Presence Pioneers

01/22/2025

HOW TO FIND VOLUNTEERS AND MONEY FOR YOUR HOUSE OF PRAYER

In this bonus episode of the Presence Pioneers podcast, Brad Stroup and Matthew Lilley discuss the unique challenges of leading prayer ministries, particularly in engaging and retaining participants.

Brad emphasizes the importance of personal relationships and community in attracting people to prayer meetings and highlights practical strategies for funding these ministries.

The discussion also touches on the necessity of perseverance in facing difficulties, encouraging leaders to remain steadfast in their calling.

Watch the first five minutes for FREE below. Become a paid subscriber to access every bonus podcast episode (two per month)!!

Listen now | Presence Pioneers Podcast Bonus Episode

01/21/2025

"It was an incredibly hot summer day, just like every other day in Haiti. I had just returned to the nation after spending a couple of months visiting family in the United States. The following months, I would be interim director of an orphanage on the island of La Ganove in a little village called Ti Palmiste. The day I arrived, there was news of a virus spreading through the country. Chikungunya was its name.

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Our small team was told that it was an epidemic and one of my dear missionary friends encouraged me to go back home until things had gotten better. It was explained that this virus was blood-borne and was spread primarily through mosquitos. Its name, Chikungunya, literally meant “to be contorted in pain” and it was informally known as the “bone-breaking disease.” It was an unknown virus in that there was still no cure and no medication that could help with the pain that it caused. Typically, it would cause a person to be bed-bound for anywhere from 3-14 days in excruciating pain, high fever, and possible rash. The pain could be in one part of your body or many parts of your body depending on how it reacted in your bloodstream. After the initial days of infection, most people were able to stand with help and move around as the pain continued to lessen. This virus would then be in your blood and could cause “relapses of pain” within the first year of infection. After this first year, 97% of those who contracted the virus developed life-immunity.

With all this information and a lot of faith, I continued on from Port-Au-Prince to the island knowing with assurance that God had called me there for a reason and that He was the Healer of all disease, so I didn’t need to be afraid.

Within two weeks of our arrival, the majority of the children and Haitian staff had contracted the virus and we were working non-stop in the Haiti heat to keep fevers down and to pray fervently over the children who were nearly all bed-bound in incredible pain. The three other Americans that had ventured there with me to serve that first month, all contracted it as well. It was terrible. Everyone was suffering and there were not enough of us to help and care for everyone in need. Then, it finally hit me."

Keep reading below!

A Journey of Suffering, Faith and The Supernatural Power of God

01/20/2025

Sneak Peek of "Jesus Gets What He Prays For" (NEW Book) by Jonathan Friz Now Available: "Choose the Lowest Seat: The Power of Humility in pursuit of John 17 Unity"

"...My friend was unable to speak—I could see he was having an encounter with the Holy Spirit. I could hardly keep my laughter bottled up. Jesus’s counsel was not just true in some abstract, spiritual sense. It was utterly practical. Taking the best seat would not have worked. But taking the lowest seat works every time (Luke 14:8-11)..."

Check out the full sneak peek into the John 17 Unity book (link in comments)

01/17/2025

In this brand new podcast episode, Matthew Lilley and guest Brad Stroup explore the challenges and rewards of leading corporate prayer and worship in a house of prayer setting.

They discuss the importance of maintaining engagement in prayer, the monotony that can arise from regular meetings, and the need for leaders to remind themselves of God's presence and care.

The conversation also touches on the realities of attrition in prayer communities and the importance of celebrating those who have been part of the journey.

Listen now | Presence Pioneers Podcast Episode 144

01/16/2025

HOUSE OF PRAYER LEADERSHIP WITH BRAD STROUP

Presence Pioneers Podcast Episode 144

In this conversation, Matthew Lilley and guest Brad Stroup explore the challenges and rewards of leading corporate prayer and worship in a house of prayer setting. They discuss the importance of maintaining engagement in prayer, the monotony that can arise from regular meetings, and the need for leaders to remind themselves of God's presence and care. The conversation also touches on the realities of attrition in prayer communities and the importance of celebrating those who have been part of the journey.

