Jon Thurlow

Jon Thurlow and his wife Kinsey live in Kansas City, Missouri, where they both serve on staff at the International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC). IHOPKC is an evangelical missions organization that is committed to praying for the release of the fullness of God’s power and purpose in the earth. At the core of everything that goes on at the IHOPKC missions base is the Prayer Room, a place where we never cease worshiping the Lord and interceding for our world. In September of 1999, IHOPKC launched 24/7 worship and prayer which has continued to this day. Jon first came to IHOPKC in 2004 to attend Fire in the Night, a three-month nightwatch internship. After spending three months in the Prayer Room from midnight to 6am, he joined an IHOPKC “daytime” worship team. He now serves as a primary worship leader at IHOPKC, leading a team of singers and musicians in 6 two-hour sets per week. (click here to watch Jon’s sets on IHOP-KC’s webstream)

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Jon began leading worship as a teenager. At age seventeen, the Lord stirred in him a desire to use music to draw people’s hearts into the Lord’s presence. Jon believes that the essential purpose of music should be to move our hearts closer to the Lord, and to magnify His awesome name, giving Him the praise and glory He rightly deserves. Jon is passionate about creating music that will be an onramp for people to connect with the heart of Jesus. Many of Jon’s compositions have been birthed spontaneously while leading worship in the Prayer Room. One of his more recent songs “Storm All Around You” originated unplanned during a daily worship set. Through the years, Jon has made the description of God’s throne in Revelation chapters 4 and 5 a consistent, personal meditation during his prayer time. This song erupted from the history of time spent in these particular passages. Other songs birthed in the Prayer Room include “Jesus You’re Beautiful” and “Things Are Not Okay.” While singing on a worship set one morning, Jon found himself reaching to connect with Jesus in the midst of the routine and mundane. In this reach, he began declaring the Revelation 1 descriptions of who Jesus really is… “I know that Your eyes are like flames of fire. I know that Your hair is as white as wool. I know that Your voice it sounds like waters. Jesus, You’re beautiful!” In that moment of reaching to connect with the Lord’s heart, “Jesus You’re Beautiful” was written. “Things Are Not Okay” defines the posture of heart we as Jesus’ Bride seek to possess. Until Jesus returns and is here among us again, in the flesh, things are not okay. Jon and his wife Kinsey are thankful to be a part of the movement of worship and prayer that is spreading across the earth. With anticipation they look to the day when every knee will bow before Jesus, every mouth will confess His lordship, and every song will declare His praises.

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SONGWRITING TESTIMONY

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Jon says, ‘In late 2005 I had been at IHOPKC for over a year, but was still struggling to write songs. Music and melodic ideas would sometimes come together, but the lyrics would never come! One night the Lord spoke clearly to my heart and said, “I want you to let go of any music or movies that don’t push your heart towards Me.” I remember feeling scared that I wouldn’t be able to do it…but I knew it was the Lord, so I went for it! I cut up my Blockbuster and Hollywood video cards (this was before Netflicks really took off), deleted 99.9% of my iTunes collection, and all but 2 CD’s that I owned. About 3 weeks later, I was at home at the piano, and the Lord gave me a complete song idea in 10 minutes- music and lyrics! I was shocked and excited! About a month after this, another song idea came- music and lyrics again, in about 20 minutes. Over the course of 6 months, I had 5-6 songs that became my first solo album titled, “A Life That’s Worthy”. It was at that 6-month mark when the lights went on inside…I realized that the sudden surge of worship songs that I’d written was directly connected to the decision I made to let go of movies and music. I felt the Lord saying, “Jon, I’ve been trying to pour songs into you for a long time, but your heart was so full of the spirit of this age (via music, movies, media), that there wasn’t any room inside. Once you let go of those things, you made the room in your heart for Me to pour the songs in.”