Round-the-Clock Faithful Trade Riches for Religion

0 Comments | Insight on the News, May 21, 2001 | by Julia Duin

Drawing from the Old Testament model of an always-open temple dedicated to the worship of God, Mike Bickle has set out to create a congregation of continuous prayer.

Mike Bickle is a man with an idea whose time finally may have come. In 1999, he left his job as senior pastor of a 3,000-member church in Grandview, Mo., to set up an "International House of Prayer" (IHOP) in Kansas City, where 12 teams of people pray around the clock for the world.

He since has attracted 150 people to relocate and work on subsistence salaries. Dozens more are lining up to come, and 5,000 to 10,000 visitors are pouring in from around the world each year. "The Lord has told us thousands are coming," Bickle says. "But we don't want them to stay here. We want to train them and send them out."

Bickle's thinking big: 100,000 IHOP "missionaries" tied to 100 prayer centers around the world. There already are startups in Dallas, San Diego, Colorado Springs, Colo., Chicago and Vancouver, British Columbia. IHOP's Website (wwmihopkc.com) offers 10-month internships to equip generation Xers with "extravagant devotion to Jesus."

Bickle, age 45, founded IHOP (no relation to the famous pancake-restaurant chain with the same acronym)on a start-it-and-they-will-come model. The actual site is an unimposing one-story building. The main prayer room is covered with green carpet scattered with pillows. Three rows of desks ring the perimeter, allowing people to observe or take notes. A white board to one side lists prayer requests from around the world, ranging from persecution of Sudanese Christians to an Argentinean pastor whose 9-year-old son has drowned. A banner proclaims a verse from Leviticus 6:12: "The fire on the altar shall never go out."

Of the 150 people on staff at IHOP, all raise financial support from friends and home churches so they can serve on one of 12 prayer teams. They also help with administrative tasks and spend at least 12 hours a week in some kind of ministry to the poor.

The secret of IHOP, Bickle says, is fascination with the "beauty" of God. He has numerous teachings on the topic and writes a magazine column on ways to enjoy the Almighty. His latest book, The Pleasures of Loving God, exhorts believers to see God as delighting in the personality and quirks of each individual.

Indeed, worship and prayer at IHOP are based on this concept, augmented with preassigned verses from the biblical books of Revelation or the Song of Songs, that emphasize God's love for the individual. The worship leaders -- usually a multipiece band including a guitarist, pianist, drummer and vocalists -- sit on a dais backed by gold, green and red draperies. Facing them are congregates who sit, stand, kneel or lie prostrate, apparently lost in worship. Similar to a jazz group, the singers seem to make up their own tunes, or sing whatever prayers or Scriptures come to mind. The sessions have a timeless quality to them.

Occasionally, Bickle leads the worship, especially during Saturday night "bridegroom prayer watch" sessions geared toward anticipating the Second Coming. Central to his ministry is what he terms a "simple lifestyle" that includes frequent days of fasting.

"I have lived in simplicity all my adult life and love it," he says, adding he gives away hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual income from his books and tapes. He and his wife live in a nearby duplex, and he raises about $35,000 as an annual salary from friends and supporters. Those earnings, he says, are supplemented by his wife's earnings as a real estate agent. "I want to live as minimally as possible" he says, "to give more away."

Unlike most of his fellow nondenominational charismatic pastors, Bickle has dipped into Catholic spirituality to fill his well. "A lot of us Protestants are unaware of the deeper life writers in the Catholic Church" Bickle says. "We don't have fiery spirits. There's dogma in the Catholic Church I don't receive. But there are fiery spirits there I do receive."

Not every visitor agrees or even likes his house of prayer concept, Bickle admits. But he says unusual, even radical means are needed to change the spiritual landscape of the planet. "I am creating the paradigm, not the application" he says. "There are people who want to see someone raising the flag."