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WHAT IS 24-7/SA?
24-7/SA is a great opportunity for Salvationists and friends to get their knees dirty and pray for our Army, our nation, our community, our corps, our friends and family, and ourselves! 24-7/SA is NOT a prayer program–IT IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO GET CLOSER TO OUR CREATOR AND PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!
WHAT ARE THE AIMS OF THIS PRAYER INITIATIVE?
To turn the tide:
- The dream behind 24-7 is to turn the tide of youth culture back to Jesus. It’s a big dream–maybe an impossible dream.
- The dream behind 24-7/SA is to turn the tide of The Salvation Army corps and soldiery back to God, as the source of all power and faith. It’s a big dream, but not an impossible dream.
To mobilize prayer:
- 24-7/SA is not for experts. It is for those who find prayer a struggle.
- 24-7/SA is a model that works! It has proven unusually successful at mobilizing people especially young people to pray like they’ve never prayed before. People learn to pray…by praying!
- 24-7/SA captures the imagination. Young people today are more likely to turn up at a prayer meeting at 3:00 am than at 7:30 pm! Why? Because it’s extreme. The dare is to be alone with God for a whole hour– maybe even in the middle of the night.
- 24-7/SA makes prayer easier. The arts play an important part. Many say that “an hour feels like 10 minutes in the prayer room.”
“Let me say that we are absolutely thrilled by the way 24-7/SA has taken off in the territory. It is transforming people and corps and is helping to put prayer at the center of all that we do. It is not a program, but rather an initiative.” COMMISSIONER ALEX HUGHES, |
HOW DOES 24-7/SA WORK?
It’s simple, really…24-7 has become a worldwide, non-stop prayer movement. From its early beginnings in England, it moved into the Army world through the United Kingdom Territory; the USA Western Territory has chosen to adapt the best of a great vision and bring it into the hearts and lives of Salvationists in this part of the world.
Participating groups pledge to pray for 24 hours a day for a week or more, in a dedicated prayer room. They then “carry the baton of prayer” for that period of time. The prayer passes from location to location in a never-ending flow linked by our Western Territory web-page www.salvationarmy.usawest.org and the Youth Web-page sayconnect.com.
HOW DOES 24-7/SA FIT WITH PRAYER PARTNERS?
Prayer Partners and divisional prayer leaders will be very important to the success of 24-7/SA Prayer Initiative. Lt. Colonel Mervyn Morelock, territorial prayer coordinator, has worked with each division to identify divisional prayer leaders. We are very pleased to report that each division has an appointed divisional prayer leader who will encourage and assist with the scheduling of each 24-7/SA prayer event in corps/institutions throughout their division. Some divisional prayer leaders might be utilized as consultants to help groups get from concept–to intent–to scheduling a week on the master 24-7/SA calendar. Divisional prayer leaders will work with the THQ Evangelism, Prayer & Spiritual Formation Department to assure adequate support is provided to interested corps and groups!
“This is a very exciting vehicle to encourage our people to pray! Several of the corps who gave such wonderful reports on the territorial prayer vigil (September 22–24, 2001) will, I am sure, pick up on this initiative and will experience some powerful blessings!” LT. COLONEL MERVYN MORELOCK, |
Prayer partners will serve as ‘spark plugs’ in corps and divisions, getting 24-7/SA from an idea on paper to a group of people praying and seeing the power of God work through their efforts! Prayer partners can assist their corps officers in taking the lead to establish a 24-7/SA prayer room and they can be the ones to get their fellow Salvationists excited for a radical experience in prayer!
24-7/SA Prayer Initiative will take all of us, working together to move the Western Territory into a year of continuous prayer, for the Glory of God!
PRAYING IS IMPORTANT TO EVERYONE!
BY JUDY SMITH, CAPTAIN –
Recently, a small group Bible study that I attend was beginning its weekly meeting in the home of a fellow member. About 20 to 30 minutes into our meeting, the lights flickered–not long, but just long enough to cause some minor comment…what’s happening? A couple of minutes later the lights flickered again, and this time they didn’t come back on–they went out completely. It was quite strange, but we all just sat there–no one dared to move in a room that wasn’t familiar–except for our hostess, of course. It wasn’t long before the lights returned and that’s when many members of the group said we should get candles ready in case it happened again. And wouldn’t you know it, not five minutes passed before the lights went out again and this time we were destined to be in the dark for the remainder of the Bible study.
What were we to do? We had many options, but I’ll tell you what we did. We found those candles, pulled out some flashlights, poured the remainder of the coffee and settled in for the rest of our Bible study. When it became clear that reading Scripture was going to be very difficult (it has been too long since any of us have studied by candlelight), our leader began expressing his concern that The Salvation Army needed to become an Army of prayer, filled and led by people of prayer. Those two simple statements led us into an evening of prayer…a bold connection to the source of our joy and power–God!
