I have a HUGE announcement, but first here are some quick bullet points of smaller updates in my personal life and at The Prayer Room.

• I turned 30! I felt very well loved and celebrated by my community.
• I moved in with a different prayer room family closer to base. They’re great, the house is gorgeous, and I now live with a 6-year-old and a puppy!
• I’m growing in leading full worship teams, both for intercession and worship with the Word.
• I’m leading an intercession set for racial reconciliation! This has been a desire for six months or so, and we’re so excited it finally landed.
• My church, Forerunner Fellowship, is growing and moving into a larger building! We’re seeing CRAZY favor in the renting and remodeling.
• TPR added several new missionaries! Andrew  and Risa Adams (the fam I live with) and Christi Schimp are amazing. Plus, we get IHOPU extern Jessi Getz for the summer!

Okay, without further ado…

IHOPU at TPR!

After 10 years of working closely with the International House of Prayer University in Kansas City, TPR will be taking that partnership to a whole new level for Fall 2020. Beginning August 17th, TPR will become an IHOPU Educational Partner Location.

This partnership will be such a unique experience as students will virtually attend IHOPU classes (receiving instruction from IHOPU faculty) while being in community and doing their prayer room hours at TPR in Arlington. Students will be able to choose from a 1-year, 2-year, or 4-year IHOPU certificate, and may sign up for either the Forerunner School of Ministry or the Forerunner School of Worship.

IHOPU’s mandate has always been to equip and send out believers in wholehearted love to preach the Word, heal the sick, serve the poor, plant houses of prayer and praying churches, and proclaim the return of Jesus as King before He comes. This training has primarily taken place in Kansas City—until now. This fall TPR will become one of three pilot locations where you can be a full-time IHOPU student without moving to Kansas City.

The other two locations are IHOPEG in New Jersey, and Preparing the Way Ministries in Lake Charles, LA. Several more locations will be jumping on board in the spring, and no doubt more in the semesters to come.

For this first year, tuition will be 65% off, with the first payment due in January. This is a ridiculous opportunity for us, for IHOPU, and for the students God is sending!

What This Means for The Prayer Movement

As this grows and other locations spring up around the earth, our ability to raise up forerunners is going to increase dramatically. I believe that God is going to use this new expression of IHOPU to rapidly multiply prophetic voices and lovesick worshippers in this generation. The possibilities are endless– houses of prayer strengthened and planted, praying churches strengthened and planted, forerunner messengers in every realm of society with clarity on what God is doing in this generation.

Students will graduate already feeling deeply connected to a local community that’s doing it. It’s been a sad reality that too many IHOPU students graduate in Kansas City and then drift off into the void, full of training and vision but without a community to run with… and over time the vision wanes. These local schools are going to give students an incredible opportunity to stay on track and keep doing what they’re called to.

At TPR, we are so excited to gain new friends in our community who come burning with desire for Jesus and are actively involved full-time around the base. They’re going to be such a joy and strength as they serve in the prayer room, hang out with us over Catan and tacos, and generally make our world a better place. Lord willing, some of them will stick around, join staff, and become family forever!

For more info, check out TPR’s website with all the details!

This week I’m taking a break from our Intro to the End Times series to give you a quick update on what life at The Prayer Room looks like right now. (If you haven’t read it yet, a few weeks ago I shared a post on what I believe God is calling the church to in this season. Pop over there, then come back here!)

Practical Steps We’re Taking

The coronavirus really came on our radar in the second week of March. Like everyone else, we cautiously tried to feel out what was the best way to respond without overreacting. We focused our prayers and joined Lou Engle’s three-day Esther fast for God to supernaturally end the outbreak.

Over the next week we watched the group meeting restrictions shrink tighter and tighter, and I believe we had nine separate 3-4 hour emergency leadership meetings within two weeks. (Honestly, those two weeks felt like two months and they’re all a blur.) We instituted our own protocols based on medical recommendations and governmental mandates, constantly adjusting them as needed:

• Current schools cancelled
• Maximum of 10 people in a room
• Washing hands upon entering the building every time
• Cleaning every surface every 2 hours
• Disinfecting the worship leading stations every set
• Not touching the prayer mic
• Encounter service and staff meeting went online
• No hugs or touching— “foot fives” only! 

As we’re doing our best to follow the mandates and protect our community, our chief priority is the “fire on the altar” (Lev. 6:13), the live prayer and worship 20 hours a day in our prayer room. That won’t stop no matter what!

