Thurrock Births Multiple Boiler Room Communities

Published: March 13th, 2007

Boiler Rooms are like buses.  You wait for ages, and then two come along at once.  At least that is the experience of Tim Harrold, co-ordinator of the East London Boiler Room network.  And he should know: as well as two emerging boiler room communities, Tim does also have a rather conspicuous double-decker bus in his portfolio of missional activities!

Tim Harrold is a 24-7 veteran.  God first started speaking to him about continuous prayer among young people in 1997.  1999 saw Tim's first encounter with the 24-7 prayer movement, and in 2001 he ran a one-day prayer room in support of a prayer flight around the UK.  In February 2002 he headed up the first 24-7 prayer week in Thurrock, a tough and sometimes challenging area to the east of London.  For the last 3 years, Tim and his wife Vera have been living by faith and working to establish a network of inter-church relationships, prayer, and mission projects to ‘prepare the ground’ for a 24-7 Boiler Room.

Thurrock offers its own unique challenges as a Boiler Room location.  It is not a ‘city’ and consists of at least six recognisable towns and areas, each with their own very different identities.  This is one of the most secular and materialistic parts of Britain – less than 2% of the population are churchgoers and they have a reputation for dysfunctional lives, families and neighbourhoods.  The geographical diversity means that there is no obvious location for a single venue, and the team have had to run with the idea of Boiler Room as a ‘community of communities’ planted in the various towns that make up the borough.  Now, after several years of prayer and preparation, things seem to be emerging fast!

In Grays, a small group are meeting to pray regularly as the core of an emerging Boiler Room community.  From summer 2007 they will have a permanent prayer room established, in a large house that is being shared with the Thurrock Healing Rooms and the wider community.

Six miles away in Corringham and Stanford-le-Hope, a second house has been offered initially for a year as a Boiler Room venue.  The spacious 100-year-old property includes a prayer room, creative arts studio, venue for meals and hospitality, and 3 bedrooms for short-term accommodation.  The community here are establishing a daily rhythm of prayer ‘morning, noon, and night’, starting with a full week of 24-7 prayer at the beginning of April 2007.

“We have a huge number of ideas bubbling up around the boiler room practises: prayer, mission, mercy, creativity, learning, and hospitality” says Tim.  “Some of these are already established, and others will emerge very quickly.  But we know that prayer must remain at the heart of everything that we do, so seeing sustainable rhythms of prayer established has to be our first priority”.

To find out more about the Thurrock Boiler Room communities and ELBR, contact Tim Harrold.

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