Boiler Rooms

The Boiler Room Customary

Boiler Rooms, buildings and community
Although the name ‘Boiler Room’ may evoke an image of a room in a building, a Boiler Room is actually not a building – it is a community committed to the purposes, principles and practices of the lifestyle outlined above. A Boiler community is neither defined by, nor dependent upon the use of a fixed base, just as a human family continues to be a family even if it loses its home.   The first task of a group seeking to start a Boiler Room is to build a local praying community – there is no way that a Boiler Room can be carried alone.
Having said this, just as a home is helpful for a family, so too for a Boiler Room, having such a base (or a series of buildings within walking distance of each other) can greatly enhance the six practices of the community by providing:
o    A dedicated place for prayer
o    A studio for artists
o    A hostel for pilgrims
o    A mission station for outreach
o    A launching pad for acts of mercy
o    A training base for the learning community

In theory, a building is not essential but the reality in practice is that no Boiler Room can be expected to continue fruitfully for very long without such a centre for their six activities.

Practical Customary

The ancient monasteries would often add a customary to their ‘Rule’ as a practical explanation of how their values were to be worked out in practice. We sense the Lord calling us to write a simple customary for our Boiler Rooms, giving guidelines about how to outwork the two purposes, three principles and six practices day-to-day.

v.1 The Practice of Prayer

·    Model #1: ‘The Laus Perennis’. Ideally Boiler Rooms will pray continually, night and day (known in the monastic traditions as the laus perennis), however we do not see this as the only model of persevering prayer and therefore do not require it of every Boiler Room unless the Lord has clearly given such a call.
·    Model #2: Rhythmic Prayer. Should a Boiler Room choose not to practice the laus perennis we do expect there to be a disciplined daily rhythm of prayer, and at least one of these daily gatherings is to be held in the Boiler Room venue itself (unless of course the community is temporarily without such a base). There are many historical precedents for such a rhythm:
o    Scholars tell us that the ancient temple in Jerusalem conducted three fixed prayer meetings a day (at 9am, noon and dusk) and we know that the early church leaders endorsed this rhythm of prayer with their presence (ref???).
o    The Benedictine Rule, practiced since the 5th century AD, lays out a vigorous schedule of daily prayer including vigils (middle of the night), matins (pre-dawn), vespers (just before sunset) and compline (night).
·    In addition to the daily rhythm of prayer practiced by all Boiler Room communities, we also expect them to establish regular seasons of 24-7 (night-and-day) prayer. For instance, our W. London Boiler Room currently prays non-stop for one week in every six.

v.2 The Practice of Mission

·    Boiler Rooms are missional communities, which means that our prayer times must never become insular or disembodied from practical engagement with those who do not share our Christian faith. The Boiler Room is both a launch pad for outreach (sending Christians out) and a context for ‘inreach’ (gathering people in).
·    Outreach: Boiler Rooms are encouraged to partner annually with 24-7Mission (or an equivalent agency) in mobilising short-term teams to engage cross culturally in kind and creative evangelisation. They are also encouraged to engage in local expressions of ongoing mission such as Alpha Courses and Student Missions.
·    Inreach: Our sacred space must never become so rarefied that it seems inaccessible to those that are unaccustomed to church culture. Rather we want our culture and our buildings to be welcoming and inclusive contexts in which people can feel safe and unconditionally accepted. We believe in becoming an answer to our own prayers for the poor and the lost.

v.3 The Practice of Mercy & Justice

·    We expect our Boiler Rooms to be agencies of mercy and justice. We ask them to help people engage actively with the poor and oppressed, practically at an inter-personal level, prayerfully for the local community and even politically at a global level.
·    Personally: We recommend that people ‘tithe’ their prayer time in the Boiler Room, giving at least one hour in every ten of prayer, to befriend someone who is hurting or to serve a reputable agency of justice and mercy. There should be at least one opportunity a week for people to join in with a reputable project that helps the poor, excluded or needy.
·    Locally: We encourage Boiler Rooms to pray purposefully for statutory bodies such as the police and social services and also for Christian ministries working locally with the marginalised.
·    Globally: Boiler Rooms in free societies are also encouraged to campaign intelligently and prayerfully on behalf of the poorest people on earth.

v.4 The Practice of Hospitality and Pilgrimage

·    Boiler Rooms are required to offer simple hospitality to strangers wishing to stay and pray. They must therefore have the ability to provide or have easy access to (at least) short-term accomodation, even if this is not possible in the venue itself. Where possible there should be a warm welcome for people visiting, a place to drink coffee and chat and a regular open/shared meal. Boiler Rooms may also organise annual opportunities for pilgrimage, either within their own country or overseas.

v.5 The Practice of Creativity

·    Boiler Room communities are called upon to encourage and enjoy creativity in all its forms. Whilst some Boiler Rooms will be stronger than others in this area, we would expect the creative arts to be a key component of every Boiler Room, that artists would be welcomed and encouraged and that artistic expression and communication with God be open to all. To create an environment for this, Boiler Rooms should have space set aside in their venues, and money in their budgets, for facilitating the arts (this could be anything from a recording studio to a pottery kiln, a garden to a dance studio, or a dark-room to a gourmet kitchen!)

v.6 The Practice of Learning and Discipleship

·    All Boiler Rooms are learning communities committed to mutual discipleship, study and the ongoing spiritual formation of the community as a whole as well as its individual members. Some Boiler Rooms are recognised by 24-7 as Training Centres, thus benefiting from a regular influx of trainees.
·    Within the core team at the heart of every Boiler Room community, we expect there to be a climate of relational accountability and mutual submission. An abbot or abbess is appointed to lead this team lovingly and with recognised authority, accountable ultimately to God and temporarily to 24-7 alongside locally appointed structures.
·    Whenever Boiler Rooms multiply we would expect the sending community to offer strong initial support and oversight to these new communities they have planted (see later).