Running a Year of 24-7 Prayer

Between May 2001 and May 2002 The Salvation Army in the UK ran a year of unbroken prayer - they prayed 24-7-365 handing the baton of prayer from Corps to Corps (Church to Church) in a chain of prayer that spanned the country. “Over 200 centres took part, and the effect on our movement was astounding." Writes Lyndall Bywater. "As people all over the country used the same model for prayer, we began to see a common heart, a common passion and a common vision for prayer emerging, all the way from the north of Scotland to the Channel Islands. We have never seen anything like it before, and God has used it to catapult us into a new phase of prayer-centred mission, which will transform the future of our movement.”

The very first 24-7 Prayer Room emerged on the south coast of England in September 1999. Since then there have been thousands of prayer rooms in church halls and schools, in prisons and seats of Government, across more than 90 nations. The majority of these prayer rooms have been ‘independent’, in the sense that they’ve contacted 24-7 Prayer directly (usually via the website) and registered as individual churches. However, The Salvation Army in the UK were the first network of churches/groups to run their own non-stop, joined up year of 24-7 Prayer. Many other national Salvation Army groups have quickly followed in their footsteps experiencing a rise in faith, answered prayer and new life and growth in their church. Inspired by their example and testimony Youth With a Mission, other denominations, and other groups of Christians have adapted their model to pray 24-7-365.

Year's of prayer (YOP) have already happened at many different levels: people drawn together by geography (continents, nations, regions or cities), people united in common interest (like a year of prayer across University Campuses) and many denominations of the Body of Christ. We've drawn on the wisdom and experience of those who've met this extreme challenge to share the vision and practicalities of organising 24-7-365.

What is a 24-7 Year of Prayer?

This might be stating the obvious, but a year of prayer generally consists of at least 52 24-7 Prayer Rooms, running one after the other in an unbroken chain. They may run from 1st January until 31st December, for example, though this is not a ‘standard year’ by any means. Some networks have used a national event or conference to start and finish their year.

52 churches/groups agree to take on a week of 24-7 Prayer each (some may of course do more than one week and if you have more than 52 groups there could multiple groups praying at the same time). These individual churches/groups organise their own week – establishing a creative, user-friendly and challenging prayer room, mobilising their people to fill each of the 168 hours in their alloted week with prayer, poetry, music and art. As each church/group finishes their 24-7 Prayer week (usually on a Sunday, but again, there’s nothing restrictive about this) they hand over to the next church/group. Some hand-overs have been done via the phone, or by people from the finishing church/group visiting the next starting church/group, or by the passing of some kind of prophetic baton or flame or prayer-book. Some have handed over with no contact taking place, although this is less effective, and so it goes on for 52 weeks. Non-stop, night-and-day, 24-7-365… a whole year of people praying with one voice… to one God. Awesome.

It is, of course, possible to run a YOP without breaking it rigidly into week-long slots, mixing weeks of prayer with weekends, days, months, even periods of hours, depending on the capacity of the individual churches/groups getting involved. Some flexibility is probably essential to ensure that all participating can engage at a manageable level… although, having said that, our experience would be that churches that have really stretched themselves towards filling a whole week with uninterrupted prayer have really benefited from the discipline and the sacrifice. Try it…

Why do a year of prayer?

This might be an odd question to even ask, but maybe some people need persuading. In her end-of-year report, Lyndall Bywater from the Salvation Army listed the following reasons for embarking on a year of unbroken prayer:

Lyndall concludes her report by saying, “We knew the 24-7 model was the right one because it had its roots deep in a heart for the lost and a willingness to get out there and find them. That is where our roots are as well, and we have been amazed at the way in which this ‘new’ move of God has helped us recapture the old values of the Salvation Army. So not only is prayer a new priority, but people are beginning to grasp that prayer can’t happen without mission and neither can mission happen without prayer.”

What do you need for a year of prayer?

The answer to this question will depend largely on the nation, denomination or network concerned, but below are some of the things that we have found to be very important.

Leaders Names and fame matter little in the Kingdom of God, but nonetheless, where the YOP has taken place within a particular denomination or particular church network/organisation, people have found it easier to identify with (and trust) the person ‘pitching the idea’ if they know them, or know them by good reputation. People generally need to feel confident that it is led and directed by people of integrity and ‘good standing’.