On May 1, Texas lifted our stay-at-home order, and things are taking baby steps back to normal. This Saturday we hosted Encounter service with all of our staff invited into the room, and next week we’re inviting the community at large to join us in person. We’re still maintaining strict social distancing and cleaning, and honoring those who don’t feel safe to join us.

Ridiculous Blessing

In the middle of the storm, it’s almost embarrassing how greatly God is blessing us. God prophetically highlighted Psalm 91 to us during our Revelation study several weeks before corona hit. (Our director Brad saw a bumper sticker that said “Psalm 91” and heard God say clearly that he needed to preach on it!) Therefore, we were ALREADY talking about protection, mercy, and favor in His house, specifically in a time of plague, and we have seen Him be faithful to His word!

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday… Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge— no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.”
(Psalm 91:1-10)

We’ve actually been adding staff in this season! Someone gave a generous donation to cover stipends for three months for five individuals to serve as paid part-time missionaries. We called upon five people who already love The Prayer Room and are currently out of work and invited them to increase their involvement for a season. These five “provisional staff members” have been loving the extra time! Every one one them has been so blessed by the opportunity and plan to stay involved at some sort of increased level even after the stipend ends.

Eric and Robbie, who moved here early this year to join full-time missionary staff, finally were able to start their full-time schedules! Beverly, my small groupie who did an internship last year, also started her full-time missionary schedule. All three of them are still in the partnership development process, but we wanted to get them up and running ASAP. We also have a girl in Wisconsin, Christi, who did an externship with us two years ago and has been raising partnership to move here to join full-time missionary staff in June. She will revolutionize our finance department, strengthen our prayer room, and be such a joy to our community!

In the fall, several staff roles will be shifting, and I will take over Events and Community Life and release our ministry schools into the very capable hands of Luke Fredenberg! Luke is a fellow IHOPU grad who has been a full-time missionary at The Prayer Room for almost five years.

Giving up my schools was not my favorite idea at first, but practically speaking it seems to be a good fit for me, and I know Luke will be incredible at running the schools and caring for students. Also, the Lord gave me a dream several months ago that I was “moving into Caslin’s house,” our previous event coordinator, which I now believe was about taking over her ministry at TPR. I have a lot of peace about this transition and am excited to run our conferences and community events!

We’ve also been blessed abundantly in finances! We’ve had several large gifts come in for TPR’s general budget, as well as a number of gifts for our missionaries. On top of that, I’ve been sewing and selling face masks and have sold over 200 at $10 each. That’s insane!! I’m feeling ridiculously blessed and grateful and saving up for whatever the Lord is preparing me for!

Our prophetic history is sprinkled with words from the Lord about Him being faithful to us and blessing us in the midst of national crisis. We see this season as a partial fulfillment of those words. He has been so, so gracious to strengthen and bless us in these crazy times.

Live Stream The Prayer Room on Youtube!

One of the unforeseen bonuses of Covid-19 was the push to start live streaming our prayer room! There was a season of several weeks wherein places of worship were only allowed to stay open to “live stream services”, so we were like, welp, guess we’re live streaming our 10 “services” a day! The Youtube channel has been a blessing to our community and to those watching at a distance.

At the moment, archives aren’t properly available because Youtube only saves live streams that run for less than 12 hours, but you can watch live right now! And please subscribe!

 

We’re in a really exciting moment as a ministry where it seems that God is bringing The Prayer Room a TON of IHOPKC transplants! Currently, we have 12 people on our staff who were IHOPU students, and God brought them here one by one, or two by two, over the past few years. Prior to this season, it was a MUCH slower trickle!

Within the past year:

• Nick and Brittany moved spring 2019. Nick is volunteer staff and Brittany just finished raising partnership to be a part-time missionary.
• Daniel and Tyler moved fall 2019, after both externing in the spring. Both are full-time missionaries. (Sorry for listing you with the married couples, boys…)
• Eric and Wendy and baby Michael moved in December 2019. Eric is currently raising partnership to be full-time, and Wendy is my volunteer admin assistant!
• Robbie and McKenna and unborn baby Toby moved in January 2020. Robbie is currently raising partnership to be full-time, and McKenna is killing it as Brad’s assistant.

