24-7 Prayer & ELBR(East London Boiler Room) 

What is 24-7 Prayer?

The 24-7 Prayer movement began in late 1999 at Revelation Church in Chichester, , when author and speaker Pete Greig returned from a visit to a village called Herrnhut, near Leipzig in . It had been here in 1727, after a profound visitation of the Holy Spirit, that a group of Christian refugees from Moravia who had settled on the estate of Christian land-owner Count Niklaus von Zinzendorf, began to pray around the clock in a tower in the village. They called it the Watch of the Lord, and each Watchman would pray for an hour in the tower, then be relieved by the next, and so on, day in, day out, through every night. This went on for over one hundred years without break, and from that small community much of the world was evangelised by thousands of missionaries.

Inspired by this, Pete and his friends set up a continuous prayer room, thinking it would just be for a few weeks. But other people saw it and began praying ‘24-7’ in their churches. Then a website started, and a community was birthed. Soon, people were talking about ’24-7-365’, and the concept of the Boiler Room – a ‘3^rd Millennium Monastery’ - came into being.

Now, just eight years later, 24-7 Prayer have taken place in over 60 nations worldwide, and the movement’s focus has come to include mission and justice.

24-7 prayer rooms are characterised by creativity and interactivity - they are easily accessible to anyone of any age, background or tradition; they are uniting, liberating, engaging. People have been revived at 24-7 prayer rooms, others have been healed or had difficult situations turned round, and some have met God for the first time. 

For more about 24-7’s origins, story, news and articles, visit www.24-7prayer.com or www.elbr.net/stanford . Also read Red Moon Rising – The Story of 24-7 Prayer by Pete Greig and Dave Roberts. 

For more on the story of Zinzendorf and the Moravians, read The Lord of the Ring by Phil Anderson or visit or www.zinzendorf.com.

What are Boiler Rooms?

Boiler Rooms were originally conceived as houses (as opposed to rooms in churches) of continuous prayer from which communities began to develop. The first of these was in Reading, and there are a few more around and abroad.

The Boiler Room idea has developed over the past few years to become more richly connected in flavour to the monastic traditions of the Celts (with their ‘thin places’) and the Benedictine Order. More recently a ‘Boiler Room Rule’ emerged which follows the simple vows of Zinzendorf’s Order of the Mustard Seed and emphasises community over place.

The ‘rule’ includes the six values of prayer (both 24-7 weeks and daily rhythms), mission, justice and mercy, creativity, learning and hospitality for pilgrims. Boiler Room communities adhere to each of these guiding principles as a means of expressing their faith within the community and to the wider community.

For more about Boiler Rooms visit
www.boiler-rooms.com and read the forthcoming Punk Monk by Andy Freeman.

For more about the Order of the Mustard Seed read The Vision and The Vow by Pete Greig and visit www.mustardseedorder.com.

What is ELBR?

The East of London Boiler Room, or ELBR, was conceived in 2002 when the simple notion of 24-7-365 prayer for Thurrock emerged from those early 24-7 prayer weeks at TCF and other venues.

Now, in 2007, two houses have become available for ELBR to function. This vision is ongoing and will morph further as things unfold.

“217”

217 Southend Road, Stanford-le-Hope, has been given over for ELBR purposes by a couple who bought the house but then felt God call them to use it for his purposes for one year. The TCF cell group they attend have become the core community of the Boiler Room and adopted the Boiler Room rule for life. A few others have joined them, some from other churches.

217 officially opened on 1 April 2007 and held a 24-7 prayer week for the next seven days. The house is characterised by being secluded yet right in the middle of a suburban residential area. It has a permanent prayer room, an art room, a dining area, and three bedrooms for guests to stay over. There is ample garden for outside use as well.

ELBR’s Stanford-le-Hope Community House hosts a rhythm of daily prayer at 7am, 10am and 9.30pm, to which anyone is invited. It also hosts regular 24-7 prayer weeks in tandem with the ELBR Community House in Grays.

Some of the ELBR Community in Stanford-le-Hope are involved in missional outreach as part of the Bar’N’Bus team. The Bar’N’Bus is a double-decker bus with a bar on it providing free hot and cold drinks and cold food, with two Playstations upstairs. It parks at Corringham Park on a Thursday evening and is open to young people on the streets between 8 and 10pm. (The bus also goes out on a Tuesday evening to Blackshots in Grays – this team also has TCF members in it – and on a Friday evening to Chafford Hundred.) 

