The Prayer Shack (aside from it being the original name of this website - now TruthForFree.com), to put it simply, is the place where I used to live. Actually that's quite a story in itself, but basically it's just a nick name that people started to call my place when God moved in the hearts of three young guys in Kennewick, WA who decided to dedicate our lives and the use of our home to prayer and spending time with the Lord on a very consistent basis. Eventually, informal meetings evolved from that desire to spend time in God's presence and people started packing out my house for prayer and with an expectation to see God move. It was incredible, to say the least! In fact, it's very difficult to put into terms how special this season of my life was.We were all "church boys" back then so, naturally, some of those influences affected our perception of Christianity, but surprisingly very little I think. What happened during this season of our lives was quite new to us in many respects. In fact, some of what transpired I can tell you that God used in the process of changes He was about to bring in my own life, which inevitably led me to step outside of organized religion altogether... Not out of any kind of bitterness, but out of a sincere desire to follow Jesus Christ with all my heart.
When "the Shack" got its start, back in 1995, I always referred to it in a corporate sort of sense because the heart was never that one person controlled anything or administrated anything. That's still the heart I have whenever the idea of "gatherings" is in consideration, and my prayer is that this site continues to be about the "us" known as people who want to know God intimately. When I first posted the Prayer Shack website, I just wanted to tell the world about the awesome things God was doing right here in my run down "shack" of a home in Kennewick, WA. The truth that God is no respecter of persons became a remarkable reality to me (and my two flat mates; John and Curtis) that first year and I wanted so much to encourage others with the truth that, no matter who you are, what you've done, or where you live, God loves you, wants to touch you with His presence, and reveal purpose and meaning for your life. I was amazed to see something like 8 other "prayer shacks" start up in various locations around the world within just a few years of the website getting passed around on the Internet. This became evidence to me that the message was not being confused. We were never saying that our house itself was anything special and we weren't saying that people needed to travel across the miles to be here to get a touch from God. In fact, we were saying just the opposite. Open up your heart to the Lord and He will touch you right where you are!
The institutional church we all attended at the time had involved itself in a movement many became familiar with as "the Toronto Blessing" or "renewal". Now, whatever your personal reaction to this movement may be, the unique thing about what happened in our lives during this season was that we did not believe the Lord was impressing us to follow some of the popular rhetoric at the time, which was the idea that - in order to experience God's touch you had to go to a special place and could only receive it through an already "blessed" person. Though elements of the "impartation" philosophy was present in some of our lingo and approach at times, we (curiously, I might add) did not seem to engage such a mindset with what was transpiring in our home. We sincerely believed that God's desire was to draw close to whomever called out to Him - wherever they called out to Him - and that's what was so exciting about sharing our story through the Internet venue at that time because it allowed us to see, first hand, that God was doing that!
If you were to ask me today what I think about the whole "Toronto thing" my answer contains some mixed emotions about it. I do feel the Lord has humbled my heart about some of the former activities I engaged in that I thought were "of God" back then, but which today I am fairly confident in admitting that I believe there was far more flesh involved that truth. However, I would have to say the same for organized religion in general, which God has also delivered me from (smile). The positive report I can give you is that I don't care about movements anymore and what's so special to me about what happened in my home in the mid-late 90's is that God began waking me up to the simple reality of real, intimate relationship with my Father in heaven - absent all the distraction of organized religion. Despite some of the foolishness many of us embraced during that time, God truly did meet our hunger for a closer relationship with Him. I can say that for myself especially. He woke me up and I have never been the same. That is something I will NEVER credit a "movement" for, but only His great mercy and love. I know that God extends the same grace to anyone who is sincerely and desperately seeking after Him.... Ok... enough about all that. :)
When the Prayer Shack website was first introduced, I lived with two great friends at the time (that attended the same church as I did) and we met together nightly for prayer meetings, seven days a week, all year long for nearly 5 years! In the beginning things just began as friends praying together a couple of nights a week, but God had greater ideas and soon my house was packing out with people. The meetings had no schedule, no pastor, and no agenda other than simply to meet with Jesus and allow His Spirit to direct and control everything. Often when we'd gather, we'd just wait in silence and allow the Lord to move. This was sometimes uncomfortable for newcomers. They were waiting for someone to open with a special prayer or song or announcement. But this is not the way things went. We literally made it our habit to wait on God. It was nothing like "church" and yet it felt as if almost everything church should be. No order of man, no scheduled service, no dress codes, no worship teams, no offering, no preaching, just people meeting informally to reach out together and touch the heart of God. It was spontaneous and free. Sometimes we worshiped, sometimes we danced, sometimes we prayed our hearts out, and most often we prayed for one another. I can attest to the fact of how many amazing things can happen in people's lives when the only agenda is Jesus and our waiting upon Him.
The Shack was/is not a "ministry" in the formal sense of the word. It is simply an affectionate title given to the place where I used to live (due to the awesome things God did during that season of time at the meetings in my home). For nearly 5 years, Christians and curious souls gathered nearly every evening of the year to just hang out with Jesus. The name "Shack" was derived from the looks of the pad where I lived. Quite literally it was pretty much a shack; a run-down, small house, very old and falling apart. I moved in there in my early 20's when money was tight. When the manifest presence of God just blasted through my home, all we did every day when we were there was pray and sit around talking about Jesus. I am not exaggerating, that's it. If we were barbequeing, we were talking about Jesus while chewing on our steak and praying for one another. The only TV that got watched was videos of revival conferences. The only music played on the stereo was worship music. Everything at that house centered around God completely. It might seem like that would be a little strange, but what amazed me is how natural it worked. It wasn't weird at all. It felt like this is what normal really is.
