I’m sitting here at our house of prayer, thinking about the process of how God called our house of prayer to move into an urban community. My husband and I (and our kids) had already been serving at an inner city church plant for a couple of years. Our pastor and his wife had been a part of the process of birthing the Kalamazoo House of Prayer. A couple of of years into KHOP’s existence, our pastor had a dream that our prayer room had moved inside his church. Pastor Mike and his wife Yolanda invited us over to their home, and over a scrumptious meal of King crab legs (John’s favorite food), he shared his dream with us. I was surprised and a bit flabbergasted at this idea. I was not surprised at the idea of moving, since we had received a prophetic word early on that KHOP would move a couple of times before we found our permanent location. However, the Vanguard North Church building was still in disrepair - when it rained outside, it rained inside, had issues with regulating heating, etc. At that moment, my husband and I did not at all feel like KHOP was supposed to move to that building.
However, we brought the proposal back to our board of directors. After a season of prayer on the matter, one of the board members came back and said that she really felt that the move was from the Lord and that we needed to seriously consider it. We spent another month in prayer and felt the Lord saying, “Yes.” to the move. We agreed that we would make the move once the roof was repaired.
Marked by Kingdom Transformation
Once I warmed up to the idea of moving to the Vanguard North building, I got excited about relocating our prayer room deeper into our city. We always had felt that we needed to be inside the city, closer to the downtown area. And my husband especially sensed that the north side was strategic to God’s coming revival. Many years ago the Lord marked our hearts for city transformation through the George Otis Jr. Transformations video series, as well as through reading books on city transformation and spiritual warfare by authors such as John Dawson (YWAM), Ed Silvoso (Argentina revival), Peter Wagner (Wagner Leadership Institute), and Cindy Jacobs (Generals of Intercession).
Even before I met my husband John, as a young single woman, my heart was stirred for revival, unity, racial reconciliation, and city transformation. I hungered for a move of God that would not just fill our churches, but transform our cities.
I remember reading Silvoso’s book That None Should Perish back around 1998 and wondering if I was reading material “above my pay grade.” When I asked a prophetic friend that question, she wisely replied, “I think you’re making deposits for your future.” And little did I know how right she was.
One thing I did not fully grasp back in 1998 was that one of the greatest keys to experiencing a historic, transformational move of God in our cities was united, night and day prayer. As a young 20 something, I knew personal prayer and fasting were important and I believed that weekly intercessory prayer with others was important. However, I did not have a concept for day and night corporate prayer. That would be a revelation that would come years later.
KHOP Moves
Many months before we moved KHOP to Kalamazoo’s north side, we began casting vision for the move. We knew that our KHOP family would need time to get used to the idea that we would be moving into an urban neighborhood that was a bit rougher than what most of our KHOP family had been accustomed to. What I did not expect was some of the verbal push back we experienced, even from friends. This move was exposing some fear and reticence in our hearts as a prayer community.
Although I understood people’s nervousness to a certain extent, and could readily acknowledge there was an elevated risk in this move, I still found myself a little frustrated. How can we pray and intercede for the people of our city only from a “safe” distance? [And in today’s violent new reality of mass shootings, what is “safe” anymore? According to Brother Andrew, the famous Bible smuggler, the safest place is the place of obedience to God’s will for our lives.] We pray about transformation but then don’t want to position ourselves in a neighborhood where our consistent, tenacious, faith-filled prayers would have the most impact? And this was little Kalamazoo, not a metropolis such as Chicago or Detroit.
Looking back, I believe that part of my frustration with others’ fears was that it was mirroring some of my own secret meditations over the last few years. Did I really believe in city transformation? How powerful did I believe this amazing gospel is? Can His Kingdom transform a city even before His return? Was I willing to go where the Lord was inviting me to go? No matter the cost? No matter how outwardly or inwardly uncomfortable it made me? Was I willing to do it even if the move whittled our ministry down to just our family and a handful of others?
We even received advice from a respected prayer movement leader that if we relocated to a neighborhood where people did not feel safe, that people would stop coming. We listened to this admonition, seriously prayed over it, acknowledged its truth, but still felt the invitation from the Lord to plant KHOP on the north side for a season.
What happened when we moved? As expected, we lost a few families at first due to the move (some of which returned). Concrete change: the drug house adjacent to our property was busted within 7 weeks of our arrival. During our first 6 months here, a local policeman asked our hosting pastor what was happening. The policeman had noticed a decrease in illegal activity and thought things felt more peaceful in the neighborhood. Pastor Mike responded, “Oh, that’s because we pray all the time now!”
Does this mean that illegal activity and violence has disappeared? Not at all. Trust me, it still exists on the north side. There was even a short stint about a year ago when a few neighborhood youth were stealing coins out of our vehicles (targeting the older vehicles that did not lock well). So, we’ve established specific parking lot and prayer room protocol for the safety of our KHOP family. But God IS moving and people’s lives are being transformed one by one.
We’ve had the opportunity to help facilitate street ministry (with Jesus Loves Kzoo) for a couple of mission teams from the International House of Prayer University. The first year a team came, their students noticed how open people in the neighborhood were to receiving prayer. They commented how their street ministry teams were reaping the fruit from our consistent intercession (and I would add our church's consistent street ministry). As we prayed and worshiped, the Spirit of God had been softening hearts. Praise God!
Because John and I serve at Vanguard North Church, we get to see the Holy Spirit’s incredible work in people’s lives on a weekly basis - beautiful men and women experiencing freedom from addictions and strongholds: heroin, weed, Nicotine, alcohol, sexual promiscuity, racism, prejudice, anxiety, depression, bitterness, etc. Witnessing people choose Jesus over everything else has given us great joy! Being a part of the Vanguard North family has been a lifeline of encouragement for us on this urban prayer room journey.
The Dream
In early 2017, I had the opportunity to attend the Stand conference at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. While at the conference, Stuart Greaves, one of the senior leaders at IHOPKC, shared a dream he had received some years ago. In it, he was sitting on a park bench in a large city. He was watching two young black boys play on a playground. In the dream, he remembers thinking about how safe they were at that park. He knew that no one was going to hurt them or molest them. Then, Stuart became aware of the manifest presence of God pervading the park. He was curious from where it was emanating, so he began to walk. His search led him to a community center, where he looked in, and discovered a prayer room going in the back of the community center. Night and day prayer was the key to cultivating the atmosphere of heaven, which was causing this urban neighborhood to become such a safe place that these two little boys could play with complete freedom and confidence.
When Stuart shared his dream at the conference, it both encouraged and captured my heart. Encouraged…because we were already doing this very thing at KHOP. Captured…because I sensed an invitation from the Holy Spirit in that dream. Perhaps the breakthrough our urban ministries need can only be found in united, night and day prayer. And in no way am I suggesting that prayer and worship are the only things our ministries should be doing. Not at all. I believe and my life bears the fruit of the impact of Holy Spirit-breathed evangelism, discipleship, deliverance, healing, hospitality, benevolence…. But I will go on the record to say that ministry unto God through prayer and worship should remain our first priority, and that everything else flows from our pursuit of Him.
This is what I’ve learned over the last five years of leading a house of prayer: when we enthrone the Lord in our worship and praise, we discover and tap into His river of life that surges from His throne (Ezekiel 47, Revelation 22 ). And when we choose to do it together, as His unified Bride, we tap into an anointing that can break strongholds over an entire region. Our cities need His river to flow through every street, into every home, business, and school. And the Lord has chosen to partner with us, His sons and daughters, to release this roaring river of life. Today. In my city. In your city. In my nation. And in yours.