This semester, we are running Forerunner Worship Academy, which is a part-time school affiliated with IHOPU’s FMA program in Kansas City. The school is being run by three IHOPU externs, who are spending a semester of their ministry school education serving with us. Each extern has a crazy story:

• Naomi was supposed to come extern and teach music in spring 2019, but she needed to take a semester off from school to take care of some personal things. (That year, we got post-grad Daniel as an emergency ringer instead, and he ended up staying and even joining our senior staff!) This year, Naomi was ready to complete her graduation requirements and is here externing at last!
• Katie beat cancer just a few months ago, and was ready to hit the ground running, but she fractured a vertebrae within the first week while moving. (She LIFTED A CAR that had slipped off a ramp!!) While she was in the hospital, we asked IHOPU if they had another emergency post-grad to send, and we got…
• Taylor! Taylor graduated 2019 and had just arrived in Brazil to teach a similar school at a house of prayer, and was just realizing that it wasn’t working out when she got a call asking her to come to Dallas. A few hours later, she booked a ticket home to pack and arrived on our doorstep within the week.

And then because Katie is a fierce beast who bows to no diagnosis, she was back within a couple weeks as well, wearing a back brace and teaching music! So lo and behold, glory to God, we have THREE stellar externs teaching, coaching, and loving our students so excellently in their musical journeys.

Kansas City Recruiting Trip

All of this was really fun to be able to talk about when we did our twice-annual recruiting trip to IHOPU in February. In their senior year, most of these students will do an externship at another house of prayer or ministry somewhere, and many of them will also be looking for a house of prayer community to become part of after they graduate. Over the years, we’ve come to know for a fact that The Prayer Room is a vibrant, healthy, opportunity-ful place for them to land—we have 12 former IHOPU students currently on our staff, not including our three current externs!

This February, Brad, Brittany, and I drove up for IHOPU’s annual externship expo. About a dozen different ministries who are eligible as externship locations (most of them either local in KC or international; there are only four domestic externship locations this year) gave short presentations and then talked to students at booths.

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A post shared by Caitlyn Peterson {Fragrance Arise} (@fragrancearise)

In addition to this, we did our usual routine of reaching out to a few dozen students individually to set up 30 minute coffee appointments, and then we literally talked to students back to back all day long. We have seen these short meetings bear so much fruit— some students will visit us for a preview weekend, some will extern at The Prayer Room, and some will eventually move to join us on staff long-term. Between coffee, the booth, and moments in between, we had quality connections with 60+ people!

Allen Hood at TPR

A couple weeks ago, we had the incredible privilege to host Allen Hood for the weekend! He came with his son Joshua and visited our teaching staff meeting on Friday night, spent most of the day at Six Flags with the TPR senior staff, spoke at The Prayer Room Saturday night, and spoke at Forerunner Fellowship Sunday morning.

I’ve never known Allen personally (only talked to him once or twice before this) but he has been on leadership of IHOPKC and IHOPU for years and years, until he moved to Colorado just a year ago. He knows and loves Jesus with a passion, depth, and tenderness that provokes me like few people on the face of the earth, and has a well-deserved reputation for being such a DAD, in all the best ways. He’s one I would absolutely feel comfortable going to for fatherly wisdom or a big hug anytime I could.

I feel so, so spoiled that I got the opportunity to get to know Allen for real, after all these years, and to actually get used to him being around for a few days. It felt so right to have him all up in the mix of our community. God was definitely knitting our hearts together, and I’m so grateful for this blessing and excited to see how our connection will develop in the future!

Teacher Equipping group with all of TPR’s teaching staff- most of whom are IHOPU alums! Allen loved to see “his kids” out there doing what IHOPU trained us for.

Bonus Testimony:

At the end of February, my car situation took a dramatic nosedive. My transmission gave out on me, immediately sparking anxiety but setting off a sequence of events that would ultimately be a HUGE blessing:

• Transmission dies 2/22. Quoted $2300 for repair. Have proper meltdown. Robbie, McKenna, and other assorted people make me feel much loved.
• Several people refer me to mechanics with other options, even making phone calls and doing research for me.
• Joseph and Caslin loan me their cars.
• Make Facebook post asking for financial help. About $1400 comes in from 16 people, mostly from the FB post. After taxes, tithe, other giving, it’s about $1000.
• Call original mechanic to say I’m going with a different option for a used transmission, he drops price to $1800 for a rebuild because I’m in ministry. Yes, do it, I can pay $800 out of savings.
• Get my car back 3/4 with a rebuilt transmission.
• Partner gives $1000. Car is now MORE than paid for. Almost cry in the Taco Bell drive-through.
• Pass on the update to someone who wants to give but hasn’t yet. They decide to partner monthly instead of contribute to car. (Earlier someone else did both!)

