24-7 Background
24-7 first started at the Revelation Church in Chichester, West Sussex (UK), in 1999. Church members felt that God was calling them to pray, and they decided to begin a season of non-stop prayer, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They set aside a room in their building, which they decorated and filled with things that would get people praying. The room became a place of power, a place of incredible creativity, a place of peace and a place where people experienced the presence of God in a new way.
In the end they prayed non-stop for 2 months, and their experience challenged thousands of people around the UK to rediscover prayer. Pete Greig, a member of the Revelation Church leadership team, began to invite other churches to run weeks of 24-7, and the response was so huge that they soon came up with the idea of setting up a web site to resource the hundreds of people wanting to find out more…
24-7 is now a movement, rather than just a church project. Thousands of churches and groups in the UK have caught the vision and have prayed 24-7. The idea has also taken off internationally, with many other countries running their own 24-7 initiatives, and all over the world, people are finding that God is active, powerful and faithful.
The idea of continual, unbroken prayer is enjoying huge popularity throughout the world at the moment, but it isn't a new idea. As Christians tap into the power which is available to them in God, they are simply rediscovering what believers down the centuries have proved: that prayer is worth all the effort.
The Bible firmly endorses the idea that prayer should be a time-consuming business. The prophet Isaiah talks about the role of the watchmen:
‘They will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.’ (Isaiah 62:6-7, NIV)
The early Christians ‘all joined together constantly in prayer’ (Acts 1:14), and named prayer as one of the core values of their new faith (Acts 2:42). As the early church began to take root and spread, prayer was very much at the centre of all that happened; it was a first resort, rather than a last resort.
Church history also provides us with several examples of communities who have made continual prayer a part of their life together. In the 18th century the monks of Bangor Abbey were well known for their 24-hour-a-day prayer vigils. In the 19th century, the Moravian community began praying "round the clock", and continued doing so for one hundred years.
In the 20th century the trend continues. 24-7 has gone international, and the movement now has bases in many different countries. And God remains faithful; wherever his people pray, he answers.
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