

Instead, Libby Johnson looked straight at her face on the big screen and said, "April, God has a word for you. In the next season, the work and time with the Lord will be indiscernible."

It was the answer to a prayer Jones had been praying for months: God, I just want all my time to be spent with You every day, all day long.

Eight months later, she walked away from the golden handcuffs and founded Storehouse Wellness—a faith-based corporate wellness company built on the conviction that you cannot be well without Jesus.

The Pharma Years: When Oncology Became Personal

Jones didn't set out to work in oncology. In fact, she had spent years avoiding it.

Her oldest son, Tyler, was diagnosed with childhood cancer at age two and became an amputee. The family had navigated surgeries, prosthetics, and the brutal complexity of the American healthcare system ever since. Jones had pursued her doctorate in pharmacy because she wanted to heal cancer—but when it became personal, she wanted nothing to do with it.

Then her department got absorbed. "Guess what?" they told her. "You're now in oncology. Congratulations."

She became the oncology expert for nearly every tumor type. And it challenged her faith more than anything ever had.

I had fervently believed in healing. I had prayed for others and truly believed in healing, and some really good, godly people did not receive healing on earth. And then when you look at the data, we get really excited when outcomes improve from maybe 5% of people alive at five years to 30% alive at five years. But that still means 70% of people have passed from cancer. And 100% of those people had their lives completely uprooted and disrupted.

Jones took it personally. She wrestled with God. She held onto the belief that He could still miraculously heal, that while He doesn't inflict suffering, He can still get glory from it. But the tension was real.

Looking back, she sees it clearly: "The Lord was doing something internally. I think He was growing me in different ways, helping me become more resilient in my faith by being in that role. That had more to do with spiritual growth than professional growth."

The Puzzle Nobody Could Solve

In 2022, Jones started ministry school. The next day, she got a promotion—a role building relationships with healthcare coalitions and large employers.

Every day, she soaked in spiritual revelation on one laptop and listened to conversations about America's $4.5 trillion healthcare spending problem on the other. Employers were pouring money into point solutions—one for mental health, one for musculoskeletal issues, one for fertility—and yet nothing was moving the needle.

Jones started to pray into the gap. She saw it clearly: people were separating faith from wellness, when really you cannot be well without Jesus.

Then came the prophetic words. A stranger told her, "God has a place and a space for you where you will be the watchman on the tower." A friend across the world told her God was going to move her out of where she was—not painfully, but with grace and honor. And then that Wednesday at Bethel, when her name was called mid-worship.

By December, her team was impacted by cuts. Her boss cried and asked her to stay. But God made it clear through the one open position that it wasn't for her. Jones let herself be mad for one day. Then she woke up the next morning, and it was like a weight had lifted.

I just felt, it is time to have clarity. So I got on my laptop, started whiteboarding, and started thinking about all the things I knew how to do. The vision for a faith-based corporate wellness company really came into clarity. Little seeds had been planted. I had had discussions and conversations all year that God reminded me of about this gap that existed and how people separate faith from wellness, when really you cannot be well without Jesus.

The logo that emerged in that first week is still Storehouse Wellness's logo today.

What They Don't Tell You About Kingdom Business

The first few months were easy. Jones poured herself into what God had asked her to create. Conversations were exciting. The vision was clear.

Then came the part nobody warns you about.

They do not tell you that it attacks your faith. They do not tell you it attacks your confidence, and that delay is what tries to put your faith out. It is not for lack of value. People will tell you all the time how valuable your organization is, yet they will not sign a contract for one reason or another. You are not a priority today, or there is not enough room, or something else gets in the way.

Jones had formal business training. She had an MBA. She had led teams in pharmacy and pharma. But this was different. She found herself asking, God, are You sure You want me to work on that today, and why?

She learned to go back to Him when the stress mounted. She started creating new content—animation around superheroes teaching wellness to kids. It brought her out of the place of redundant, stressful thinking and into creativity. It reminded her why she said yes in the first place.

Her chaplain, a dear friend, told her something she returns to again and again: "God didn't ask you to carry this for Him. He asked you to do this with Him. He invited you to do this with Him. And if nothing else, He is growing you in everything you do every time you are obedient."

Even if, in five years, Storehouse Wellness did not exist, which I do not believe will be true because He asked me to build wellness for the Kingdom, I still believe that if this has been something like a secret song that we create together that no one else ever got to hear, then it was still special between He and I. You cannot regret any time that you are obedient with the Lord.

Leading with Grace and Accountability

Jones has learned that leading a Kingdom business means holding two things in tension: strong leadership and servant leadership. Accountability and grace. Business strategy and spiritual obedience.

She recently attended a Matt and Maria Granados realign conference that shifted her perspective: when you start a nonprofit or a Kingdom business, you eat and breathe it. But it's unreasonable to think every single person who contributes will feel the same way. This may just be a season in their life, not their calling.

"I think so often we can become offended when others do not value it the same way we do," Jones says. "But the truth is, we have to recognize that this may just be a season in their life. This may not be their calling. And in some ways, that is okay. It is even good. We want people to grow. We want them to have their own vision, their own purpose, and their own mission beyond just this season."

Detaching from the spirit of offense has become one of her most important leadership practices. So has starting every day with the Lord. "I now realize that relationship with Him impacts my entire day, the way I approach operations, the way I approach people, and even the way I talk to myself."

What She Wants You to Know

Jones has one message for Christian business leaders who are in the hard middle: God does not bless based only on performance.

I am so thankful to hear the testimonies of Kingdom first businesses that have been incredibly successful, and how God has shown up for them in Red Sea moments. But I want people to know that it is not always going to be easy. Sometimes we hear these stories and think, oh my gosh, I have been doing this for three months, surely it is time for my miracle moment. But the Bible says, 'Do not grow weary in doing good' for a reason. We would not be told that if the miracle moment always came the second we showed up and put our gloves on.

She's learned that closed doors and delays don't mean you're off track. They mean God is growing you. And your identity isn't what you do—it's who you are in the Lord.

"Tomorrow, if that business went away, if AI replaced your business, if for whatever reason you had to shut your doors tomorrow, know that the value you bring to this earth is not only because you do this thing really well. I think a lot of times we get caught up in the performance of it, and that is not what this life is supposed to be about."

Jones still shows up. She still leans in. She still asks the Lord every day, Am I listening? What do You have to say? Am I paying attention today?

Because even if Storehouse Wellness is a secret song she and God create together that no one else ever hears, it's still special. And she cannot regret any time she's been obedient with the Lord.

That's the kind of faith that builds something eternal—one day, one decision, one act of obedience at a time.