In October of 2011, a small group of pastors and ministry leaders met together at a local coffee shop to discuss the possibility of their area churches meeting together for prayer and worship. The upcoming gathering named TheCall Detroit 11.11.11 had inspired them to cross denominational and cultural boundaries. (The Call Detroit was bringing together thousands of believers at Ford Field on 11/11/11 from across political, denominational, cultural, and generational boundaries. The purpose: to worship God and to intercede on behalf of Detroit, the state of Michigan, and our nation, with an emphasis on racial reconciliation.) That small group of pastors believed that God wanted to do something of this nature in southwest Michigan. By the time the first (unofficial) Prayer Push occurred just a few weeks later another church had joined them, making a total of five.
At the first Prayer Push, each church sponsored two hours of worship and intercession. Intercession was geared towards the Greater Kalamazoo region, with some attention given to the upcoming The Call Detroit event. From the very first song, the Holy Spirit’s presence could be tangibly felt. The atmosphere was electric with expectation! Each succeeding church built upon the spiritual ground gained by the preceding church. What an amazing day! Just days before the event, the Lord had given one of the leaders a dream. That night before she went to bed, she had asked the Lord to show her in a dream what this whole Prayer Push represented. God responded. In her dream, a “man of God” entered a room laughing and asked her and her husband, “Do you know what just happened?” The woman replied, “What do you mean? What are you talking about?” He replied, “You just conceived!”
The leader awoke from her dream and knew that God was saying that something transformational was transpiring through this initial Prayer Push. She wondered to herself if they were unknowingly birthing a house of prayer.
These uniting ministries were “conceiving” something in the Spirit. The leader shared this dream at that October event. After the Prayer Push was over, the ministers involved believed this was just the beginning. Then, at The Call Detroit, conversation occurred about doing the Prayer Push as a 24 hour event with more churches. The event was renamed the Greater Kalamazoo Prayer Push and was officially launched on Feb. 23-24, 2012 at the Greater Faith Empowerment Center. This time 17 churches/ministries participated. It was repeated on Oct. 22-23, 2012 at Vanguard Church (with 21+ churches/ministries participating).
At the end of the GKPP 2.0, we felt that it was time to discuss the possibility of starting a house of prayer. God was drawing together church leaders who felt compelled by the Lord to help launch one. So, in November of 2012, we convened our first KHOP planning meeting. As we continued to brainstorm and pray together, the Lord drew other pastors and leaders to the table and soon we had a KHOP launch team of about 10-12 individuals, some who had even received revelation of a their being part of (or hosting or launching) a future house of prayer through dreams and visions in years past.
The KHOP launch team was a multicultural, multi-denominational group of leaders whom God had sovereignly drawn together. From our very inception, KHOP has been a multicultural, multi-denominational, and multigenerational expression of prayer and worship.
After 9 months of prayer, brainstorming, and planning, the Kalamazoo House of Prayer was formerly launched on Friday, July 19, 2013 inside of Fresh Start Church at 3731 Covington Road in Kalamazoo. We began with 18 hours of live worship and prayer, utilizing Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings. From this time, we also began using our 1st, 3rd, and 5th Friday evenings as “VisionNights,” during which we continue to teach into the vision of KHOP as well as provide lots of worship and personal ministry time. In spring of 2014, KHOP launched its first internship program - training and equipping people for prophetic worship, intercession, evangelism, and the prophetic, with a central emphasis on “keeping the fire on the altar” in the prayer room.
As of this writing, KHOP now offers 22 hours of worship and prayer every week, including some daytime hours. Our Vision Nights have featured a wide variety of speakers and worship leaders from local, regional, and international ministries. We have partnered with Jesus Loves Kalamazoo, a John 17:23 evangelistic, regional unity movement and committed to being a biweekly prayer covering for them. We believe strongly that God wants to marry evangelism and prayer, and have seen that emerge on a national level with the catalytic partnership between Youth With A Mission and the International House of Prayer - Kansas City.