This year was rich with excitement and growth, and also with the faithfulness of God in the smallness and the mundane.

In 2019, I continued serving on the senior leadership team of The Prayer Room and providing administrative leadership to and teaching in all of our schools and programs (including our music school, two internships, and seven IHOPU externs). I also continued to serve and grow as a worship leader, leading 12-16 hours/week.

TPR continued our close relationship with IHOPKC and traveled there for several trips, plus hosted many of their staff and students on various trips to Texas. Most spectacularly, in 2019 we gained four new Kansas City transplants as staff members, with two more in January and another six-ish making plans to move here within a year or so!

2019 was also the Year of Life Events for the Lutz family, so I traveled for a college graduation, a wedding, and a new baby. I also came home for partnership development and Christmas, for a total of five family trips in 2019. I love my family, but I’m aiming to travel a little less in 2020!

January

• I launched Fragrancearise.com with a big giveaway and my Tools for a Life of Prayer series.
• I continued taking Adult Beginning Ballet at a local Christian dance studio. Having a creative outlet that didn’t involve sitting on my butt was so healthy for my body and my soul.
• I started leading a small group through my church, Forerunner Fellowship. Discipling these girls has been one of the hardest and most rewarding things I’ve ever done.
• I taught on Mary of Bethany at The Prayer Room’s Encounter service.
• TPR launched “TPR 2.0” – a new vision for our house of prayer with renewed emphasis on 1) praying for revival, 2) teaching on the book of Revelation, and 3) strengthening community.
• TPR launched a part-time worship school with 20 students in partnership with IHOPU.
• Two awesome guys came to serve as externs from IHOPU for the semester to run the worship school. They both fell in love with our community and felt the call to join full-time staff long-term!

February

• I, along with several of our leadership team, traveled to Kansas City on a recruiting trip to have coffee with dozens upon dozens of IHOPU students to build/strengthen/maintain relationships with these fiery young people… in the hopes that some of them will eventually move to join us!
• My sister Elise visited me in Texas for a couple days… and surprised my socks off by bringing along our cousin Carly!! The three of us had the best time ever enjoying the prayer room, eating tacos, and seeing the touring Broadway production of Anastasia.

March

• The senior staff of TPR went out of town together to spend two days sitting around a living room with laptops dreaming up ways to strengthen our house of prayer and hammering out plans for the year. Many great ideas were forged in these meetings.

April

• I flew home to California to celebrate my sister Elise’s wedding! My new brother-in-law Jackson is wonderful and they are a true Kingdom power couple.
• TPR hosted 10 IHOPU students on a weeklong ministry trip–except this trip was different from anything IHOPU had ever done. Instead of merely using our base as a headquarters from which to do a dozen different things in the city, they focused their energy on serving in our prayer room, getting to know our community, and connecting with our heart and vision for the house of prayer. It was fantastically strengthening to everyone involved!

May

• I flew home to watch my youngest sister Christen graduate from college with her B.S. in Exercise Science! She is brilliant and passionate and I love watching her thrive.
• We launched our summer Immerse internship with 5 interns! All 5 grew by leaps and bounds, fell more in love with Jesus in the prayer room, and have stayed involved ever since. (One of them, also in my small group, got radically hijacked and is in process to be our newest full-time intercessory missionary!)

June

• I moved out of the house I had been living in for two and a half years (I was the only TPR person left in the house and it wasn’t the right fit anymore) and moved in with my dear friends/small group leaders/fellow TPR leaders Luke and Caslin.
• TPR got not two, not three, nay, not even four, but a record-breaking FIVE incredible externs to serve with us for the summer!! These five IHOPU seniors (well, four plus a spouse) served so faithfully and blessed us in countless ways.

July

• I celebrated my 29th birthday with my beloved TPR family!
• I flew to Washington state to visit my brother and sister-in-law and meet my nephew, the first of a new generation, Noah.
• I taught on the Song of Solomon at The Prayer Room’s Encounter service.

August

• On a word from the Lord, TPR planned a small conference called Passion for Jesus almost overnight and rallied our community to renew our vision to love Jesus wholeheartedly. The ripples of the Spirit impacted all of us long after.