Find the podcast on our Substack newsletter or on your favorite podcast app today! 🎙️

01/14/2025

Available NOW on Amazon! 🔥

Whether you already lead a house of prayer or have a stirring in your heart to gather people to pray, this handbook will be an invaluable tool for you, filled with practical ideas and insights that have been proven to work.⚒️

⚠️You can order this handbook on the Presence Pioneers website, Amazon or Barnes & Noble.⚠️

God is sovereignly orchestrating a global day and night prayer movement around the world in the 21st century, and houses of prayer serve as one of the powerful and unique expressions of this worldwide phenomenon. The term ”house of prayer” is used by Jesus to describe God’s praying people, and in recent years the term has come to identify a specific kind of prayer community that gathers throughout the week for multiple hours of corporate prayer. ⛪

Brad Stroup has spent nearly twenty years developing such a community “from the ground up” in Arlington, Texas. This handbook represents hard-earned lessons from his journey pioneering The Prayer Room DFW. In these pages, you will find fourteen sessions laying out practical steps of how to establish and maintain a house of prayer–even if you have limited resources and influence. 🙏

Table of Contents
Session 1: Let Prayer Arise
Session 2: Identifying Your Expression
Session 3: Mandates of a Missions Base
Session 4: The Call to Build God’s House
Session 5: Building Your Team
Session 6: Things to Embrace and Things to Avoid
Session 7: Casting & Keeping the Vision
Session 8: Growth Strategies
Session 9: A Basic Prayer Model
Session 10: Taking a Look at TPR’s Departments
Session 11: Financing Your Work
Session 12: Administrative Steps
Session 13: From the Ground Up
Session 14: Expanding Once You’re Established

01/13/2025

New Article Now Available: "God, Our Healer: A Journey of Suffering, Faith and The Supernatural Power of God" by guest writer, Weslea Pierson.

"...Within two weeks of our arrival, the majority of the children and Haitian staff had contracted the virus and we were working non-stop in the Haiti heat to keep fevers down and to pray fervently over the children who were nearly all bed-bound in incredible pain. The three other Americans that had ventured there with me to serve that first month, all contracted it as well. It was terrible. Everyone was suffering and there were not enough of us to help and care for everyone in need. Then, it finally hit me..."

Check out the full article now:
https://media.presencepioneers.org/p/god-our-healer

01/08/2025

God is inviting the Church to prioritize His presence.

Presence-centered communities consistently and corporately engage with God through worship and prayer as their primary activity. David's Tabernacle & The Church at Antioch are biblical models of presence-centered communities.

The heart of those who prioritize God's presence is expressed in Psalm 132:5 - "I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord."

It can start with a simple prayer meeting. Gather your friends and family.
Minister to the Lord.

Learn more on episode 143 of the Presence Pioneers podcast with Matthew Lilley. Available on our Substack or your favorite podcast app.

01/07/2025

A.W. Tozer said that what comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us (The Knowledge of the Holy, AW Tozer, pg 1). Knowing who we are praying to is more important than knowing how to pray. If prayer is communication with God, then our view of God profoundly affects our ability to communicate well with him. Perhaps that is why Jesus began his most famous prayer, often called the Lord’s Prayer, in Matthew 6:9 with “Our Father.” He wanted us to know the One to whom we are praying, not just the correct language to use. He wanted to introduce us to His Father.

In Luke 11, the Jesus’s disciples had the unique experience of witnessing the incarnate Son of God praying to the Father (Luke 11:1). It would have been incredible to be present at that moment. We get small glimpses of Jesus’s earthly prayer life in the Gospels, but being there in person would have been life-changing. When Jesus was done praying, the only thing the disciples knew to say was “Lord, teach us to pray.” (Luke 11:2) When they encountered God talking to God, they realized they did not truly know how to pray. Without hesitation, Jesus said:

“When you pray, say: “Father.” Luke 11:2

I believe this one word is the most important word in the Lord’s prayer. Father. Jesus did not encourage His disciples to address God as their “King” or “Lord” or “Creator.” These are all aspects of how God relates to us. But Jesus surprisingly encouraged them to approach prayer the way a child talks to a parent. What is it about the nature of a Father that is important to how we pray and relate to God?

