24 Hours of Prayer, Burnisland Parish Church

Andy and Diane West of 24-7 Prayer describe the development and incorporation of 24 hour prayer events into the prayer life of their local church.

For the past few occasions, we have created prayer stations in our church building in Burntisland rather than making a separate prayer room as is more typical for 24-7 prayer events. We’re trying to make the prayer more visible and obvious so the whole congregation can access it.

Our event in April was timed Saturday evening to Sunday evening and we left all the stations in place for Sunday morning’s service. This was excellent. The service became an integral part of the prayer event, so the whole congregation was involved. All ages can join in, and the Youth Fellowship enjoyed the creative prayer opportunities and left us with some great artwork. Some people helped decorate the cross with flowers for themorning service or contributed poems and songs for “Poets’ Corner”.

During the 24 hour period we clocked up around 65 “prayer hours.” The following evening several people covered various parts of Burntisland as we “prayer-walked” the town taking God’s blessing as we went. One exciting feature of the day was that some joined with us from other churches: at least 5 local churches were represented – God likes it when we pray across boundaries.

It was lovely to have the church open for prayer and several people visited during that time, some coming back for the evening service. We have since held a similar successful 24 hour event for ‘Pentecost Prayer’, and again several people from the community came along and joined with church folk, including someone who had just been evicted from their home and was able to receive help.

Diane and Andy West
For more information contact Diane West email: wwork(at)onetel.com
website: www.24-7prayer.com