Gearing up for Dublin!Ian Nicholson - 15 Aug 2013

This week I have been focusing on shaping Encounter Culture, 24-7’s October gathering in Dublin, our first fully global time together for 3 years. It has amazed us how it is coming together and two things stand out immediately.

Firstly this will be a genuinely global event! We have more confirmed delegates from Asia than ever before with friends coming from across the continent. We have a leader who has pioneered a prayer movement among students in India and seen over 20,000 come to Christ in ten years. There is a Singaporean businessman with a vision to plant prayer room cafes across the continent and Japanese friends working to restore their nation from the devastating effects of the  earthquake of 2011. There will be a number who are working in restricted access nations – coordinating years of prayer and running a healing home for an unreached people group. Our 24-7 friends from Hong Kong will be present, of course, to share about their work in building a community of hospitality, prayer and worship for the city and region.

We have contributors who are working and living in the hot spots of North Africa and the Middle East and another who is planting a 24-7 Prayer community in a South African township where drug abuse, gangs and gun violence are an every day reality.

One fifth of the registrations are from North America with a large group from the Canadian communities booking in recently. In addition we have many European nations represented from Finland and Sweden to Spain, Greece and France. Obviously there will be many attending from Ireland, both North and South.

Secondly the breadth and depth of the input will be fantastic. In the seminar stream alone there will be Catholic Benedictine theologians, experts on the Celtic church and leaders pioneering a ground breaking work to eradicate poverty and addiction in the UK. There will be prayer leaders from the Middle East, church planters from Ibiza and Greece, prayer pioneers from the States and Europe and other leaders working in East Africa.

Encounter: Culture will be a mix of worship, intercession and impartation with a brilliant menu of seminars. There will be a celebration banquet in Trinity College, morning devotions in the Chapel and a creative open mike night. The main sessions will draw from some great contributors like Pete Greig, Adam Cox, Alan Scott and Jessie Jo Jacobs. The prayer room will be in constant use and the location is right in the heart of the city centre – with cafes and restaurants nearby… oh and there will also be the option of joining a post event mission team to pray and reach out in Drogheda, a historic Irish centre, just to the north.

Don’t miss out – book in now for this unique event in the 24-7 story. You can find out all the details and get hold of tickets on the Dublin page.

All images are used by permission in accordance with commons copyright license terms:
Feature image is a derivative of the image 'Dublin by night.' by Sebastian Dooris.