Our evening was no longer filled with the darkness that surrounded us in a light deprived world; instead, we were filled with the Holy Spirit who reminded us to pray for everything and everyone. We began to pour out our feelings to him–express our pain, our joy, pray our desires, our hopes, pray on behalf of loved ones and those we barely knew. God didn’t expect perfect phrases or perfect words, but he did expect a heart fully resigned to him and his will. We knew that our job was to submit a heart and spirit that trusted in God’s promises for answered prayer which would enable us to pray with confidence allowing the Holy Spirit to fill that living room and the hearts of all of us who participated!
“We have been greatly encouraged and blessed by this prayer initiative…It has already had profound effects upon the territory.” LT. COLONEL ROBERT HALLIDAY, |
Without realizing it or orchestrating it, our small group Bible study experienced the beginning of 24-7/– a radical experience of prayer. The power outage gave us an opportunity to choose prayer over conversation, which gave God the opportunity to do something amazing in each of us–because we dedicated our time to him, in prayer! If this could happen in San Pedro, California in December 2001, it can also happen in your community–regardless of where you live! What have you got to lose?
WHY CONTINUAL PRAYER?
Why is continual prayer important? Because bold, persistent prayer is effective. First it changes us, and then it changes the world. Jesus told stories to encourage us to “cry out day and night” (Luke 18) and persist in prayer.
- Pentecost came to a prayer room.
- Paul urged the Thessalonians to “pray constantly.”
- The early church “joined together constantly in prayer.” (Acts 1 14)
- Celtic Monks at Bangor Abbey in Ireland prayed continually for 200 years.
- The pope decreed continual prayer in certain locations in the 15th century.
- In the 18th century, a small community of Moravians began a 24-7 prayer meeting that lasted for over a hundred years, mobilized 3,000 missionaries and converted John Wesley!
- Many revival centers today see 24 hour prayer as a necessity.
HOW DO WE GET INVOLVED?
Corps and corps groups will be invited to pray for a week. If corps are interested they should contact the THQ Evangelism, Prayer & Spiritual Formation Department. They will then be assigned a consultant from 24-7/SA who will discuss with them everything from practicalities of the week to the philosophy of 24-7/SA. Once a corps has decided that they would like to take part in 24-7/SA, they will re-contact the Evangelism, Prayer & Spiritual Formation Department to find a suitable date for their week.
STEP BY STEP GUIDE FOR GETTING INVOLVED
If you are interested in getting involved:
- Speak to your corps officer.
- Contact the THQ Evangelism, Prayer & Spiritual Formation Department [562-491-8382].
- Get others in your corps excited about 24-7/SA.
- Wait to hear from your consultant.
- Meet or talk with the consultant.
- Book the dates with the THQ Evangelism, Prayer & Spiritual Formation Department.
- Begin brainstorming locations for your prayer room.
- Prepare to pray.
WHAT’S IN THE RESOURCE BOOKLET THAT EVERY 24-7/SA CORPS WILL RECEIVE?
Topics included in the resource booklet include:
- How to choose a 24-7/SA prayer room
- What’s in the prayer room
- How to schedule a 24-7/SA week and booking form for the week
- Corporate prayer times and suggested guideline
- Motivation
- Prayer topics
- Daily Bible studies and daily themes
- Do’s and don’ts
- Outlines for using music and art within a 24-7/SA prayer venue
- Salvationist response form
WHY IS A PRAYER ROOM NEEDED?
Locating the prayer season in a specific location seems to be one of the keys to the effectiveness of 24-7/SA.
- The Holy Spirit can fill a place as well as a person (Acts 2:2, 16:16). There is often a strong sense of God’s presence in such a place of prayer, even experienced by non-Christians.
- Time often goes quicker! Many have reported, “In the prayer room one hour feels like 10 minutes.”
- Evangelistically the prayer room is excellent. Non-Christians have often sat in such places to pray, and some have said that they can feel God’s presence. People who don’t want to be “preached at” still like to be prayed for.
- The prayer room enables people to pray non-verbally, by posting artwork, poetry and graffiti on the wall. The environment can be artistically designed to stimulate and direct prayer.
- The room provides accountability–a place where people have to turn up, and this ensures a constant flow as one prayer-shift hands the baton on to the next. Visiting the room is like a mini-pilgrimage.
- A shared location provides a strong sense of being part of a community carrying each other’s burdens, celebrating the break throughs together and ministering to one another. You are more than a link in a prayer chain.
Prayer rooms have been opened in all kinds of places: in a disused radio station in Sweden, in a barn, in a teepee at a new age festival, in a skate park in Switzerland, in a double decker bus, in marquees at big festivals, in student basements and a campus chaplaincy office. Oh–and also in church buildings
WHY NOT START A 24-7/SA PRAYER MEETING WHERE YOU LIVE?
Why not launch the wildest, most extreme, most exciting prayer meeting your area has ever seen? Just register your intent with the THQ Evangelism, Prayer & Spiritual Formation Department [562-491-8382].
We’ll send you a load of stuff to help…you begin searching for a room with a coffee pot…get your friends excited…and GO!
24-7/SA aims to turn the tide in your world, in a radical way and that could start right where YOU live! PRAY! PRAY! PRAY!
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