Unity, Presence, and Power: Jon Thurlow shares about Onething 2018

Although he has attended and led worship at many Onething conferences, Jon Thurlow is particularly excited about this year’s gathering—the last Onething for the near future, as announced by the IHOPKC leadership.

“This year it’s going to be different,” says Jon, a veteran worship leader and recording artist at the International House of Prayer of Kansas City. “We’re not going to be doing like a concert, a festival. We’re going to be coming together as a group of people and actually wait on the Lord; we want the Holy Spirit to lead these three, four days.”

The shift Jon is referring to is part of what’s called the Onething reset, a relentless re-centering on the beauty, power, and worth of Jesus above all things. No promoting guest speakers and no hype—just a real hunger to meet with Him. As Jon shares with much excitement, “we’re preparing our hearts to receive whatever the Lord wants to highlight, what He’s going to do.”

Expectation is rising as thousands of believers will be heading to Kansas City this December, coming together as one unified body to encounter the Man with burning eyes in new depth.

“We’re here from different backgrounds, different nations, different languages, different ministry and church backgrounds, but we’re all here because we want to seek Jesus,” Jon continues. “We want to connect with His heart. We want to touch His heart, and (what) I’ve felt so many times is that the Lord sees it and His own heart is moved, and He takes delight and pleasure in that, therefore He breathes on those meetings.”

For newcomers, those curious, or those that have previously attended, Onething includes many opportunities to meet with Jesus.

“One of the things that I’ve loved over the years is we actually take our 24/7 prayer room and we move it downtown to where the conference is happening,” says Jon, who typically leads worship in the prayer room and at the conference (speakers and worship leaders are not being announced for this year’s gathering). “We’re in there for the same reason that the people are in the big auditorium: we’re there to meet with the Lord. We’re there to connect, and so you walk in that prayer room and I can sense the hunger.

“Every single person coming has a storyline and just hardships that they’ve had to walk through from that particular year,” he adds. “They’re just coming to sit at the feet of Jesus and be ministered to and really receive from the Lord.”

How can you seek a fresh encounter with Jesus?

For a time of encountering Jesus in the company of like-minded believers, come to Onething 2018, December 28–31 in Kansas City. Register here >>

Adam Wittenberg

position

A Detroit native who was raised in Vermont and Connecticut, Adam worked as a newspaper journalist until 2012, when he moved to Kansas City to complete the Intro to IHOPKC internship. Afterwards, he earned a four-year certificate in House of Prayer Leadership from IHOPU and is now on full-time staff in the Marketing department at IHOPKC. He also serves in the NightWatch (overnight prayer hours) and is active in evangelism. He, and his wife Stephany, have a vision to reach people everywhere with the good news of Jesus Christ.