What are Boiler Rooms?

1. What’s in a name?
2. Where did the idea come from?
3. What does a typical Boiler Room look like?
4. What do we call mini or emerging Boiler Rooms?
5. How does a Boiler Room Community relate to 24-7?
6. Boiler Room Centres
7. National 24-7 teams
8. Review and Relationship
9. How do I begin?
10. In what contexts can 24-7 Boiler Room communities be launched?
11. A 'Renewal' Model
12. A 'Citywide' Model
13. A 'Plant'
14. Is a Boiler Room a Church?
15. How are Boiler Rooms Licensed and Commissioned?

1. What’s in a name?

Many people ask why we call them ‘Boiler Rooms’. Good question.

In all honesty, the name Boiler Room began life as a working title for 24-7's first intentional community, in Reading, UK. It was a nickname, and it stuck! It was a name harking back to the great and glorious days of steam, where boiler rooms powered vast machines and systems. In these places, fires were fueled night-and-day, pistons converting pressure into power, and eventually into heat and light for the community.

It was only later that we discovered that C.H. Spurgeon, one of the greatest preaches of the late-nineteenth century, attributed the fruitfulness of his entire ministry to something he called 'Boiler Rooms. These were prayer meetings – often established in basements – that interceded while Spurgeon preached to crowds of thousands above thier heads. Spurgeon considered them the power-source of his own ministry.

2. Where did the idea come from?

The first Boiler Room opening in Reading, UK in September 2001. For the first three years of its life, home was an old pub incorporating three semi-derelict apartments, a basement, and the old bar itself. The Reading Boiler Room sustained a continual rhythm of prayer throughout its life. It also sought to nurture creativity. It received over two-hundred pilgrims from around the UK and the world. It worked extensively with and for the disadvantaged of the local community, building friendships with many marginalized young people, and receiving the recognition of local statutory bodies. This all came out of the place and context of prayer.

From this wild experiment, some exciting things came: A discipline of prayer developed. Many people visited the Boiler Room regularly, coming in week after week to seek God as part of a missional community. Prayers were answered. We have two volumes full of testimonies to answered prayer. The poor and lost were reached. For example, 150 needy young people came in and spent time with the Boiler Room Community each week. Most of them are not Christians. Local Government recognised the effectiveness of what was going on, seeking partnership and funded projects.

The Reading Boiler Room closed in 2005, but a new, embryonic community is being re-established as you read this. However, since Reading's first days, other Boiler Rooms have been established all over the world.

3. What does a typical Boiler Room look like?

See Boiler Room Rule

4. What do we call mini or emerging Boiler Rooms?

Sustained prayer often galvanizes fresh vision and deep friendships. In many cases, 24-7 Prayer Rooms have evolved into ongoing expressions of community, gathered around the broader 24-7 vision and values. Likewise, in some pioneer missionary situations, teams have established small 24-7 communities, perhaps with a vision to grow a team into a Boiler Room. We want to be open and supportive of such models, recognizing that in many ways these groups are similar to Boiler Rooms and may develop in that direction. At this formative stage, somewhere between a one-off prayer room and a licensed Boiler Room, we talk about 24-7 Prayer Communities.

A 24-7 Community is a group of people in a geographical location who have a desire to express six practices around a rhythm of daily prayer and weeks of 24-7. They are often smaller than a licensed Boiler Room. They are sometimes working towards becoming licensed as Boiler Rooms, or may exist with the intention of being a small, local community.

Many other communities exist, who have a relationship with 24-7. We love this, and these relationships are often pursued by our national bases. They are not covered by the rule, as there is no vision for a Boiler Room.

5. How does a Boiler Room Community relate to 24-7?

Since the first Boiler Room opened in 2001, we've found that these 'Millennium 3 Monasteries' have looked very different in different places. While diversity is good, we've found there is a need to clarify what these Boiler Rooms were, and how they related to 24-7 Prayer.

In the previous sections, we've set out what is expected of 24-7 Boiler Rooms. This section covers how these communities are accountable, and how they relate to the wider movement. In our early days, structure was largely top down, like the Roman monasteries, with a point of contact to which all monasteries linked. As the movement grows, that structure will inevitably limit growth, as well as being slightly alien to our DNA as a movement. Instead, we want to move into a more Celtic model, where monasteries were were commissioned and then able to plant their own satellite monasteries, with they go on to oversee.

6. Boiler Room Centres

Some Boiler Room communities will be identified within 24-7, and commissioned as Centres. These communities are licensed to:

Train: using 24-7 training resources, for example, the 24-7 Transit training course Multiply and Lead: planting and supporting other Boiler Rooms in conjunction with 24-7.

A Boiler Room centre is recognised as a model of good practise, outworking the Boiler Room principles and practices. Boiler Room centres are accountable to a local board or church and also to 24-7 Prayer nationally. Other Boiler Rooms look to these communities for support and resources.

7. National 24-7 teams

8. Review and Relationship

A licensed 24-7 Boiler Room community forms an important part of the international network of Boiler Rooms. They share support and resources with other Boiler Rooms around the world.

In order to maintain our edge, and stay true to our purpose, each 24-7 Boiler Room submits to an annual process of review, according to the principles, practices and customary outlined above. This provides an enriching opportunity for cross-fertilization as well as the safety net of accountability. 24-7 reserves the right to withdraw the Boiler Room license from a community that consistently fails to pursue the purposes and principles of the Boiler Room rule.

The practices and accompanying customary outlined in this document are themselves subject to annual review by 24-7's international base, and by the Boiler Room, to ass their ongoing value to the movement.