Lyndall says that The Salvation Army, for instance: “found it very helpful to ask their national leaders to commend the year of prayer, even before it had begun, as this excited the enthusiasts and reassured the sceptics. As their year went on, it also proved vital to have a team of people who were known to be responsible for the project. Some SA churches felt rather isolated, being hundreds of miles from our national centre in London, and having the name of someone to phone with questions and problems was a very important morale-booster. The leadership team also helped to provide continuity and maintain unity of vision as the year progressed.”

Having said that, other years of prayer have been led by teams of young people who were not ‘known’ particularly. Initially they encouraged their own churches to participate in the YOP, but then worked hard at locating, meeting with, and enthusing the leaders other churches, and encouraging them to get involved. The success of this model proves that it is possible to run one without national/organisational endorsement, although it also reinforces the need for good networking with local church leaders. And these leaders, whether in local churches or in national/organisational positions, need to be involved… to pray, and to lead by example. As someone has said, leading by example isn’t the best way, it’s the only way.

Vision (united) Casting vision and giving direction is a delicate thing to balance: too much direction can stifle creativity, innovation and the liberating, collaborative discovering of new things from God, but too little can sometimes leave people floundering and wondering what to do, especially if these people are used to a church culture where vision and direction are frequently given ‘from the front’ - no prayer room has a ‘front’!. For some years of prayer, it seems that simply ‘getting people to pray’ hasn’t quite been ‘enough’ to maintain the momentum and the sense of unity and journeying together. Lyndall writes: “We thought that a vision for prayer and mission would be enough to carry us through, but God was, as ever, several steps ahead of us! We launched the year of prayer at our national conference, in 2001, and God spoke to us through a word of prophecy, telling us that our year of prayer was to be a time to stop, and to ‘stand under the rain’. This word had a powerful impact, and throughout the year people kept asking for resources to help them do just that. It seemed to resonate with people from all backgrounds and styles of church, and it gave us a very clear sense of what God was doing in us through the project. Of course, words don’t come like that on demand, but with hindsight we needed a more defined vision and objective for our year than just getting people praying.”

In many cases, these resonant words and ‘visions’ from God have come (and kept coming!) in the prayer rooms themselves, rather than in planning meetings beforehand. However, it is perhaps important to be prepared for prophetic direction.

Administration and Organisation The Salvation Army quickly realised that no-one would be able to look after the year of prayer in their spare time, and therefore appointed a co-ordinator who worked 2 days a week. Other YOPs have been organised by a well-networked, existing full-time prayer co-ordinator or shared by a team of people. To administrate a YOP takes more time than you’d imagine! We believe that it takes a team of people that consists of three personality types to effectively catalyse and support 24-7 Prayer Rooms. They would include: a Salesman who can communicate the vision and stir up passion and excitement, a Secretary who can maintain the administrative functions below and a Specialist who can respond to questions and concerns about prayer and guide groups on how they might use the Prayer Room to bolster the wider prayer life of the church.

It is essential that the administrator/co-ordinator, and any others who are taking a leading role in the year of 24-7 Prayer have experienced a 24-7 Prayer Room themselves, first hand. This might mean that people need to go and visit one, spend some time in one, and discuss the practicalities with someone who has already run one first. They also need to have a fairly good grasp of what resources and materials are available on the 24-7 Prayer website that can be ordered or adapted for their context.

The tasks of an administrator/co-ordinator would include;

(Obviously, with many of these tasks, the administrator/co-ordinator may simply be making sure that they are fulfilled, rather than actually doing them all herself/himself.)

Time and Money To set up a year of 24-7 Prayer takes time – a lot of time. It requires time spent in conversation, envisioning and inspiring others to commit their time and effort and maybe even finances, and this rarely happens quickly. Our experience would suggest that it takes around 6 months to set up a YOP, although this largely depends on the status of existing communication networks, and useability of area-wide events to promote the vision. The best bet is always to over-estimate time rather than under-estimating it. If the YOP requires networking and building of relationships, then this definitely requires time and effort. But it will also reap rewards, especially if these relationships are maintained beyond the duration of the YOP – very often, ‘partnerships’ between churches only exist for the sake of a mission or project. A sustained year of prayer provides opportunities for sustained relationships.

