24-7 Prayer has always had a special relationship with the Salvation Army. In the UK, they were the first to experiment with a whole year of non-stop prayer, and as a result they experienced God’s response to their prayers in incredible ways. Worldwide, many Salvation Army territories have followed this example, and have launched similar seasons of non-stop prayer.

The Wandsworth Boiler Room community is unique, in so many ways. First and foremost though, it is an exciting fusion of 24-7 Prayer and the missional, social-activist DNA of the Salvation Army, intimacy with God and involvement in a broken world around us. What might have been considered an unlikely ‘marriage’ has become something that only Heaven could have dreamed up.

Following lengthy conversations and preparations, in August 2004, the Wandsworth Salvation Army Corps was reborn as the Wandsworth Salvation Army Boiler Room, wrapping their daily rhythms firmly around the six Boiler Room practices – mission and justice, hospitality and prayer, creativity and learning. Many described it as a return to their Salvation Army roots, a call back to their original destiny.

The Wandsworth Boiler Room community is a church congregation, but is also very much part of all that the body of Christ is actively involved in their local community. In fact, someone recently commented that “wherever something is happening in our Borough, I find the Wandsworth Boiler Room community in the middle somewhere”. Community members are involved with the Street Pastors, and as pastors to local schools. They visit prisons, they serve at local mental health day centres, and are involved in many other Local Authority projects. They host and lead most of the prayer activities across the area, serving as catalysts and gatherers for the Church. And day after day, they care for poor and homeless people, they pray for those who are locked into addictions and violence, they offer hospitality to the broken and the bruised, the lost and the lonely.

You can find out more about the Wandsworth Boiler Room here, and contact them at wsarmy@aol.com