I first heard about IHOPKC in 2002, during my senior year of high school. I attended the 2002/2003 onething conference, and every onething after that, until about 2013. Twice in that time I went on a week-long pilgrimage of sorts to the prayer room, crashing with different friends. I tried to go to FSM right out of high school, but was talked out of it by my Baptist pastor, and ended up going to a Baptist bible college. Again in 2005, I wanted to drop out of bible college and move to KC, but was talked out of it by another pastor, in the Assemblies of God, whom I greatly admired. I stayed heavily committed to IHOP teachings and philosophy, however, until around 2013, when two issues soured me on the organization. Somewhere in the 2004-2005 period, I found a compilation track on the Fire on the Altar website of clips from a sermon by a prominent worship leader, superimposed over one the leader's songs. It was all about loving God by loving people, and I would listen to this comp on repeat, over and over, while I worked. It's not an exaggeration to say that message shaped my Christian life. So I was shocked when, at the 2012 or 2013 onething, I heard a leader tell a story in a main stage session that was so opposed to what I had come to believe. The leader was saying they had a new neighbor of Arabic descent moving in, and they had helped him move things, but hadn't explicitly shared the gospel with this man. One interaction, helping him move in. The next day, he was arrested and deported, because he was on some kind of terrorist list. The leader proceeded to say that the Holy Spirit then told them "every act of kindness without an explicit gospel presentation is preparing the way for the antichrist." I was appalled and walked out of the session and just hung around in the bookstore. The other event that happened was in that same time period, '12 or '13, but I'm not sure which year. I was serving as children's worship director for a multi-site church back home, and went to a onething breakout session about CEC. They seemed to be suggesting that all children could fully operate in the gifts of the Spirit. at any age. I was very concerned with the order of salvation back then, and didn't understand how they could find a biblical basis for children who had not first believed the gospel to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I didn't think such a thing was even possible. So I went up after the session and asked the main leader how children who don't even necessarily have faith in Jesus can prophecy or heal the sick, and his 10-second response was "why don't you come to the children's session later today and see? Tell them I sent you." So I did, I walked up to the CEC section of the convention center, no staff lanyard or vest or anything, no child to drop off, and told the person at the door that the leader had invited me to sit in on the service. I went inside and it was kids worshipping and breaking out into groups to practice the spiritual gifts. Needless to say, I received no biblical or theological answer to my question. I couldn't believe the head of the children's department of an international ministry with a reputation for biblical teaching would do such a thing. Only later did I reflect on the fact that I WASN'T VETTED OR ANYTHING. Thirty-thousand strangers milling around in this convention center and after a 30-second interaction with the leader I'm invited in to the children's ministry. Unbelievable. I skipped onething in 2014, and got invited to 2015 to hear a famous evangelist speak at the conference. I told myself it would be honoring to IHOP for all their influence in my life if I went, but that was the last time.
- Frequent visitor2002-2015