September

• TPR LAUNCHED NIGHT WATCH!!! This is the biggest thing we’ve done in six years, or possibly ever. We extended our hours permanently from 5am-11pm daily to 5am-1am daily. Only four more hours to go until we are fully 24/7!!
• At the same time, we launched our first Fire in the Night internship with five fiery interns, envisioning them to take their stand as worshippers and intercessors in the night.
• We also celebrated our 14 year anniversary! God gave us a word in 2005 to “Start a daily prayer meeting tomorrow morning at 5am and don’t stop until I come back,” and we haven’t missed a day since.

October

• I moved again, this time moving in with a different young TPR/church couple. Several young women are praying for God to give us a house we can rent together, but in the meanwhile, I love living with Joseph and Jireh!
• We visited Kansas City again to continue getting to know (and hopefully recruiting) IHOPU students. We must be doing something right– 10+ IHOPers have either recently moved to join us or are planning to in the next year!

November

• All of TPR’s staff went out of town for our annual staff retreat weekend. It was such an incredible time of bonding and refreshing–and IHOPU graciously sent us their best worship team to hold down our prayer room while we were gone!
• I traveled home to California for 10 days of partnership development, inviting people to join the story of night and day prayer and worship by partnering with me financially. I also had the opportunity to speak at three different churches and a small group, teaching on Song of Solomon and the end times and even doing some prophetic worship/intercession (harp and bowl) training!
• We hosted another group of IHOPU students, seniors on their senior trip. We loved spending such a special time with them!

December

• We wrapped up our Fire in the Night internship with an all-night burn! My interns did their usual 9pm-1am prayer room time and then kept going till 5am when the morning crew took over! All four sets were intercession for houses of prayer, human trafficking, night watch, and Israel, respectively. My interns rallied around this long night of ministering to the Lord with such zeal!
• The day after the burn, I traveled to California to spend Christmas with my family, and then spent New Year’s Eve in Dallas at a worship night with Upper Room!

Onward…

I’m so grateful for all that God did this year. There were highs, as you see above, but there were a good amount of lows too, the same old battles in new packages, plus a couple new ones, and many opportunities to love and trust Jesus through every storm.

Early in 2019, God gave me this verse as a specific answer to prayer, and it has been following me ever since:

“I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!”
(Psalm 27:13)

This is the confidence I’m carrying as we move forward into 2020. I will see the goodness of the Lord in this life. Not only will God be abundantly faithful and generous to me when I stand before Him on the other side (and yes, that is mostly the point), but He also has good things stored up for me now, in this life. It’s okay to trust my Father to be kind, generous, and faithful to me right now, in the midst of all of my circumstances and emotions.

Happy New Year. May you experience the faithful love of the Father in 2020.

After I lead a prayer meeting with a worship team, prayer team, or both, I always take some time to debrief with them– to encourage each other, clarify confusion, etc. I always like to be able to tell my team that we did it; we had a successful prayer meeting.

So what makes a prayer meeting successful?

There are definitely some things that make a prayer meeting easier or more enjoyable, such as:

• Skilled singers and musicians
• Articulate prayer leaders
• A decent sound system
• A streamlined communication model
• Songs that people like
• Catchy choruses

But from God’s perspective, at the end of the day, those things don’t define success. In my opinion, there are a handful of things that are characteristic of a successful prayer meeting that have nothing to do with any of the externals like talent or room setup.

“For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”
(1 Samuel 16:7)

1. Hearts Devoted to Worship

First and foremost, we want to bring God a pure offering of worship. This includes doing our best to fight against distraction to set our focus completely on Him. It’s the easiest thing in the world to lift our hands and close our eyes with our minds and hearts still whirling with a hundred other thoughts and emotions that are not helping us love Jesus. Until we see Jesus face to face, we will always have some degree of distraction and mixed motives, but our desire must always be to set our hearts completely on Him.

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
(John 4:23-24)

2. Hunger and Reach

God is mostly just looking for a genuine reach. He’s not interested in performance; He just wants a humble heart that earnestly longs for Him. No matter how weak it is, as long as we’re reaching in our spirits for Him, we’re doing it right.

In the Song of Solomon, the King tells the bride, “You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes.” (Song 4:9) His heart is so moved by even just one glance in His direction. Even on days when I don’t feel like I have much to give, I always have enough strength for one weak glance.