Keep reading below...

Confronting Lies About The Heart of God

01/06/2025

Excerpt from “Enjoying Prayer” by Matthew Lilley:

"A.W. Tozer said that what comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us (The Knowledge of the Holy, AW Tozer, pg 1). Knowing who we are praying to is more important than knowing how to pray. If prayer is communication with God, then our view of God profoundly affects our ability to communicate well with him. Perhaps that is why Jesus began his most famous prayer, often called the Lord’s Prayer, in Matthew 6:9 with “Our Father.” He wanted us to know the One to whom we are praying, not just the correct language to use. He wanted to introduce us to His Father..."

Check out the rest of the excerpt: https://open.substack.com/pub/presencepioneers/p/why-jesus-taught-us-to-pray-to-god?r=3aq0au&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

01/02/2025

Follow The Greenhouse NC !

01/01/2025

In this new podcast episode, Matthew Lilley introduces the concept of presence-centered communities, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing God's presence through worship and prayer. He shares his personal journey of establishing a house of prayer in Greenville, North Carolina, detailing the challenges and successes experienced during that time.

This teaching explores the impact of such communities on local transformation, the biblical foundations for presence-centered living, and practical steps for launching similar initiatives. The episode concludes with a call to action for listeners to engage with or start their own presence-centered communities.

Available on our Substack or your favorite podcast app 🎙️

12/31/2024

The Awkward and Providential Launch of Presence Pioneers Media

12/30/2024

New Article on our PPM Substack: "That Time We Published Prayer Books During the IHOPKC Scandal"

Excerpt from the Article: "Jonathan Friz and I launched Presence Pioneers Media in October 2023 to publish books from Christian leaders who value worship, prayer, revival, unity, and missions. The idea started because Jonathan and I were writing books simultaneously, considering our publishing options, and discussing how to collaborate to make both books more successful.

Little did we know that a massive scandal involving one of the world's largest and most influential prayer ministries would break a few days before our first PPM books were published. On October 28, news broke of major issues with IHOP-KC’s founder Mike Bickle. Our new books, 10 Days and Enjoying Prayer, were due out on October 31 — the official launch date of PPM. Awkward timing, to say the least..."

Check out the rest of the article here: https://open.substack.com/pub/presencepioneers/p/that-time-we-published-prayer-books?r=3aq0au&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

12/25/2024

The Man and the Birds: A Story of Christmas

The man to whom I’m going to introduce you was not a scrooge, he was a kind decent, mostly good man. Generous to his family, upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn’t believe all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmas Time. It just didn’t make sense and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn’t swallow the Jesus Story, about God coming to Earth as a man.

“I’m truly sorry to distress you,” he told his wife, “but I’m not going with you to church this Christmas Eve.” He said he’d feel like a hypocrite. That he’d much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. And so he stayed, and they went to the midnight service.

Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound…then another, and then another. Sort of a thump or a thud. At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They’d been caught in the storm and, in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large landscape window.

Well, he couldn’t let the poor creatures lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter, if he could direct the birds to it. Quickly he put on a coat, galoshes, tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light, but the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in.

So he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail to the yellow-lighted wide open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs, and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them…He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms…Instead, they scattered in every direction, except into the warm, lighted barn.

And then, he realized that they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me…That I am not trying to hurt them, but to help them. But how? Because any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him.

“If only I could be a bird,” he thought to himself, “and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to the safe warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could see and hear and understand.” At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind. And he stood there listening to the bells listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas. And he sank to his knees in the snow.

(Author Unknown)