The history of prayer in Wilmore extends beyond the inauguration of the Sanctuary house of prayer itself. Wilmore’s history as a city is steeped in the intercession of men and women of prayer, revivals, and groups of people gathering to pray and worship. However, beginning in 2002, multiple individuals and groups throughout the city began to feel a sense that something more permanent was coming. A house of prayer was going to be built in Wilmore, Kentucky.
In the year that followed, the outlines of the house of prayer and its reality began to form. In February of 2003, Jo McKenzie began gathering information about the elements required for a house of prayer. The enormity of the undertaking was yet unclear. In April, the confirmation came, as a clear word came to “raise up the Tabernacle of David in Wilmore.” The nascent structure of a house of prayer in Wilmore began to emerge, having at its center day and night prayer and worship, with missions and evangelism proceeding outward. In September of that same year, Jo McKenzie received in private the commission to lead it, with all of the enormity of the task at last unveiling itself. McKenzie waited still another six months to continue in prayer and be certain of her commissioning, before presenting her vision to the board of the missions organization that would become the mother of the house of prayer: Cornerstone International.
July of 2004 saw the official commissioning of McKenzie as both an intercessory missionary and director of the officially named Cornerstone House of Prayer, located within the Cornerstone International headquarters. By November of 2004 the weekly schedule had reached 10 hours per week and local individuals began to join the growing movement. The following four years were spent quietly building the house of prayer, adding more intercessory missionaries and slowly increasing the hourly schedule. The end of 2007 brought the beginning of Cornerstone International House of Prayer as a separately incorporated entity with its own board and the ordination of Jo McKenzie as President. This act served as the official “birth” of CI-HOP and the inauguration of and affirmation of McKenzie’s lifelong call to ministry.
By 2009, the number of staff and volunteers of CI-HOP had reached the point of outgrowing the current prayer room. During March and April the prayer room was expanded and the now Assistant Director of the house of prayer, Micah Jones, joined as a full time intercessory missionary. The years that followed, however, consisted of more of the quiet hours of the work of prayer. That time is described as a time for growing deep roots and shedding personal agendas. Prayer meetings continued week after week, fellowship meals, prayer room hours, and a slowly growing staff of volunteers, board members, and intercessory missionaries.
In 2013, a few months before CI-HOP celebrated their ten-year anniversary, the next season was in the air. During the September board meeting of that year, plans were discussed for a new building. The prayer room by that time, even after its expansion, was once again filled to every corner when staff and volunteers all came together. By March of 2014 this was joined with a sense of a new emphasis that shifted outward. The foundation of prayer had been laid and CI-HOP was preparing to become more publically visible and act as a refuge of prayer in Wilmore. As a part of the change in season, a new mission statement was proposed, “To exalt Jesus in prayer, music, and song, and to provide a place for others to seek God, participate in prayer, and receive prayer.” (Emphasis mine) The vision of Sanctuary was conceived in three words, “Worship. Pray. Rest.”
Multiple avenues for the burgeoning prayer room and its new vision were explored throughout the 2014 board meetings. Clarity and relational health between CI-HOP and Cornerstone International were imperative to the discussions of expansion and possible transition. In July, 330 E. Main Street became the center of interest for a new prayer room, but come fall, the city council elected that the building would not be approved for purchase by a non-profit. With the council’s decision final, in January of the following year Jo and Joel McKenzie decided that they would buy 330 E. Main, and there make a home for the new prayer room. Renovations began almost immediately and the majority of the year was given to building, cleaning, and preparing the space and moving into it. September 2015 marked the grand opening and Sanctuary was born.
Sanctuary was open for the remainder of the year. However, the freezing temperatures the following January caused a pipe burst in the building and flooded it almost entirely. Damage to the floors, a leaking roof, and a broken air conditioning unit forced the closure of the building until April. Though the four-month season of closure was a discouraging and difficult time for the Sanctuary community, it produced a clarity of intent and instruction for the house of prayer. The distinctive pace that anchored the new schedule upon reopening was marked by the words, “Slow down.” These words continue to reverberate into Sanctuary’s present passion to participate in spiritual formation for believers, teaching the art and discipline of prayer, the importance and beauty of worship, and most of all, the worth of Jesus above all else.
This passion has continued to shape the pace and pursuit of Sanctuary. Beginning fall of 2016, the closure now several months behind and the community strengthened back to its feet, Sanctuary began its partnership with the Asbury University Worship Arts department. Every Thursday night from 7pm to 9pm, different teams of musicians and singers from Asbury came to worship Jesus and grow in spontaneous worship and singing the Bible. Sanctuary also became connected to the Burn 24/7 movement and began hosting multiple extended worship nights. In 2017, Sanctuary opened its doors to a prayer retreat led by Equipping Lydia, a project in partnership with Asbury Theological Seminary’s department of Spiritual Formation. It remains in close relationship with Cornerstone International, hosting weekly prayer meetings for the Cornerstone missionaries and honoring Cornerstone as the mother and dear friend of the house of prayer.
Today, we at Sanctuary continue our commitment to a pace that coincides with the formative nature of contemplation and worship, to host a presence of rest within our doors. Our hope is to nurture the smaller communities that build around the various sets and times of prayer throughout the week and grow our team of staff and volunteers that come to dedicate time to the exaltation of Jesus. We aim to be distinctively Christian and distinctively Wilmore, a gift to and reflection of our city.