24-7 (or 5 to be precise) 28 September 2007
Posted by jamesbutler in What we're up to.....add a comment
So Sept 30th sees the kick-off of our first week of 24-7 Prayer this term. We will be praying with a focus on Jesus Culture and students. The transit students have been working on the prayer room to provide a creative space in which to pray and meet with God.
It will be in the methodist church on Victoria Street, Englefield Green from 6pm Sunday 30th, through to 6pm on Friday 5th. If you would like to sign up for an hour email me with the time and day and I’ll sign you up. Hopefully we will have a fully online sign-up sheet at somepoint but until them it’s going to have to be by email. Use this post to leave your comments on the prayer room.
Christ-centred community 25 September 2007
Posted by boilerroom in What we're thinking about.., What we've done....2 comments
Hi, I’m Lauren from the Transit team in Egham this year. I’m here from Australia with my husband Mick & my 2 kids Lily (2) & Jake (4 months).
Last night we had our first boiler room meal here at the Transit house to start building the boiler room community. I suppose community is another buzz word, it definitely gets thrown around a lot, and often is preceded by the word ‘Christian’.
Last night James posed the question: What is a Christ-centred or Christian community? He then followed it with the question: What is the difference between a Christian community and a bunch of Christians hanging out?
Over the next year I think the concept of community is going to be exhaustively explored…in my own family, in the Transit house, in the boiler room community, in the Royal Holloway community as well as in the Egham community and beyond. My hope is not to contain community, which ever one it may be, exclusively to its members. I think a part of being a Christ-centred community is not to be a Christian ghetto, or even to have the mentality of “bringing people in”, but to have Jesus and His mission at the centre of everything we do and constantly in our sight. To lose sight of that I think would be to simply become a bunch of Christians hanging out…
Post a reply and tell me what your thoughts are…
Rhythms of Prayer 22 September 2007
Posted by jamesbutler in What we're thinking about.., What we're up to.....add a comment
One of the buzz words within 24-7 Prayer is Rhythms. Although we often joke about the word, it does express well, how we want the spiritual disciplines to shape us. Rhythms aren’t used to restrict, but to guide and compliment. It’s not a legalism, it’s more like a pulse, that keeps us healthy and alive.
One of the key rhythms for Boiler Rooms is that of prayer. Daily, weekly, monthly etc. We have a rhythm of weeks of 24-7 Prayer, weekly times of prayer together, and now we are adopting a rhythm that Guildford and Colchester have found helpful, one of daily prayer. We have decided, as a community, to pray the Lord’s prayer every day at 12 midday. We set an alarm or some sort of reminder (personally an alarm on my phone work’s better that a knot in my hanky or a something scribbled in biro on my hand!) and take a couple of minutes to pray that Lord’s prayer.
If you would like to join us please do. Let us know how you get on. I’ve already found that on different days different things get highlighted. The other day I was at a conference about homelessness, and as I prayed the Lord’s prayer the phrase Your Kingdom come suddenly felt very significant. Amidst the talk of targets of no youth homelessness, and feeling like political buzzwords were taking the place of talking about the individual, the idea of God’s Kingdom seemed very appropriate.
Work in progress…. 13 September 2007
Posted by jamesbutler in What we're up to.....1 comment so far
Not some clever paraphrase of St Paul, but a truthful statement that we are working hard on doing up the church where the Boiler Room is hosted. There are grand plans afoot to refurbish the entire church, but as a jumping off point a few of us got together today for a work day to tidy, clean and paint to make the Boiler Room a more welcoming and comfortable space.
The main work of the day was painting the stairwell and cleaning floors, walls and ceiling in and outside to make the place look a bit more spritely. There was also some stripping (of varnish off a door) and plenty of creative ideas bouncing around.
Click the more link for some more photos…
(more…)
Going into Transit 5 September 2007
Posted by jamesbutler in What we're up to.....add a comment
So the transit students have all arrived in the UK and we are at Ashburnham Place conference and prayer centre for the introduction and orientation. It’s great to meet everyone, and although it’s yet to be decided who will go where I getting the feeling it’s going to be a great year, both in Egham and in Guildford. Lots of passionate, gifted and enthusiastic people willing to give a year of their life to be trained and feed into a Boiler Room community. So I guess the old adage of watch this space is very appropriate….
