House of Prayer Choir went to Beattyville, Kentucky on Monday, February 28th 2011. It was an honor to be on WLJC Broadcast of "Hour of Harvest." Along with the choir of various ages, the youth band also worshipped the Lord through song.
House of Prayer is always reaching out…
The spiritual leaders and congregation at the House of Prayer are always ready with a helping hand and an open heart. Senior Pastor Winston McClurg says his church has been preparing for the harvest before the foundation of the church was built. The church was a divine inspiration from God, he said.
House of Prayer was first established in 1972 in McClurg’s carpenter shop at his home. “God spoke to me and said ‘use what you’ve got’,” he said. McClurg did what God instructed him to. The church had started with five people that included Winston and his wife Jeri and her mother.
But soon the tiny one-room carpenter shop and its parking lot became too small. The congregation eventually grew into a large, diverse group of people with many different spiritual backgrounds. When there wasn’t room for the congregation, McClurg began to look for land to build another church.
God was in his quest for land the day he went to talk to the C. Roger Lewis family. McClurg approached the Lewises about the cost of the land. When McClurg mentioned that he was planning to build a larger church building, the Lewises were eager to help.
“The C. Roger Lewis family donated the land to us,” McClurg said. “Brother Keith Pack donated equipment to help clean it up.” The church also purchased five acres from the Lewises at 600 Whispering Oaks Road, where House of Prayer is located today.
Jeri added they give much credit to members of the congregation. “We have the finest bunch of people in our church,” she said. “We are so blessed to have them.” They paid their tithes faithfully to help pay off the church’s debt, she said.
Since the establishment of the spiritual house, many different ministries have sprung from it. “We have evangelists, youth leaders and a teacher who helps take care of our new Christians,” said Jeri. House of Prayer conducts Sunday school classes for children from nursery age to high school level. Youth classes for middle and high school children meet on Wednesday evenings.
Other ministries include a food ministry, called Hunger Relief Food Ministry, Farmers Christian Academy, a radio ministry that hosts 88.5 FM American Family Radio (AFR), and visits the Morehead Life Care Center and the Morehead Youth Development Center.
“We support all kinds of ministries too,” she said. “We support some television ministries that bring out the Word of God.” Some of their mission countries include China, Israel, Turkey, and Chile.
The McClurgs said harder times are coming and the church must be aware of it. “The Lord is getting us ready for it.” Jeri said. “It is our desire to see people come to the Lord.”
House of Prayer is a house that welcomes all people from all walks of life and the McClurgs and their staff tells individuals to come as they are. The McClurgs want the public to know that the church cares about everyone and desires to see them accept Christ whether they attend their church or not. Everyone is a child of God, Jeri said, through the Blood of Jesus.
“It’s not about numbers,” Pastor McClurg added. “If a person comes and visits us from out-of-state or another county and gets saved and chooses to go someplace else, that’s great. We have planted a seed.” Jeri want everyone to know that their church really does have a heart for the people in this community. “We want people know that we are a loving and caring church,” she said. “We will not let you leave without knowing who you are and where you are from.”
The congregation meets 10 a.m. for Sunday school, 11 a.m. for worship and 6 p.m. for Sunday evening service. Services for Wednesday are held at 7 p.m. with youth ministry also conducted on Wednesday evenings. For more information, contact (606) 784-7023
Article was taken from the Morehead News 2009. Worship Warms the Heart
House of Prayer: Church of the Past, Present, and Future
The House of Prayer (HOP) had humble beginnings and now serves those in Rowan County on a large scale with the same humility. The HOP had its first services in 1971 with eight people all of whom were related to founding pastor Winston McClurg and his wife Jeri.
The HOP began its first service in the fall of the year and after building a fire, Winston said they were chased away from the original building by wasps and ended up having the first service in the McClurg’s house.
At the McClurg house Pastor Winston preached from a sewing machine being used as a pulpit and as they began the service Winston said God was there from the beginning.
According to Winston, he was telling a story about how God filled an anointing bottle to the top when someone needed it to pray and then God duplicated the miracle in one of their first services.
“My anointing oil bottle was sitting behind me and my back was to it and Jeri’s uncle was looking at it and his eyes got big and that oil bottle filled itself to the top and Jeri’s mother got healed that night.”
The HOP is a long way from the days of having eight family members in a service as the original building was turning into a food ministry and a new church was built down Whispering Oaks Road that’s held over 600 people in a meeting.
But today, the church is flourishing with people of all ages and with rich heritage of the ministry. Winston said the future is as bright.
“I know that there is a great work, God showed me that,” Winston said. “Actually I may not be the forefront of it; it’s going to be the youth. Our older ministers and our older people are going to push the youth. As it says in Joel: It shall come to pass in the last days thus says the Lord that I will pour out my spirit out on all flesh, your sons and your daughters will do the prophesying, the old men will dream dreams and see visions. In that day, I’ll pour out on my handmaidens my servants of my spirit. It’s going to be a youth thing and it’s already happening all over the United States.
“You notice Hillsong and a lot of places that they got youth and these youth have been on drugs, they’ve been on everything and now they’ve got a taste of Jesus.” Winston said. “They got a taste of what it is to be free and not be bound by drugs, they are going all out for Jesus. They are going to go forth and we are going to see a miraculous thing.”
“We feel that is what the ground over there is for (on our property),” Jeri said. “We’re going to see an explosion with the youth doing all kinds of things. We feel like that. We’ve had young ministers saying the same thing and they see all this as coming to pass and I see it too.”
“We got good leadership. We’ve got good assistant pastors and a lot of stuff going on.” Jeri said. “We don’t have our own agenda number one. What I think about what things if it’s not biblical forget about it, God already has enough ideas and opinions he doesn’t need any more,” Winston said. “Everybody’s welcome.”
Article appeared in The Morehead News April 9, 2010