“For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
(Psalm 51:16-17)

3. Agreement with God

Worship and intercession are both about agreeing with God. Worship is agreeing with who God is, and intercession is agreeing with what He wants to do. Then when we add the prophetic dimension, we’re agreeing with what the Holy Spirit wants to do in the moment!

When we gather in corporate prayer and worship, we want to agree with what’s on God’s heart. This doesn’t mean we always need some huge prophetic revelation (although we always want to ask for more), but we want to be reaching to come into alignment with what we already know God wants to do.

The simplest way to do this is to pray Scripture. Check out my blog on praying the apostolic prayers.

4. Love. Unity. HUMILITY.

One of the quickest ways to make a prayer meeting unsuccessful is for the people serving to lose their love for each other. One of Jesus’ final prayers before He went to the cross was that we would walk in unity (John 17:21-23).

With a worship team serving on a prayer meeting together, we always want to start with a briefing to get on the same page about the direction of the worship and prayers. Then during the flow of the meeting, we need to be aware of preferring each other in the midst of whatever moments happen. It might be a worship leader who takes a nervous singer’s antiphonal phrase and encourages them to develop it into a chorus. It might be a prayer leader who lets the enthusiastic visitor pray on the mic in an unusual style. We listen to each other, support and encourage what each other brings to the table, and at times choose to go low and restrain our own ideas to lift up someone else.

TIP: Sometimes love and humility looks like what we call “serving the room”– thinking about how your leading will help those in the room to engage. Especially in a small prayer room, it can be fun to tailor your songs and prayers to the people in the room! If there’s a mom in the room, pray for moms. If you have an older couple who don’t seem to be connecting with your newer songs, try pulling out a few oldies.

“complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
(Philippians 2:2-3)

“…walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
(Ephesians 4:1-3)

When I asked this question on Instagram, my friend Alexus (currently a missionary at Sarasota House of Prayer, which I spotlighted in February) had my favorite answer.

Success is so simple. It’s within reach for every single person. We say “yes” to Jesus, we talk to Him, and we exalt His name. And we do it in love and humility toward one another. It doesn’t have to be the most musically stunning or most articulate set ever– if the hearts are genuine, Jesus loves it.

More favorite responses from Instagram:

[Responses have been edited for clarity.]

“What makes a prayer meeting successful?”

@inspiringpassionforjesus – That we prayed/sang what God led us to and not just our own ideas or agenda. That we exalted Him and His working above praying from a tilt toward what the enemy was/is doing.

@asanchezmama: SHOWING UP!!

@jeremy.jarvis2019: I think success is everyone genuinely coming with a heart that is hungry for his presence and then reaching and engaging with God from the heart together, regardless of circumstances or if there is a “good team” etc…

@carmel_ella: Knowing that we prayed the heart of God and touched His heart in that place of divine partnership (like Mary of Bethany) …our weak “Yes” even the tiniest whisper is heard by God – so our prayer may be weak/not so fancy/we may not have the proper language/words for it but if our hearts are sincere and open, it counts.

@sanchandygrams – Hearts in pursuit. Agreenment with who He is and what He wants to do.

@jacksonbrown – When someone shares their heart with the Lord unashamedly

@acker.jayden – When there’s unity of heart in the room and greater grace to reach

@ms.adriana.galvan – When our hearts connect with the Father

“What makes a prayer meeting UNsuccessful?”

@inspiringpassionforjesus – Preaching at people (or God!) instead of actually praying to God. Not actually engaging in prayer during the prayer time.

@asanchezmama – Oh man, not showing up…

@jacksonbrown – praying with a hidden bias unaligned with His heart or desires

@sanchandygrams – staying unrepentant. Stewing with offence or unforgiveness toward someone

@dbensosa – Disagreement or discord, we gotta be in one accord

@cinorya – distraction in the mind

@mac_maddi – NOT GIVING YOUR ANXIETY AND STRESS TO JESUS

Interns

What a season! After we wrapped our music school with 18 students, I launched my energy into our summer Immerse internship. I have six interns and they are incredible!! I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better group. They are hungry, humble, in love with Jesus, engaged, and running hard! They remind me of the well-loved line from the Misty Edwards song Always on His Mind:

How far will You let me go?
How abandoned will You let me be?

These six have committed to spending their summer with us at The Prayer Room going deep in prayer, community, and the Word. It’s a part-time schedule, but it’s not lightweight. Here’s their weekly schedule, not including their 8 hours a week of prayer room time. (Session I lead/teach are marked with an asterisk.)