The Shack was deffinitely not religious. In fact, if a person came with any expectation that this was going to be like attending a typical prayer meeting or church service or Bible study, they soon found they had another thing coming. This was even a surprise to us, for we all attended church and were accustomed to a weekly religious routine. We had no idea what we were doing (and that was a good thing because it left God in control and we just went with the flow of the Holy Spirit). Upon hearing first time testimonies of folks who visited, it was common to hear them say, "man, when I first walked in there, I was like what's this? Some kind of hippie gathering?" The room looked like a time warp out of the 60's; complete with a bead curtin, colored track and strobe lights, and even a disco mirror ball. There was a huge colorful mural painted on a large canvas that covered one entire wall of the living room (this was painted by my friend John and had a spiritual theme to it). Worship music was playing on the stereo (artists like Delerious, Matt Redman, GodRock, dBA, Margaret Becker, Iona and Vineyard were some of our favorites). People would typically sit or lay on the floor wherever they felt comfortable and prayed, worshiped, read their Bible, whatever. Some would be seen weeping, others laughing, others praying in the Spirit. It would take a book to describe the many great things the Lord did in those meetings. I've never experienced anything close to that to this day. It's almost hard to believe it happened.
The Lord taught me a great deal through that time. Not all of it was the utopian imagery I just finished describing. God had to correct us at times. There are things I look back at now and shake my head at. Other things I laugh about. And other things I miss greatly. The best part was that I watched how sincere hunger for God was rewarded by Him. We purposed to do nothing but run hard after Him. We didn't do all things "right" but Jesus touched us in an incredible way during that season. I had to learn some hard lessons to. For not only did I see the Shack birthed and flourish in purity, I watched it die. I can tell you that I believe this was mostly because the simplicity of focus got lost. Those institutional mindsets that were long ingrained in my thinking eventually contributed to its demise. There came a time when a brother approached me about "formalising" things and having Bible studies and whatnot. For some odd reason this seemed good to my yet institutional thinking and I allowed it. "There's got to balance," I thought. For a while it was ok. The Lord still did some great things in the meetings. There was prophetic ministry, teaching, and worship. But they began to look like little church services - ever so subtley structured in similar fashion. We even tried to have a "worship time". And eventually people stopped worshipping freely and spontaneously as they were once accustomed to and as the Holy Spirit motivated them (some sat, others knelt, some layed down, some danced - and all worship was free and individually spontaneous and unstructured) and instead they started showing up with notebooks and Bibles and sitting up quietly in a circle on the floor around the "minister." Having said that, I mean no disrespect to this brother who became the basic center of the meeting. He sincerely meant well and I love him; he's a dear friend (and as I said, some good things continued to transpire). But I watched as this subtle shift from being Christ-centered to being meeting-centered killed the whole thing. Those institutional mindsets finally did their damage and the Shack phenomenon died... No... It was murdered. We killed the life of the Spirit that used to flow in those times together. It was a very grievous thing for me to watch.But I thank God for all I learned through this. And I thank God for the glimpse I saw of what can be when people lay everything before the Lord. If you want to know the truth, as good as things were at their best in the days of the Shack, I believe they can be even better! But this will come at a great price. A price that many in traditional church world will not be willing to pay. My prayer is that God will move on their hearts and lead them to a fresh revealtion of the truth. The Lord loves His people and He longs to do great things among them, if they will only bow the knee to His Lordship. Praise God! One of the great things God did in my heart through my experience at the Shack is that He taught me how UNimportant buildings are. That's funny isn't it? You'd think I'd be more attached to a building after all that happened in that place (especially with even having a website and all), but just the opposite is true. I know that every good and perfect gift comes FROM THE FATHER (James 1:17) - not from religious routines, special buildings being set up, or any work of man. If I were to look at the Shack itself as something special, then (in my perspective) I would be making it an idol. It was nothing special before all that happened and it's not any more special now because it happened. It's nothing more than a building. God didn't pour out His blessings because of a house of sticks (and He didn't pour it on a house of sticks)... He poured out because of His love and mercy (and He poured it out on PEOPLE who reached out to Him). How shameful it is when men idolize the works of their hands and corruptible buildings. Those things can so easily become great distractions if we do not guard our hearts. That's not to say that time wasn't special for indeed it was and I cherish the memories. But I want to continue this wondrous expectiation that God actively interacts in my life every day and anyplace, anytime (which He has never disappointed yet) and I don't ever want to create an obstacle that might prohibit from doing even greater works in my heart and in the lives of others.
Anyway, that's the nutshell summary. The story is long and if you want to read more, you can click the link below. A separate page will open that details the reasonably complete story (copied from the original site, first posted back in late '95) of how things started and continued for close to 5 years. As those years have passed, my former flat mates have sinced moved on. John moved to Scotland and got married. Curtis moved to the other side of town and got married. I've moved on as well - to a nice newer place in Pasco (woohooo - oh man, it's such a nice place). I have a flat mate by the name of Matt. He's a great brother and friend. We're presently fixing up the garage to be a "hang" complete with couches, colored lights and a stereo system and we may just dub it "Shack #2" (hehehe). The old gigantic mural painted on canvas by John Drummond now hangs on the garage wall in the new place and even the old Prayer Shack sign is out there too. I did experience a little touch of nostalgia saying goodbye to the Shack, the physical place (where everything first transpired), but until that day I pass on myself, I will not have to say goodbye to the real prayer shack, which is this lump of human clay that God chooses to place His presence inside of! The Apostle Paul from Scripture told us, "don't you realize that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit?" Yes, the true prayer shack is the heart! My prayer and earnest desire is to always make sure He is welcome here. Of course I plan to keep this site running for as long as I can so that it may be a blessing and encouragement to all of you who visit. God bless you!
Read The History of the Prayer Shack - This is the original testimony that was posted on the original Prayer Shack website.