Above all, we continue to seek the Lord and intercede for the Father’s wisdom and revelation to be released to the Church. He is leading the nations with wisdom, and we trust His leadership.

A Letter Regarding COVID-19

by Mike Bickle
3/16/20 Current Events

To friends and intercessors in our praying community and our international family of affection,

Here at the International House of Prayer of Kansas City, we are not only closely watching developments around COVID-19, we are responding aggressively in full compliance with directives from local and national officials. We are receiving daily briefings and giving multiple hours daily to extensive conversations among our senior leaders. We are quickly coordinating and cascading wise, reasonable precautions among our staff and wider community. We do this because we want to be good stewards and citizens, obey the law, and also care for the most vulnerable in our midst affected by the coronavirus, the elderly. Rest assured, though the escalating nature of containment efforts and government updates remains fluid, we are working to assure the well-being of our staff, interns, students, Forerunner Church family, greater Kansas City community and you, our extended global prayer community.

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IHOPKC LEADERSHIP CORONAVIRUS Q&A:
Live Streamed Thursday, March 19 at 9am CT
Watch on YouTube
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Our commitment before the Lord is for the “fire on the altar” to never go out (Leviticus 6:13). In 1999, we began 24/7 prayer with worship, and in the grace of God, it shall continue until the Lord returns. This is not only a sober corporate mandate; it is a deeply personal assignment which our staff holds dear in their hearts. If I could frame this in a military context when various circumstances shift the complexion of a battle, wise leadership does not automatically retreat; they reconfigure and reassess. In America, we have not had to face a pandemic scenario in the last decade, and even then, lifestyles were different. So we are rapidly adapting and realizing the kindness of God to give us a trial run to develop better systems and more flexibility for the days ahead. Don’t mistake me, we view the coronavirus as a real threat, but we know from Scripture that these sorts of scenarios will definitely increase in intensity as the Day of the Lord draws near.

We will continue to minister to the Lord and pray for the nations as we face this pandemic together. Personally, I am unafraid, and our community is filled with faith. We believe days of glory lie ahead for the people of God in the midst of increasing turbulence and darkness among the nations. Nevertheless, we must balance multiple tensions: (1) our heavenly mandate for 24/7 prayer with worship; (2) social responsibility in a time of public fear and government restrictions; and (3) care for our community, especially those most vulnerable. Bearing all of this in mind, we are implementing creative and practical solutions to keep the prayer room and the webstream going without interruption while maintaining all social distancing and event limitations currently required by our city, county, and national governments. We want to do our part to help “flatten the curve.” (If you are unfamiliar with that term, please see the attached graphics I’ve included at the bottom of this letter.)

We know many individuals and praying communities around the world utilize our webstream daily—and we will maintain that availability to you, regardless of the situation. Our amazing behind-the-scenes operations and media teams along with the companies we partner with will keep us connected together, even if we have to switch to remote control with minimal onsite staff. If anything, we look to increase our communication with weekly briefings. Stay tuned for more on this. In particular, make plans to join a panel discussion with me and key leaders this coming Thursday, March 19 at 9am Central Standard Time. Go to IHOPKC Leadership Flash Update to us with live chat. Follow the links to your platform of choice.

We believe we are meant to be part of the solution spiritually, naturally, legally, and relationally. To that end, the IHOPKC leadership team has made the following adjustments to comply with all mandated restrictions issued by Kansas City and Jackson County governments:

**UPDATE**
We have already had to tighten some of these policies from their original draft just 36 hrs ago. Some of these are quite stringent, but we ask for your patience and understanding as we all adapt to highly fluid developments and escalating government mandates.

As of 6pm March 17 IHOPKC is closed to the public however we will continue prayer and worship. Please join us online. You can subscribe and stream from our YouTube channel or our website.

Statement Regarding City Regulations (COVID-19)
March 17, 2020

In response to COVID-19, and in compliance with federal recommendations and local mandates issued for the sake of public safety, IHOPKC is closing public access to all of our properties and public spaces as of 6 pm today, March 17. This includes the Prayer Room, IHOPU, Forerunner Church and Children’s Equipping Center facilities. This will remain in effect until further notice.

As an organization, we are fully engaged with our city and nation to bring this pandemic to an end. Being resolved to fulfill our community and civic responsibility, we are also continuing our operation as a business entity with legal standing. To that end, IHOPKC organizational employees/staff will continue to work as part of their employment requirements. This is congruent with city exemptions and policies for essential personnel to continue serving the operations of their local business.”

— IHOPKC Executive Leadership Team

  • Limiting assembly crowd size to 1000 250 50 people**The prayer room is closed to the public**
    • To compensate, the Global Prayer Room is limited to staff members only. No outside visitors will be allowed at this time while we fully cooperate with containment efforts.
  • Social distancing in the Global Prayer Room through a reorganized seating layout
  • Reducing and/or canceling nonessential classes, meetings, and gatherings (more info on this in the coming days)
  • Any staff member with symptoms or that returns from travel will be required to complete a 14-day home quarantine.
  • International travelers must cancel travel plans and remain in their countries until further notice.
  • Providing disinfectant supplies to wipe down personal space when leaving the prayer room and increasing our janitorial service rotations to every four hours.

Above all, we continue to seek the Lord and intercede for the Father’s wisdom and revelation to be released to the Church. He is leading the nations with wisdom, and we trust His leadership. We resist fear, even while walking prudently in these uncertain times. We encourage you to join ongoing conversations on our social media channels to stay up-to-date. Now, more than ever, we appeal to our spiritual family of affection to joining our 24/7 Prayer Room Webstream to pray with us, interceding and agreeing with what God is doing in the midst of these shakings. We stand against the coronavirus, and we ask Heaven to move to stop it. Let us truly become an international house of prayer for all nations as the Lord desires.

Thank you,

Mike Bickle

P.S. More data and links follow below.

Mike Bickle

position

  • Founder, IHOPKC

Mike Bickle is the founder of the International House of Prayer, an evangelical missions organization based on 24/7 prayer with worship. He is also the founder of International House of Prayer University, which includes full-time ministry, music, and media schools.

Mike’s teaching emphasizes growing in passion for Jesus through intimacy with God, doing evangelism and missions work from the place of night-and-day prayer, and the end times. He is the author of several books, including Growing in Prayer, Passion for Jesus, God’s Answer to the Growing CrisisGrowing in the Prophetic, and Prayers to Strengthen Your Inner Man.  Mike and his wife, Diane, have two married sons and six grandchildren.

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