Tuesday
6-7pm – Awakening (theology of intimacy with God, etc)

Wednesday
6-7pm – Equipping Tools (how-tos of growing in prayer, with activities)

Thursday
6-7pm – *Group Discussion (talk through Bible passages)

Saturday
3-4pm – *Intro to the End Times
4-5pm – Intern Essentials (behind the scenes, hands-on introduction to how we run the house of prayer)
5-6pm – *DINNER PROVIDED
6-7pm – *Community Time (fun, relational connect time)
7-9pm – Encounter service

Externs

The Prayer Room has the incredible privilege of getting to host not two, not three, but FOUR externs from the International House of Prayer in Kansas City this summer!! Students at IHOPU have to do an externship at another house of prayer during their senior year or the summer before. We have hosted close to 20 externs over the years, and they always have an incredible experience and several of them (including me!) have moved back to join us long-term after graduating.

This summer, we get two guys, Faith and John, plus a newlywed couple (like two weeks newlywed!), Max and Brittani! Max and Brittani are coming here a week later than the guys, because they are currently on their honeymoon. The guys arrived this weekend, and we are SO excited to have them!

Externs strengthen our community so much. They bring fresh life and vibrancy, as well as an array of gifts in areas like wisdom, musicianship, administration, intercession, worship, servantheartedness, etc. They come hungry to serve, learn, and get connected, and they become friends for life whether or not they choose to plant themselves here afterward.

On their end, they get the benefit of hands-on experience at a smaller house of prayer, with daily interaction with leadership and real responsibility. For most of them, IHOPKC is the only house of prayer context they’ve ever known, and it’s the rare student who gets real access to even running the prayer room, let alone running the ministry as a whole. Spending a season at a smaller house of prayer not only gives that leadership experience, but provides a real-life glimpse into what the prayer movement is actually like outside of Kansas City.

Staff

This is a season of a lot of staff transition for us. Jeremy Jarvis, our beloved worship director who has served as a senior leader and intercessory missionary at TPR for a decade, recently felt God transitioning him out of this ministry. His absence will leave a hole in a dozen different ways, especially as a dear friend and father in this house.

At the same time, we are gaining more staff than we’re losing, praise God! Jade Cude, who was one of my interns in 2017 and has been on volunteer staff ever since, just came on full-time missionary staff!! (I shared an interview with Jade in a House of Prayer Spotlight post last month.) Jade is already teaching weekly in our internship (taking over the Intern Essentials class) and will soon take over coordinating our weekly Encounter service.

Our two spring externs/FMA teachers, Tyler and Daniel, are currently raising partnership to be able to join full-time missionary staff in the fall. We also just got two of my favorite people from my IHOPU years, Nick and Brittany, who moved here from Kansas City, joined volunteer staff, and want to be as involved as possible.

On top of all of this, we got a new volunteer staff member from the music school who is heading up a new security department for us, and another new volunteer staff member from Immerse (Beverly, bottom center in the picture at the top of this post)! God seems to be really bringing us new staff right now with specific gifts and experiences that will be a huge strength to this house. It is such a joy to have these people as new friends and comrades-at-arms building night and day prayer with us.

Prayer Request for Housing

A while ago, I shared that we were praying for God to give us a dorm. He’s been really quiet on that point, and even started to lead us to believe that He has a different plan for how He’s going to provide housing for our community in this season. Luke and Caslin, two of our senior leaders (also my small group leaders and good friends), recently bought a house with a few rooms to host! On top of that, several of our young adults are talking about buying/renting homes together. As much as it would make life easier to have a dorm, God seems to be stretching us by calling people to open their own homes.

At the beginning of June, I actually moved out of my house! I was the only TPR person left in the house, and the house culture was shifting toward being a discipleship house for younger college girls, so it was time for me to transition. Luke and Caslin invited me to move in with them for the summer, until they get a single guy (Daniel) as a housemate in September. Our externs Max and Brittani are moving into the house for the summer as well!

My hope for the fall is to find a house to rent with a few TPR girls, but that plan is very much not landed yet. Please pray for the right (affordable!) house and for the right people to be able to move in together.

