What We Do

GOHOP is not a church, it is an “Urban Monastery” (minus the robes & funny hair cuts) that seeks to support, resource and catalyze the Church. We live out rhythms of life that have been embodied and taught within monastic communities for centuries (prayer, worship, study, silence, solitude, fasting, celebration, and pilgrimage).  By practising these rhythms the staff team seek to live lives of prayer & discipleship that are contagious. We provide a number of other discipleship opportunities for church leaders and lay people at home & abroad through workshops, spiritual direction, mentoring, teaching engagements and of course…

…our prayer room!

Prayer is at the heart of what we do at GOHOP and our most visible ministry is The Prayer Room (with drop in hours on Mondays & Wednesdays). This room is filled with comfy seating, creative prayer stations, resources, and lots of art to help people dig into a time set aside for prayer.

Each staff member sets aside 4 hours a week to spend time in the prayer room. Sometimes we are hosting others but more often we are taking time to pray on our own. We are only able to teach and lead out of what we are practising ourselves. Out of this we then are able to host a number of weekly and monthly prayer times:

GOHOP hosts a number of annual events as well:

  • The TrueCity Prayer Room is two weeks of prayer that follows the Hamilton TrueCity Confernece is that happens during the TrueCity church conference. This interactive prayer room draws together hundreds of people from 30+ churches to pray together for the good of the city.
  • Prayer Truck is like GOHOP’s front porch. For one week every summer we create an outdoor prayer room in the back of a U-haul truck and park it behind Living Rock Ministries  (a local at-risk youth centre). This Prayer Truck ministry has a special focus on connecting with people who are homeless and/or street involved and offering some friendly conversation, cold water, and prayer.

For many people, our weekly, monthly, and yearly prayer rhythms and events are their first introduction to GOHOP. For those who decide to dig deeper we have a number of spiritual formation opportunities:

  • Spiritual Direction is a ministry that assists individuals (or groups) to attend to the presence and activity of God in their life. GOHOP has 7 spiritual directors that meet monthly with people in person or online. As word of this ministry has spread, many of our directors meet with people from around the world.
  • GOHOP Companions are a group of volunteers who are committed to journeying along side GOHOP in an intentional rhythm of prayer, service and community learning.
  • PJaM is an annual retreat for young adults that dig into the themes of Prayer, Justice, and Mission through hands on experiences at ministries and churches across Hamilton.
  • The Prayer Course is an opportunity for churches and small groups to have GOHOP lead them through an 8 week prayer & learning experience based on the 24-7 Prayer Video Course by Pete Greig.

Digging Deeper into the GOHOP Story:

GOHOP was founded in 2001 by my friends Jill & Kirk Webber. For those of you who want to dig deeper into the history of GOHOP you should check out this resource:

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