GOHOP Values and Beliefs

24-7 Prayer Rule of Life

As a 24-7 Prayer Community, GOHOP is committed to following its Rule of Life.  This rule includes three core values and six practices:

True to Christ

• Living Prayerfully - Celebrating God’s presence in all things, at all times, through a daily rhythm of prayer and worship.

• Celebrating Creativity - Enjoying and expressing God’s presence through colourful, generous and imaginative lives

Kind to all People

• Practicing Hospitality - Cultivating generous space for others in our hearts and homes, as if they were Christ Himself in our midst.

• Expressing God’s Mercy and Justice - Honouring God’s presence in the poor and oppressed, through sacrificial compassion, reconciliation and advocacy.

Taking the Gospel to the Nations

• Engaging Mission and Evangelism - Demonstrating God’s presence and relevance in word and deed, wherever He currently seems to be absent or ignored

• Learning and Discipleship - Worshiping with all our minds and developing disciples who can carry Christ’s presence powerfully into every sphere of society.

GOHOP Distinctives

There are a variety of 24-7 Prayer Communities spread across the globe.  Though each community follows this Rule of Life, each does so with various emphases, giving different weight to each practice in accordance with its unique context and particular calling.  

As GOHOP -  an urban monastic community in Hamilton Ontario -  lives out the 24-7 Prayer Rule of Life, we emphasize four identifying values.  GOHOP is…  

… A praying community.  As a house of prayer, prayer is our primary vocation.  We are called to be in a regular habit of personal and corporate prayer. Worship (through music, singing, the arts, liturgy, etc) is an essential part of our prayer rhythms.

… A learning community. Through reading, podcasts, discussion, audio books, workshops, retreats, spiritual practices, adventure and experimentation, we are committed to growing our knowledge and understanding of God and his world.  In pursuit of experiential knowledge, we embrace humility, assume the posture of a student, and ready ourselves to learn from each other, to learn from the past and to learn from different Christian traditions.  We also embrace the challenge and difficulty that may come while overcoming ignorance.  

… a Christ-centred formation community.  We are committed to a lifestyle (a ‘rule of life’) that will help us become formed into the likeness of Jesus Christ.  We therefore, like Jesus, pray, fast, take time in silence and solitude, study scripture, serve and practice hospitality. We regularly meet with trusted pilgrims who are also becoming like Jesus: friends, mentors, spiritual directors or coaches.  We also, as needed, avail ourselves to ministries of inner healing, counseling or therapy. 

… a serving community. We are committed to sharing our gifts and energies on behalf of others in the specific ways we have been called and gifted. Prayer is a key part of our mission; we are called to catalyze and resource a prayer movement in Hamilton and beyond. GOHOP is uniquely called to serve the Church through intercession, teaching, the ministry of spiritual direction, and by living a prophetic witness as a monastic community.  

GOHOP’s Beliefs 

WE BELIEVE (The short version)...

We believe in God who is Father, Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit.  We believe all the Bible says about Jesus' life, teaching, death, resurrection, ascension and promises about what is to come and summarized in historical statements of faith (such as The Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed).  Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we therefore make every effort to stay connected to God in PRAYER, to be FORMED into Christ’s likeness, to LEARN as students/apprentices of Jesus and to SERVE.

WE BELIEVE (The longer version)…

We believe in God who is Father, Son (Jesus), and Holy Spirit.  

We believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God. It gives trustworthy and authoritative revelation of God’s character, actions and purposes.  It tells the true Story about God, humanity and the world. The Bible reveals what is good, true and beautiful.  

We believe God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love. God is holy, righteous, just, merciful and wise.  God is good. God is love. 

We believe God created humans to know him and to enjoy a relationship with him.  

We believe the world was created by God and was ‘very good’ – radiant with beauty and without blemish. In partnership and relationship with God, humans were given the job of taking care of and developing the created world. 

Through a great lie and cunning deceit by Satan, humans came to distrust God’s goodness and chose to rebel against God.  This rebellion opened a door for death, sin, and evil to enter into the good world God had created.  

We believe all humans now find themselves in a fallen state. We are broken, bent, lost, given over to sin, and enslaved by the fear of death.  This brokenness has corrupted our relationships with God, ourselves, fellow humans, and the created world.

We believe that all people are born into this broken, fallen state and have a fundamental need for redemption and healing.  We are unable, on our own, to save, fix or heal ourselves.   

We believe that Jesus (and only Jesus) – through his incarnation, life, teaching, sacrificial death on the cross, resurrection, ascension and future return – is God’s answer to the problems of sin, death, evil, and corruption.   We are saved and healed through faith and trust in Jesus.  

Faith and trust in Jesus lead to total-life reorientation.  All of this is contained in what is called ‘the gospel’ and is distilled in what Jesus himself preached: "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand."  In other words: God and his kingdom are here; change your life accordingly.   

We commit ourselves, therefore, to follow Jesus’ teachings and example of love. We commit to love God with all our heart, mind, strength and soul and to love our neighbour as ourselves. 

With help from the Spirit, trusting the goodness and wisdom of God, we surrender ourselves to God and order our entire lives - our finances, sexuality, relationships, possessions, identities, gifts & talents -  to what God reveals to be good, right and true.  

We believe that God is always at work, bringing about healing and redemption in this world, through the Holy Spirit, through the Church. 

The Church is a diverse group of people who have faith in Jesus and are committed to following Jesus.  The Church, as ‘the body of Christ’ is, like Jesus, called to be the presence of God on earth.  Followers of Jesus gather in local assemblies to carry out the work of God in churches (small ‘c’) all across the earth.  

We believe faith in Jesus will lead us into committed relationships in community with other followers of Jesus.  

Through the work of the Spirit, through the Church, we anticipate restored relationships, physical and emotional healing, justice, renewed families and communities.

We also recognize that, despite all our efforts, the world remains broken.  We believe that complete restoration is not possible until Jesus’s return.

We believe Jesus will return to usher in the new Creation, bringing deliverance from sin, death, evil, and corruption.