I’m about a week and a half late posting, and that’s something I never wanted to do on this blog… but this month has been a whirlwind of activity at The Prayer Room! On May 4, our part-time music school wrapped up for the semester. 19 students graduated and I’m so proud of them! Most of the students have chosen to stick around the community and stay committed to prayer meetings, as well as keep serving on prayer room worship teams. So far, one has even joined staff!

This school was made possible by two guys from IHOPU (one who graduated last year and one who graduated this semester) who spent the spring with us and took lead on teaching music. Soon afterward, both of them left and went home for the summer – to raise partnership to move back in the fall as full-time intercessory missionaries!! We miss them, but are EXCITED OUT OF OUR FLIPPING MINDS that we get them back FOREVER in a few short months. It’s been so much fun to watch God knit their hearts to this community and call them to serve in His house long-term.

In the weeks since the music school ended, I’ve enjoyed the chance to catch my breath and focus my energy on this summer. On Sunday, May 26, we launch our summer Immerse internship for young adults. I’ve got a few signed up and a handful more considering. These internships are never big, but those who do it are always impacted, some in dramatically life-changing ways.

This summer, we also have FOUR new externs from IHOPU coming to serve with us for a few months! We can’t wait to have them get plugged into this community. They are going to bring such wisdom and giftings and be such a strength to this base–but mostly, our favorite thing is when they become our new best friends!

As you might know, my role on staff is to oversee all of these schools and externships. Immerse has a few new components this summer, so I’ve been trying to clean up some old curriculum and create some new curriculum. On top of that I’m recruiting interns (including trying to find one of the interns a place to live so he came move here for the summer), scheduling teachers, updating and printing documents… basically, I’m trying not to waste an hour and I’m living by my to-do list! (I’ve begun to see this season before every program a bit like finals week in college… just suck it up, power through, pull a couple of all-nighters, you’ll survive.)

One of the curriculum documents I drafted was an in-depth session on usher training for our prayer room. In order to cast vision for the weightiness and value of serving as an usher in the house of prayer, I took myself on a little Bible study journey through passages that describe the “gatekeepers” in the tabernacle of David.

1 Chronicles 9 describes the gatekeepers’ duties in detail.  They were charged with guarding all of the entrance doors to the tabernacle, to strictly guard the priests, the worshipers, and the holy items used in worship.  They also were in charge of keeping inventory of all the holy items used in worship, including preparing the food items used in offering.  They didn’t serve as singers or musicians, but their responsibilities were vital; it was described as an “office of trust” (1 Ch. 9:22) and “ministering in the house of the Lord” (1Ch. 26:12).

“The gatekeepers… were in charge of the work of the service, keepers of the thresholds of the tent, as their fathers had been in charge of the camp of the LORD, keepers of the entrance. …David and Samuel the seer established them in their office of trust. So they and their sons were in charge of the gates of the house of the LORD, that is, the house of the tent, as guards… the four chief gatekeepers, who were Levites, were entrusted to be over the chambers and the treasures of the house of God. …on them lay the duty of watching, and they had charge of opening it every morning. Some of them had charge of the utensils of service, for they were required to count them when they were brought in and taken out. Others of them were appointed over the furniture and over all the holy utensils, also over the fine flour, the wine, the oil, the incense, and the spices.”
(1 Chronicles 9:17-30)

The responsibility of the gatekeepers was to keep the house of prayer protected and taken care of so that the worship could continue unhindered.  They served as security and also the behind-the-scenes staff taking responsibility to ensure that all the practical logistics of running the house of prayer were in place.  By standing guard at the doors as well as by doing boring tasks like taking inventory, they were serving and guarding the very resting place of God.

The gatekeepers were the ushers, the admins, the facilities staff, the rule enforcers, etc. At our house of prayer, many of our staff  serve as worshippers and intercessors on a microphone, but we also serve as gatekeepers– ushering, section leading, sending emails, making spreadsheets, budgeting, vacuuming, updating a billion documents, replacing power cables, fixing holes in the ceiling, planning events, running slides, taking inventory, placing Amazon orders, troubleshooting malfunctioning loop pedals.

ALL of it is important. ALL of it is serving the Lord and building His house.

So, I apologize that this post is late. Fragrance Arise is important to me, and hopefully the next time my “finals week” hits, I’ll be a little more prepared and maybe even have some posts scheduled ahead of time. But for at least the rest of this week, I’m going to admin my heart out to make this internship the best it can be. Jesus is worthy of all the spreadsheets, Google docs, and curriculum updates in the world.