The Old Tennis Court

Another secluded property is in Allenby Crescent, Grays. The Old Tennis Court has been used as a vicarage but is now being turned over as an ‘urban retreat’ for the Christian community. The house will be home to not only ELBR but also the Thurrock Healing Rooms and offices of the Ebenezer Homes & Social Outreach charity and Thurrock ’s Bar’N’Bus Project, as well as hosting a variety of other events. 

The Old Tennis Courthas a permanent prayer room, a larger room for various functions and days of prayer, a dining room, and some room for hospitality. It also has an apartment where Trevor and Barbara Brown of the Thurrock Healing Rooms live.

At the time of writing ELBR’s Grays Community House has not officially opened. It will begin to function in July 2007 with the ‘official’ opening in September.

Articles about the ELBR emergence in Thurrock can be found at http://www.24-7prayer.com/cm/news/2786 and http://www.24-7prayer.com/cm/news/2795?sid=7a7022014b564ef41ecff125f927e217.

For more information about ELBR, visit www.elbr.net or contact Tim Harrold on tim@elbr.net. The ELBR Stanford-le-Hope Community House can be contacted on stanford@elbr.net.

For more information about Bar’N’Bus, visit www.barnbus.org.uk.

What is TCF’s involvement in 24-7 Prayer and ELBR?

Thurrock Christian Fellowship held their first 24-7 prayer week in February 2002 – this was the first of its kind in Thurrock . From this, over the next five years, they and other local churches have held around 30 such weeks. Without doubt, all this prayer - and the unity that has developed out of it - has been significant in the gradual transforming of believers’ lives and community of Thurrock .

TCF members are actively involved in building community at the ELBR Stanford-le-Hope Community House (see above) as well as holding further 24-7 prayer weeks of its own.

24-7 Ibiza

TCF actively supports through prayer and giving the 24-7 Prayer Boiler Room being developed in Ibiza by Brian and Tracey Heasley – Brian is a former TCF member. It is hoped at some point to send a team from TCF and other churches to Ibiza for a week of missional outreach.

For more about 24-7 Prayer Missions, visit www.24-7mission.com.

To see a 6-minute video about 24-7 Ibiza , visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcvH
QjBruU.

Read Brian Heasley’s compilation of prayers from 24-7 Prayer ‘wailing walls’, Writing on the Wall.

What is 24-7 Prayer and ELBR’s involvement in TCF and other churches?

Part of ELBR’s role is to be a resource to the Body of Believers across the denominations represented in Thurrock . People can go to the ELBR Community House to pray at their daily times of prayer or during their 24-7 prayer weeks – or ELBR can go to the churches to encourage, support and facilitate creative prayer.

An example of this can be seen in the development of the Thurrock Intercessors’ Network, or Gatekeepers of the Gateway. This monthly gathering emerged from a 24-7 prayer week held at St Margaret’s Parish Church , Stanford-le-Hope, in early 2006, to pray for God’s strategy for the borough and then become active in outworking the strategy. Members of TCF are involved in this.

24-7 Prayer @ Thurrock and ELBR’s futures

24-7 prayer weeks have become part of the landscape of church activity in the borough, restoring, reviving and refreshing Christians’ individual and corporate prayer lives.

ELBR will move from being simply a place of suburban retreat to a catalyst for urban mission. ELBR will continue to be a community built on prayer, being prepared for a wider involvement in inner-town mission. It is prophetically anticipated that other facilities being made available for outreach of various imaginative kinds, with prayer centres and outreach cafes in many of Thurrock’s major towns. This will require sacrificial engagement with the borough’s community at a deeper level, but we will be ready.

What is the Vision?

The Vision is a prophetic poem written by Pete Greig at the original 24-7 prayer room in Chichester and encapsulates the heart of the movement’s ‘DNA’.  Read it at http://www.24-7prayer.com/cm/resources/30 and see an animated version of it at http://media.24-7prayer.org/thevision/index.html. It can also be found in Pete’s book, The Vision and The Vow.

All the books mentioned above are available through www.24-7prayer.com and other online and high street bookstores.