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An ultra-marathon for God: 24-7 Prayer

The movement, which began in 1999, is gaining popularity around the world and in unlikely places.

May 04, 2008|Joel Hood, Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Hour by hour, the prayers seemed to take on a weight and importance all their own.
There were prayers for kindness and for acceptance, for resolve and, of course, for love. Written on note cards or scribbled on walls, these were the innermost wishes of mothers, fathers and children at Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital last Monday, part of a continuous chain of prayer and reflection that will go around the clock for seven days.
Rosalyn Johnson prayed for the healing of broken fathers, who in turn might mend their broken children.
Dr. Yong Kim prayed for the strength of his patients during difficult times.
One note read simply, "God, I love my mom. Please make her well."
The continuous worship is a small piece of a 24-7 Prayer movement that is growing in popularity in the United States and globally. With its emphasis on disciplined, communal worship, 24-7 Prayer has been particularly successful at attracting young men and women of faith who've rejected the sometimes rigid confines of the church, organizers said.
"I think a lot of people have been turned off by the traditions of church: the do's and don'ts, the lectures," said Elisa Brown, the hospital's assistant chief financial officer, who introduced the idea of transforming the ground-floor chapel into a continuous prayer center this week, coinciding with the National Day of Prayer on Thursday.
"I don't think people have been turned off the church because of God. It's because they've had bad experiences."
In an era when church membership is in decline, 24-7 Prayer offers something different. It's less structured than the typical church setting, in that communities of worshipers can gather just about anywhere -- warehouses, theaters, nightclubs. It's also less formal. There usually aren't set programs to follow or pastors leading discussions about scripture. Even the word prayer is open to interpretation, as it has evolved over the years to include activities such as journal writing, dance and art.
Whatever form it takes, participants say, continuous prayer puts communication with God at the center of their lives, forging a more spiritual and personal connection. Individuals pray for as long as they wish, then pass the thread of prayer to others in the group who continue for as long as possible. Large prayer sessions can span hours, days and sometimes weeks.
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The 24-7 Prayer movement was founded by a small Christian church in England in 1999. It spread through literature, savvy online marketing and word-of-mouth promotion, and now includes more than 1,500 churches, student groups, religious organizations and private clubs in the United States and about 4,500 around the world.
"It's astonishing the number of people who believe in prayer," said Wendy Andrews, co-national leader for the 24-7 Prayer movement headquartered in Kansas City, Mo. "Even for those who profess Christianity, not all of us have prayer as a priority. It's sort of a foreign concept for a lot of us."