"The restoration of the church will surely come from a sort of new monasticism which has in common with the old only the uncompromising attitude of a life lived according to the Sermon on the Mount in the following of Christ. I believe it is now time to call people together to do this." Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I've been reading this over the last few days, and I've a number of thoughts that I should and will blog about at some point. It's really great to read the stories and to experience the clarity that comes from reading about a journey I've had the privilege to observe and engage in. From the early days of the Reading Boiler Room in the Forbury Vaults, I was amazed to hear what God was doing through that place, and the community that served there, and a lot of the stuff we try and live out in Wandsworth is based on the lessons learned by Andy, Lorraine and the team.
As I was reading the book on the train last night, I had that familiar prickling feeling on the back of my neck, as I again caught the passion for this stuff. For places of passionate prayer and compassionate service, for lives of intimacy grounded in acts of love and mercy... I remembered why God had called me to get stuck in to this boiler room thing, back when I had no idea what a boiler room was and I had no idea where Wandsworth was.
It's exciting to see more people in the SA catching the prayer bug and wanting to know how to build lives of prayer and community. Its great to see people exploring the Boiler Room concept, and emerging centres of prayer and community popping up. Its encouraging that we are moving beyond 'doing 24-7 prayer rooms', to developing '24-7 prayer lifestyles'... who knows where this will lead.
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