From Bed Sheets to Speadsheets - the Journey of our new COOTerri Roberts - 20 Mar 2012

So here I am, the new COO (Chief Operating Office) of 24-7 Prayer, taking the latest step of a decade’s journey with this remarkable movement.

Back in early 2002, Pete Ward asked me to consider taking on responsibility for the accounts of the Reading Boiler Room. I told him “accounts aren’t really my thing but I know someone who would be brilliant for the role”. By August of that year I had taken time out from my ‘career’ and was spending 2 days a week at the Forbury Vaults, aka Reading Boiler Room.  My time there was spent cleaning, office work (including the accounts!), decorating, maintenance and preparing beds and rooms for many of the 200 pilgrims who came through our doors.

 I took great pleasure in spreading the random assortment of donated bedding out to dry on the weird balcony on the roof of the building and it pleased me even more if I could actually find a matching set to put on a bed! 

It was the beginning of precious relationships with some amazing people who taught me about prayer and shared their lives with me.

We saw many prayers answered, many people re-inspired to pray, many churches re-assess their attitude to prayer, we saw local government and local businesses recognising the effectiveness of community, creativity, care & contemplation.  It was a life-changing time for me.   (Note: Read ‘Punk Monk’ to get a fuller picture of this exciting time)

After 18 months I went back into full time employment but was privileged to be asked onto the Boiler Room management team.

I gradually got to know more of the wider 24-7 family through various ‘encounters’! In the summer of 2006 I was honoured to accept an invitation to join the Trustees; learning more about the people, the heart, the struggles, the stories.

With my ‘Trustee hat’ on I was very aware of the growing pains and questions thrown up about how we continue to evolve and put in infrastructure & processes without damaging the relational heart and flexibility which are at our fundamental core. Paul Manwaring says “the gift of administration is needed if vision is to become reality - it will develop the way to get there”.  So, with increasing admiration, I watched the movement, and the individuals within it, mature and develop and make room for this gift. 

Pete Greig delights in telling the slightly embarrassing story of me actually crying in a Trustees meeting at the sight of a spread-sheet!  For me, the cohesive plan and supporting spread-sheet was truly a sign of us reaching a significant level of maturity – I don’t normally get that affected by office documentation!

When we were blessed with funds to enable us to take on a COO we knew that we could lift some of the burden from the team who were constantly striving to deliver big, world-changing things while having to juggle the operational side too.  As you probably know, Etienne Piek joined us and, with his customary energy and forthrightness, he truly grabbed the role with both hands and had an immediate impact.  At the sad realisation that Etienne would have to return to South Africa the Board & Trustees started looking to see who God had lined up to take over the reins.

I was made redundant just before Christmas last year and asked if there was anything I could usefully help with while I had some free time.  I got involved with the recruitment of the new COO and was blown away when Pete and James Thomas (Chairman of the Board) offered the job to me. 

I have been a salesperson in the IT sector for almost all of my working life. I had all sorts of concerns about what this change might mean and whether I was really able to fulfill the role – I really needed to hear from God about it.  Jani Rubery (a fellow Trustee and one of the most remarkable women I know) helped me to understand that the thing which was my major block was a hankering for safety – which I saw as coming from a secure job.

I’m not a person who has dreams or spectacular visions – but I’d had a Significant Dream (note the capital ‘S’ & ‘D’!) just a couple of nights before Pete’s call, where I knew God was telling me to look at different aspects of my life which He had planted over the years and that it was time to ‘get them out of the cupboard’.  This also dovetailed with a phrase I’d heard when I had been back at my old church in Reading. 

Steve Prince had asked “when are you going to use what you’ve got in your hands rather than waiting until you have what you think you need?”

Initially I struggled to hear God’s voice, but then I turned it around, offered it back to God and just said, ‘God, I believe this is where you want me, so it’s up to You to put the brakes on if I’ve got it wrong’.

There are other bits to the story, the last of which involved curtain making and a Godfrey Birtill song which ended with me in tears in my kitchen as I heard Godfrey singing to me “Now I will arise, says the Lord and will lead you to the safety for which you yearn”.   At which point I sent Pete an email saying I’d love to accept the job!

There are challenges ahead as we wrestle with finding increased income to fund the vision we feel God has inspired and how to protect our people from burning out as they give their all for 24-7 - but our God is great and, with your help, we want to push forward into bringing that vision into being!