A Good Start, a Good Finish and a Good Middle Most YOPs have started and finished with some kind of celebration – an event that draws a wider group of people to mark the beginning and the end of the year of prayer. Regarding The Salvation Army year, Lyndall wrote: “With a project which lasts so long and draws participation from so far and wide, it is vital to mark the start and end points with large-scale celebrations. These serve the purpose of bringing large numbers of people together and informing them of what God is saying and doing. Without these celebrations, the year could easily begin incognito and peter out at the end, without many people realising. We used our annual national conference as the start and end of the year, and this was very effective in launching well and ending well.”

A ‘Good Middle’ is largely dependent on communication. A steady flow of testimonies, ‘good news’ stories from the Prayer Rooms, prophetic words and pictures – these things all help to sustain momentum through the tricky ‘middle-phase’, where tiredness and isolation can easily set in. As already mentioned, some YOPs have used a prayer-log that passes from church/group to church/group. This enables each church/group to read the ‘journey so far’, and then add to it. Other ways to circulate these faith-building ‘good news’ stories would be:

A Good Idea about What Comes Next? In her report, Lyndall wisely comments that: “a year of prayer for its own sake is valuable, but its value is increased if it is part of a bigger vision. Otherwise it is unlikely to have much impact in the long term.” For The Salvation Army, this initially meant extending the administrator/co-ordinator’s hours after the YOP had ended, in an effort to draw the threads of their experience together and start to shape it into an “ongoing, on-growing vision and strategy”.

Many individual churches find that having run one week of 24-7 Prayer, and having experienced the profound connection between prayer and becoming the answer to one’s prayers… having experienced mission and other activity rippling out from the prayer room in different ways, they want to do more. Many churches look to build a rhythm of prayer into their annual calendar, e.g. once every 6 months, once every month, etc. They also often find, as I’ve already described, that a re-prioritisation takes place: prayer is the place where God interrupts our busyness and narrow-agendas. Leaders of each denomination or network running a YOP need to be prepared for such re-prioritisation, and be ready for their plans and strategies and much more to be re-shaped. A good way to precipitate this is to book in a review time shortly after the YOP ends, or even just before it has ended, where a variety of ‘key’ people can present reports and perspectives on what God might be saying regarding the way ahead?

Flexibility Don’t be legalistic, although aiming for the full 24-7-365 has it’s advantages (the sense of momentum and continuity gained, unity experienced, sacrifice endured, etc.) A church/group has not failed if they do not or cannot manage to fill every slot with prayer. Besides, filling slots and having people ‘in’ the prayer-room doesn’t guarantee that ‘prayer’ is actually taking place during every moment. Lyndall puts it like this; “We quickly learnt not to be too ‘precious’ about the 24-7 concept. Prayer is the key thing, and as much of it as possible, but otherwise, God honours creativity and determination and so should we. Once we had dropped our legalistic attachment to certain aspects of the 24-7 concept, we were hugely blessed to watch the hundreds of new ways in which people got round the obstacles. Where possible, we very strongly urged people to stick to the ‘normal’ idea (168 hours of non-stop prayer in one room), but those who had to deviate from that idea for any reason were not disappointed.”

Don’t be dogmatic, as a movement, 24-7 Prayer accepts that ‘prayer’ can be expressed in as many ways as there are people – in fact we welcome it, and we are sure that Heaven does too. In poetry and prose, through dance and stillness, in music and singing and shouting and silence, in and through this, and much more, we express our conscious communication with God. A challenge to any YOP that embraces those from different generations, denominations, cultural traditions and theological positions (possibly the last of these being the hardest), is to encourage flexibility. As far as possible, leaders of denominations or networks running years of prayer need to encourage tolerance and an attitude of preferring one another – let’s look to the many places where we agree, praying to the Father, Son and Spirit is a very good idea.

Faith Again, Lyndall put it perfectly in her report; “I still don’t know how we did it, and I still don’t know how we’re still doing it (most weeks we have a church doing 24-7), but I do know that anything is possible with God, and that that was our faith goal as we set out on our year of prayer. Anything which is humanly impossible is a great project to undertake, as it increases our faith and confirms the greatness of our God.” This might sound a bit obvious, but do make sure that the leaders, the administrator/co-ordinator, and any others who communicate publicly about the YOP do so with enthusiasm, faith and expectation. These things breed like a virus.

Here's What We Suggest

If you have any further questions or specific concerns then please contact the international Prayer Support Team.

Many thanks to Lyndall Bywater – much of this paper is drawn from her end-of-year report on The Salvation Army’s 2001-2002 year of prayer.