Back in May I had the opportunity to spend a week or so in the Mid-West, specifically in St. Louis and it’s Missouri companion (depending on which side of the river I was on) Kansas City. Flying into St. Louis, I spent the first few days with Kent and Carla Henry who graciously let me crash at their house. We spent a lot of time at the Prayer Room at their home church, Destiny Church of St. Louis. Cool thing about Destiny is that it’s a local church that has adapted the house of prayer model. Unlike IHOP (International House of Prayer in Kansas City) which is a missions base that has endeavored to sustain 24-hour prayer and worship, Destiny has adapted that model as a prayer-paradigm local church. If you’re looking for some great teachings/outlines on this and how to incorporate it into your local church, go to Destiny’s website. Kent and Jim Stern (Kent’s son-in-law who is also the lead pastor at Destiny) have done a great job putting together teachings on this stuff.
The famous St. Louis arch and Kent showing me some stuff in the studio.
After spending a few days in St. Louis, I drove straight across Missouri to Kansas City where I was invited to participate in the first ever All About Worship retreat. This event was an “un-conference”…laid back, stripped down, small in number (registration was limited to 65 people), and very intimate. I did a few workshops (Leading by the Holy Spirit and Disappointment with Leadership), led worship for a short afternoon set, and led one of the small groups. I was really refreshed and excited to make some new friends including Rich Kirkpatrick and Jared Anderson, and also see Darrell Evans again who wrote the foreword to my first book. It was also great to finally meet Wisdom Moon and Ben AbuSaada, who really put on a terrific event. Listen to the All About Worship podcast…it’s a terrific resource. I believe the guys are putting on another one for 2011. If you are a worship leader or involved in worship ministry at all, I’d highly recommend going next year.
Ben & Wisdom kick off the AAW Retreat!
While I was in Kansas City, I ducked out of my hotel room one night over to the International House of Prayer. Between visiting Destiny Church and IHOP, I was looking to glean some ideas and learn about how to incorporate the prayer room model into my home church. I went around 10:00 p.m. to their conference center. There were easily over 1000 people there worshiping and praying until midnight. It was great for me to go and receive prayer and soak…not something I get to do very often. I know some people don’t like IHOP or have problems with their theology. I’m not here to argue all that stuff, but I will say that there was something special about the atmosphere there. The presence of God was definitely in that place in a way you’d expect if people were worshiping and praying 24/7. Hopefully I’ll get to go again sometime.
IHOP was rockin’…even at midnight.
To top it off, I got to hang with my buddy Joe who is originally from Kansas City. He showed me one of the most important things when traveling to a new city: where to eat. Death by Kansas City chicken!
