The Truth About IHOPKC

My name is Johnny Youssef and I am 29. I moved to Kansas City to be a part of the International House of Prayer in January 2009 when I attended a six-month internship called “One Thing.”

I have served at IHOPKC in some capacity for over six years. One of my roles was the district pastor for the young adults at the church.

I wanted to share my story and experiences for several reasons. The main reason I decided to write this is because I have been asked numerous times from friends and relatives on my experience, especially after moving away, and I wanted to shed light on it. I pray that my writing will bring clarity and encouragement to you.

Let’s Start From the Beginning: Long Story Short(er) on How I Got There

I was born and raised in a loving Christian home in Cairo, Egypt. I grew up in an incredible church that taught me so much about God, but they didn’t believe in the active work of the Holy Spirit.

I always felt that there was more than what I knew. In 2001, my family moved to Virginia right after my 15th birthday. It was a difficult and scary transition; after all, 15 is a very awkward age to start over with new friends in a new country; but it lead me to hunger for more of God.

Fast forward to college, I got involved with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and I had a wonderful college experience. During that time, I experienced more hunger and desire to know Jesus better. 

I started having monthly overnight prayer meetings at my apartment, where about 10-15 of us would meet to worship, pray and read the Bible. We prayed for each other, InterVarsity, our campus and our nation. We often started in the evening and kept going until 5 a.m. or so, and we broke our fast by going out and eating together. That’s when I heard from my friend Tamice about IHOPKC.

She shared a sermon with us by Misty Edwards, a worship leader, and to be completely honest, I didn’t get half of what Misty was talking about, but I felt connected to what she was saying, and it had to do with having more of God and not being satisfied with earthly things. I remember those days, they were so precious, especially because we had no idea what we were doing. We just wanted to know and love God.

After graduating college in 2008, I decided to quit my promising job in a local news station and move to Kansas City to attend One Thing, a six-month internship with intensive Bible study, attending weekend services, and spending a lot of time in the prayer room.

It didn’t make sense to my parents. I was asked questions like “Why would you leave your family, a great job and a community of believers here to go somewhere far away?” and “Is the prayer room like a monastery that you will go to?” My responses were, quoting what Jesus said in Matthew 19:29, that if I leave my father and mother for His sake, He will reward me.

My second response was that taking six months away as a young man to go after God will never hurt, but will help define who I am before I go into the 9-5 life for 40-plus years. It was the most difficult decision I have ever made.

The original plan was to go back home to Virginia after the six months, but I had a very unique personal experience that made it crystal clear I was supposed to stay in Kansas City. At first, I ignored it and went back home, but in just a few months of being home, I knew Kansas City was where I needed to be. I moved back to Kansas City and an incredible job opportunity was offered to me at Glad Heart Realty, a real estate company that is part of IHOPKC. A few months later, the Awakening took place.

Now, Let’s Get to My Experience

Given the fact I was there for over six years, I have so many stories and experiences. Also, being an extreme extrovert with so much on my plate added more to my experiences.

I want to focus on 2015 because so much has taken place in the past eight months in my life. Towards the end of 2014, I decided to move closer to downtown Kansas City and further away from IHOPKC for several reasons, including the fact that I am a landlord and a property manager and I was getting stressed living in the midst of my tenants.

Another reason was because I realized, after several years of wrestling, that my skills, passion and calling are primarily in the marketplace and not in ministry. I finally gave myself permission to think of real estate as my passion, and I wanted to be closer to downtown because I had a special interest in commercial properties.

Ironically, Diane Bickle, my boss at the real estate company and the wife of Mike Bickle, IHOPKC founder, had tried to tell me that years ago but I didn’t listen and tried to push for ministry.

From January to June, I developed so much doubt and unbelief toward Christianity and even God’s existence.

I know this is shocking for so many. The truth is I have prayed and believed in God in so many personal promises over the years, but a seed of disappointment and doubt in God was planted a while back. It grew to a point I could no longer ignore it.

Proverbs 13:12 says “Hope deferred makes the heart sick … .” Let me tell you, my heart was very sick.

Fortunately, my sick heart has been healing slowly and God and I are talking again, and it’s good. Even though I do not regret distancing myself from ministry roles and from a Christian bubble, I isolated myself from fellowship, which brought everything to the surface. I am glad it came to the surface, but I wish it had been within a community and not alone.

There is so much to the story, but let’s just say that I entered a place where I was really angry with God half of the day and doubting His existence the other half. I started asking myself questions like, “Is God real?”

During those months, a couple of negative blogs and numerous posts on social media were published by individuals who were formerly a part of IHOPKC at some point, on top of that, several friends and acquaintances had walked away from the faith all together. This made everything even blurrier in my personal walk with God. I started adding to my questions: “Is IHOPKC the reason I am angry at God?” I started wondering if I threw away my 20s in the Midwest to the wrong cause and wrong ministry.