Randy’s Job

So you might be asking yourself “What on earth does Randy do at GOHOP?” That is a very good question. I wear a number of different “hats” in my role but they all contribute to helping support the wider church community in connecting to prayer and spiritual creativity in a deeper way.

Hat 1:
Supporting Pastors & Leaders

Supporting Pastors & Leaders is one of my favourite hats that I wear at GOHOP. I coordinate our weekly prayer time for pastors & leaders right here in this cozy little corner of the Prayer Room pictured above.

When we meet with a pastor, we practice something called listening prayer. We take 5 minutes of silence and then humbly shares any prayers, scriptures, feelings, thoughts, or images that we felt God was showing us.

We leave it to the pastor or leader to decide if the listening prayers resonate as something from God. If it resonates, people are welcome to receive it gladly. If it doesn’t resonate (for any reason) the pastor is welcome to say “thanks but no thanks.” Permission to say “no thank you” is what gives us permission to practice listening prayer in a safe and supportive way.

Pastors have a very hard job where most people don’t even see the many demands and pressures that are placed on them. Often pastors are so spent from serving others that they don’t have any energy left to listen for them selves. Week after week I see pastors come in and be really encouraged and blessed by what they receive.

I have had the pleasure to work with lots of great “listeners” as part of the Prayer for Pastors & Leaders team. Douglas Horst is one of those listeners. Here is a little message from Doug,

When Randy is wearing his hat of Coordinating Prayer for Pastors and Leaders, he reaches out to his extensive network of pastors and leaders and actively encourages them to come and experience listening prayer by the GOHOP listening prayer team. As a member of that team, I have experienced his excellent ability to communicate well to us and all the pastors and leaders we pray for. God continues to speak through Randy and us to bless others. Under Randy’s persevering leadership, in the last year we have prayed for more pastors and leaders than in any of the six years that I have been part of this prayer team.

Hat 2:
Art & Prayer

Asah: Creativity & Prayer Studio is a really exciting ministry hat that I get to share with my coworker Megan Little. We started this initiative back in 2021. Both Megan and I have Fine Art degrees and experiment with art in our own prayer practices. We started our monthly Asah workshops in 2021, because we felt like this was an experiment worth including others in.

“Asah” is the Hebrew word for “to make or bear fruit.” We thought that sounded a lot like like the combination of art & prayer.

Each Asah night is broken into two halves parts:

In our first hour we try out a spiritual practice (or a way of praying) that leans towards creativity.
In our second hour we take an art practice that you might learn in a workshop or at art school and we bend it towards an act of prayer.

There is no text book for what we are doing, so each night is very much an experiment but we have been blessed with a core group of people willing to try something new. It has been amazing to see people learn how much God values imaginations.

Hat 3:
The Prayer Room

One place I have really been able to flex my creative muscles has been the prayer room. I always try to make sure there are interactive stations and resources in the prayer room but this is magnified when I have been leading the team that creates the annual TrueCity Prayer Room.

I so enjoyed brainstorming, imagining, and praying alongside Randy in the weeks and months leading up to the 2022 TrueCity Prayer Room. As a ministry placement student, I always appreciated the hospitality GOHOP staff members would extend in inviting me into their areas of focus, and Randy did (and does!) this so well. I find his creativity in prayer to be contagious, and I saw this on full display during both the planning meetings and the eventual launch of the TrueCity Prayer Room. I specifically remember Randy encouraging me to run with an idea I had for one of the prayer stations, and this was the invitation I needed to realize I could contribute meaningfully to a ministry I didn’t think I was “creative enough” for. I appreciate that Randy recognized, affirmed, and encouraged the stewarding of what I could bring to this prayer room.”
Erin Steckley (GOHOP Intern)

Hat 4:
Networking with TrueCity

It has been a privilege to be GOHOP’s representative at TrueCity’s pastor gatherings. As someone who has been a pastor in Hamilton, I have the ability to connect with church leaders as a peer. I am often invited to open these gatherings with a prayer practice. I try to make this time meaningful for pastors by giving them something that might be new or refreshing for them. Sometimes I have created a prayer idea from scratch and other times I have borrowed from an ancient practice from somewhere like the Orthodox church.

“Randy is a huge blessing to the TrueCity network in the way he consistently and creatively calls us to pray together for the good of our city. Whether it is in how he leads large groups into prayerful awareness of God’s presence at the start of gatherings; or getting smaller groups together to pray for each other and the neighbourhoods they serve in; or the way he weaves prayer and the arts together–Randy serves us well by calling us to go deeper in relationship with Jesus and each other.”
Dave Witt (TrueCity Staff)

Hat 5:
Guest Teaching, Leading Worship and Workshops

I often get invited to teach or sing at churches, small groups conferences, and workshops. This is not a side hustle for me, this is part of my core ministry. I do sometimes get paid a small honorarium (which is nice) but this is not a fee for service. Raising my own support at GOHOP allows me to work with churches who don’t have the budget to bring in a guest teacher. As a former pastor of a tiny Mennonite church plant it is really important to me to be able to bless churches with some help (regardless of their budget).

I never teach about prayer without also leading people in a practical prayer experience. I feel like it is a wasted opportunity to have all those people in one place and just talk about something that has been so life changing for me without giving everyone else a chance to try it on for themselves. I also try to incorporate some art or music into what I do so that the teaching is accessible to lots of different learning styles.

“We invited Randell ‘The Punk Monk’ to speak to our church community during a series on Spiritual Practices. He brought such a unique, humorous, and relatable message to our group on how we can use our everyday walking around lives as prayer which invites transformation. The infusion of art with captivating storytelling was something that really captivated our people; and they still remember the stories and images many months later! We loved how this could be an intergenerational morning with the kids listening and learning along with the adults. Randell has a gift for relating to all ages through his art, stories and speaking style.”
Stephen Cox, (Former Lead Pastor of The Gathering Church)

Hat 6:
Creating Prayer Resources

When I’m asked to lead a workshop or create a prayer station, I’m always asking myself, “Could this be something that lives on as a resource for others?” This question has helped me create prayer resources used both locally and beyond. I have created a Visual Guide to Prayer Walking and a Breath Prayer Bookmark, just to name a few.

Hats “7 ate 9!”
The In-between Spaces:

Some parts of my ministry fall into the in-between spaces. The places and opportunities that are outside of traditional church opportunities but are still real life Jesus-y encounters. One of the reasons I joined GOHOP is that it gives me the freedom to live in those in-between spaces. It could be an interaction on the front lawn of the prayer room, a performance of my music as Old Reverend Randell at a community coffee house, or talking about my mental health & spiritual journey through my Looking for Kindness Cartoons.

“One day I was in the prayer room just after Randell was leaving his prayer time. A few minutes later I Could hear him talking to some folks on the lawn outside who were facing life challenges. Not long after that I heard him playing his guitar and singing. He has a true heart for people others find hard to connect with and I was impressed with his sensitivity to the moment. Feeling moved to pray for the encounter they were having together, I was giving thanks for Randell and his ability to engage easily with people on the margins and to walk into an unexpected opportunity and make it meaningful and fun”
Peter Giokas (GOHOP Spiritual Director)

“Having Old Reverend Randell Perform at the Inclusion Coffeehouse was an absolute delight. His music created an atmosphere of contagious joy throughout the entire recreation centre. Old Reverend Randell played for a crowd of mixed abilities, and was so good at incorporating the crowd into his music. The way that he made space for group participation in his singing was a sign of community and belonging in a space that often lacks the imagination for what “worship” can be.”
Dave Drenth (manager of The L’arche Inclusion Coffee House)