9. How do I begin?

For information on the process of beginning a Boiler Room, we suggest you download this document, which explores 'The 4 Rs.'

10. In what contexts can 24-7 Boiler Room communities be launched?

There are various expressions of Boiler Room community. All three main models are recognised by 24-7 as equally legitimate, according to context. The choice of model fundamentally affects important organisational issues, such as how the Boiler Room is funded, how leaders are appointed, supported and held accountable, and the level of ongoing connection with 24-7 Prayer.

11. A 'Renewal' Model

24-7 Prayer has been a catalyst for powerful renewal in denominations and organizations. Whenever such established bodies take on a model of Boiler Rooms, we recognise that they become the 'primary carer' for the new community. A good example would be the newly opened Salvation Army Boiler Room in Wandsworth, London.

12. A 'Citywide' Model

These are Boiler Rooms established across a town or city, and 'owned' by various churches rather than a single one. In these situations, cross-church unity is used as a tool to galvanize support for prayer, mission and justice through a Boiler Room. Generally, these Boiler Rooms are born out of a number of previous citywide 24-7 Prayer weeks. Citywide Boiler Rooms report to a committee representing local churches, and they are accountable to them. We regard Christian unity as a vital and blessed partner of prayerful mission. We also note that the reverse is very rarely true: often praying together is foundational to being the church together.

13. A 'Plant'

In some circumstances, a Boiler Room is a churchplanting mission model in cultures and contexts where the gospel is not being heard. In these situations 24-7 may partner with a church or group working on the ground. An example here is Tommy Nauman in the Balkans or Metro All Nations in Kansas city. These could also be projects that develop from ongoing missions, for example, the Heasleys working in Ibiza.

14. Is a Boiler Room a Church?

Many people ask whether Boiler Rooms are churches. This very question was discussed and debated at length during our annual gathering in Barcelona in 2004, where we came to a clear position.

24-7 clearly recognizes that in pioneering and exceptional circumstances, Boiler Rooms are indeed church plants. In Ibiza, for example, our aim is to plant a church in the midst of club culture on the island. In Kansas City, in the midst of exceptional circumstances, a community was licensed to plant a Boiler Room out of a church that played a vital part in it. In Liverpool, as part of their mandate from the Salvation Army, a church congregation was planted and has become part of the life of the Boiler Room.

Nevertheless, in other circumstances, often in a citywide context, it is unhelpful to refer to a Boiler Room as a church. In Stained, West London, the Boiler Room looked to serve a number of local congregations and be part of a process of reaching their area based on the unity and support of local congregations.

There are bigger questions to be asked about ecclesiology. The German language has two words for church: 'kirche' denotes a formal, state denomination, whilst 'gemeinde' describes all sorts of more organic expressions of Christian community. In the past fifty years, theologians like Lesslie Newbiggin have helped refocus the church on our primary calling, to incarnate the gospel in mission communities. We do not hesitate to call Boiler Rooms missional communities. These may be considered churches in the sense of ekklēsia (ek – ‘out of’, klēsis – ‘calling’), the predominant New Testament word for church, simply describing a purposeful assembly of Christians. However history has complicated and occasionally confused simple definition. 24-7 celebrates the rich ecclesiological insight of sacramental, liturgical and non-conformist streams and traditions, working closely with various denominations. In light of this, we have recognised that the word 'church' cannot be useful casually, and should not be applied to a missional community carelessly – because of what is heard when this word is said. To describe a Boiler Room as a church therefore could be misleading or confusing in some situations. What is more, it is often neither possible nor necessary to clarify what various parties understood the word church to mean.

We continue to use the term Boiler Rooms for all our communities. Part of the attraction of this model is that the name can equally describe an ecumenical Christian community working throughout various churches to bring renewal and catalyse mission, for example, the Salvation Army Boiler Room in Wandsworth, South London, or to describe a chruch plant in an unevangelised context, as with the vision of the 24-7 community living on the island of Ibiza, Spain. We have come to the conclusion that we would not add anything by generally labelling all Boiler Rooms as churches, and we do not feel that such a label is required for some of them to operate as churches, as the local context requires.

It should also be noted that a 24-7 Boiler Room is a generic term that we use for these communities. In their own localities, many Boiler Rooms will call themselves different names – not least because boiler rooms aren't all that common in some places! e.g. Re:aktor in Sweden, Urban Monastery in Canada.

15. How are Boiler Rooms Licensed and Commissioned?

Leaders of prayer communities inspired in some way by the principles and practices in the Boiler Room rule may sometimes decide they do not wish their project to become a 24-7 Boiler Room. We recognise that might be part of the process and would affirm that choice, recognising that all Christian prayer is good, regardless of model or affiliation. However, we would encourage such groups to establish external frameworks for input and accountability, even if not with 24-7.

Wherever there is long term vision to establish a 24-7 Boiler Room, we work with others to assess the viability and compatibility of the situation, and to suggest a development strategy towards this goal. Once a situation is considered eligible for a license according to the criteria outlined in this document, it will then:

Be launched locally with representatives of the appropriate national and the international 24-7 bases attending to help commission the team and it’s Abbot/Abbess. Be licensed as a Boiler Room by 24-7 in the form of a written agreement that will be reviewed annually. Where appropriate a Boiler Room will be licenced to plant and to train. Be profiled internationally as an official 24-7 Boiler Room. Be given ongoing support from the Boiler Room team. Be encouraged to contribute a pre-agreed amount financially to 24-7 and to share its resources with the wider Boiler Room Network. Be invited to send its leaders to 24-7’s annual International Leaders Gathering.