International House of Prayer-Macon promotes intimacy and intercession

International House of Prayer-Macon makes prayer and intercession its focus.

“We’re primarily a prayer ministry,” said Keith Ratzken, leader of IHOP-Macon who serves the ministry bi-vocationally while running K. Joseph Electric.

“You’d have to say the pursuit of God is our number one concern — pursuing an intimacy with him through a relationship with Jesus Christ. We’re a ministry dedicated to seeking God and to prayer and intercession, fasting, and to worship. It sounds very spiritual, very exciting — and it is — but it’s not always exciting. There are some pretty boring times in the prayer room that you just have to work through, but we’re dedicated to that as well. Even so, there’s always value because we know God hears and answers prayer and that’s what matters. That’s what makes a difference.”

IHOP-Macon is a prayer ministry — but is it a church?

“First and foremost, we’re a group of people dedicated to praying to see God’s glory known and his will be done,” Ratzken said. “There are some who consider us their church and we have a Sunday morning service for them, but that’s secondary to our desire as a ministry to see Christians across the area come together to pray in unity from many different churches and denominations. We’re very ecumenical in that sense and all are invited, encouraged, to come pray. I would much rather see 10 or 12 people in prayer in each of our prayer sessions than see 300 coming to a Sunday morning service.”

Ratzken said the Sunday morning services are at 10:45 a.m., but even those are preceded by prayer and intercession at 9:15 a.m. And they’re followed Sunday evenings by prayer from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

He said prayer during the week is scheduled at various times on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays with different focuses featured. He said each session includes a measure of worship and typically concludes with praying for personal needs.

Times and topics for sessions are on the ministry’s website at ihopmacon.org. Ratzken said there is also information about Bible studies conducted during the week.

“The point is prayer led by the spirit,” he said, “but sometimes we have a particular focus like unity and revival, families, Israel or even for other ministries involved in things like anti-human trafficking work. The Bible studies vary and run for specific time periods. They’re taught by people who are friends of IHOP-Macon but not always directly part of IHOP-Macon. Right now there’s one taught by Gwen Weston on Tuesday evenings from the Bible’s Song of Solomon and another Wednesday mornings taught by Minton Williams called ‘New Testament Prayers for Me.’”

IHOP-Macon is associated with the larger International House of Prayer based in Kansas City and founded by Mike Bickel. IHOP-KC has been a leading force in an international prayer movement that often aims for around-the-clock prayer. Ratzken said IHOP-KC is known for its 24/7 worship, prayer and intercession and that 24/7 prayer is a goal of IHOP-Macon, but not a pressing one. He said praying God’s heart well is more important. Macon sessions are both locally led and, at times, via live video from IHOP-KC’s prayer room

Ratzken wasn’t part of IHOP-Macon when it began in 2007, but said it began when several Macon families who were already praying extensively in their homes attended a meeting in Atlanta where Bickel spoke. They believed they should start IHOP-Macon.

Ratzken himself is a native of Long Beach, N.Y., who came to Middle Georgia in the early 1990s via the Air Force and a four-year stint at Robins Air Force Base. He said being an Air Force electrician in base maintenance and civil engineering brought him here but meeting his future wife, Tammy, kept him here.

“We got involved with IHOP-Macon through our daughter who was 17 at the time,” he said. “What happened was, she was going to Christian meetings on Friday nights and staying out until 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. Like most 17-year-olds. She was the queen of vague when we asked about it and we were the overprotective Christian parents: we went to check it out. It turned out to be an IHOP-Macon prayer meeting with a lot of kids on-fire for Jesus and grown-ups who really knew how to pray. We didn’t get involved right away but did over time. By 2009 we were all in and after a lot of prayer we felt I should do an IHOP internship.”

Ratzken said becoming an IHOP intern meant putting his career on hold, raising support and essentially becoming a prayer missionary. It meant dedicating himself to 20 hours a week of prayer and Bible study and 20 hours in practical service at IHOP and in the community. He said the time amounted to attending a prayer-focused Christian discipleship school.

“There aren’t any interns here at the moment but there have been,” he said. “I guess one reason I’ve gotten on board with IHOP-Macon is its priority on intimacy with Jesus and personal prayer and then letting all the activities flow out of that.”

The IHOP movement has not been without critics and controversy, some due to the zeal of some members in their dedication and pursuit of God and some due to its early charismatic roots. But Ratzken said that zeal is just love for God played out.

“It’s a matter of keeping what Jesus called the most important commandment the most important thing in life,” he said. “Jesus said the most important thing is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. We — even Christians — get that turned around and love ourselves and our “stuff” more than anything. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I have hobbies and enjoy life immensely, but isn’t it better to be obsessed with God, with Jesus, than with my ‘stuff?’ I’d rather exert more of my energy in prayer and serving God and others than getting caught up in pursing all my own stuff and letting my cares choke out my love for God. It happens. Jesus talks about that very thing in Mark 4 in the Bible. I believe there’s a greater delight, a fuller joy in everything else when we let God be first.”

Ratzken said at IHOP-Macon, praying God’s will in unity with others for the good of Macon and the surrounding area and world takes precedence over minor doctrinal stances or opinions.

“The most important thing people need to know is how much God loves them and that there’s nothing more important than having what the Bible calls a heart of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,” he said. “We need to take to heart his living and dying for us and his reaching out to us despite our worst acts. We’re often our worst critics and find it hard to believe he has such compassion for us. I guess we at IHOP work, serve, evangelize and do everything we do so that people will know that. And we pray. We pray that people here and elsewhere will know God’s love, enjoy his will and that he will be honored through it.”

This story was originally published July 19, 2017 at 8:20 PM with the headline "International House of Prayer-Macon promotes intimacy and intercession."