Phil Anderson, one of the core members, writes; “We are learning how to live out the six Boiler Room values together. Hopefully we are creating a picture of what ‘church’ looks like in 2011 here in Essex.

As Boiler Rooms go, we’re quite young and small. We began in April 2007, though before that we had been involved in triggering 24-7 Prayer locally for more than 5 years. We are based out of a large residential house that has been given over to our community, which we use for prayer, community meals and for offering hospitality to visitors and pilgrims. Like all Boiler Rooms, we try to live out the six values:

• Prayer: We have prayer in the house, either as individuals or in groups. We normally have a 24-hour prayer watch each week from Friday into Saturday, and occasional weeks of continuous 24-7 Prayer.
• Creativity: We have a room set aside as an arts studio. We encourage people to use painting, writing, sculpture, installation art, music etc. as part of their prayer. We also host ’24-7 Create’ days for local artists and Boiler Room members to display their artwork.
• Mission: Some of us go out weekly on a youth outreach project which uses a converted double-decker bus called Bar’n’bus. We also actively support various short and long term mission works, in prayer and financially. These are all done in partnership with local churches.The Prayer Spaces in Schools work is expanding in local schools reaching 100s of children, led by Carla Taylor and her team.
• Learning: We have hosted 24-7’s Transit/Roots course, a 12-month residential discipleship opportunity, and most of our Boiler Room community have joined in with the annual rhythm of ‘God Story’ teaching.
• Justice and Mercy: Individuals are involved in supporting Besom, helping the local poor. We are also involved in micro enterprise in India, a food project in Kosovo and some other projects through prayer, personal involvement and financially. Again, all these are in partnership with local churches.
• Hospitality: We welcome guests for personal retreats, or to get involved in Boiler Room activities. Hospitality has become an important part of our community. In addition, we have at least two open meals at the house each week followed by corporate prayer/worship.

Sally Harman writes: “The Boiler Room community (SBR) in Stanford-le-Hope (East of London) is dedicated to God, each other and the town in which we live.

Being part of the community in Stanford means being an active part of our community, joining in with the regular rhythms of prayer, study, creativity and hospitality.

We also have a strong emphasis on mission, particularly amongst young people, increasingly in local schools and on the streets via the Bar-N-Bus project. Community members are involved in local social action and local/national politics too. This year we are looking forward to a music event, ‘Live Lounge’, and art exhibition, ’24-7 Create’.

In Stanford, alongside the Boiler Room, we also have our community house in which 5 long-term community members have intentionally committed to share life together for a minimum of 12 months. This household have regular house meals and prayer walk the town weekly.

In addition to some personal study and reading, the Core Team meet regularly for ‘God Story’, which is a chronological study of the Bible, or for the Alpha course.
As a community we have enjoyed participating in 24-7 International gatherings and many of us travelled up to Edinburgh for 24-7’s ‘Magnify’ event, late in September 2010.

For the first time this year (2011) we are sending team to work alongside the 24-7 Ibiza community in the Summer, with a second team preparing the way in prayer during April. We have also sent people to visit, Kosovo, Iceland and India.”