Partying at Pentecost… a review of the 24-7prayer clubbing weekender

Sarah Smith, one of 24-7prayer's growing community of club-and-pray-ers, writes;
"May 15th, the Global Day of Prayer was a beautiful summer’s day in London. 11am and the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and masses of Londoners and tourists were out in their shorts and T-shirts basking in the heat and soaking up the rays. The perfect day to be heading to the park... However, the only place me and two of my co-clubbers were heading was straight to bed!!!

We had been out clubbing as part of the 24-7prayer club-and-pray weekend over Pentecost (13th-15th May) and had somehow found the energy to keep on grooving til mid-morning... and what a brilliant time we had!

This was our first club-and-pray weekend (the first of many, maybe?)... having gradually discovered more and more people who felt like God was speaking to them about prayer/mission in clubland - DJs, dancers, clubbers, promoters, intercessors, etc. - we hoped the weekend would encourage this to grow.

People from all over the UK got involved in different ways - Southampton, Portsmouth, Dublin, Belfast, Brighton, Leicester, Didcot and Sheffield. (We also had some peeps praying in Spain and the US!) Some of these groups prayed in the clubs that they regularly hung out in, while others targeted particular, influential clubs. For all of us there was (and is!) a desire to build relationships within the clubland community - with fellow clubbers, DJs, staff etc. - for opportunities to show the love of Jesus whenever we can.

report:LONDON (Sarah Smith)
"We fasted on the Friday (joined by some of the crews in other parts of the UK) then had a time of prayer and DJ-led worship in the evening. Then on the Saturday we got out and about. We started off in Camden where we prayed in a crazy clubbing shop called Cyberdog. Then in the evening (after more prayer!) we headed to one of our favourite clubs in London called The Cross (in King’s Cross). (We feel we need to concentrate more on The Cross having been welcomed there so much and love the atmosphere and the music. Our plan is to go to the same club night each month, hopefully building relationships with regulars who hang out on those nights.)

The Cross was already heaving when we arrived (1am) and there wasn’t much room to dance. But we soon got into the swing of it, grooving away to the sounds of Seb Fontaine (one of our fave DJs, who by now is getting a huge amount of prayer... can’t wait to see what God is going to do with him!).	"We also told a couple of people that we were Christians... this was quite a shock to them... the dancefloor at The Cross is not the most obvious place to meet a group of Christians!"

 
It was cool to be able to show them that we don’t need that stuff to have a brilliant night out. We also told a couple of people that we were Christians... this was quite a shock to them... the dancefloor at The Cross is not the most obvious place to meet a group of Christians!

At 6am and three of us made our way to one of the after parties at The Key. Even though we’d already been dancing for 5 hours, we were still up for more!! The music was funky house – very uplifting and great to worship to. About 6 of the people we had been chatting to in The Cross appeared and started dancing around us! We also chatted with the promoter and we hope that maybe we have made a really good contact there.

Overall, despite the fact that there were no visible lightning bolts striking down from heaven over the weekend, we really felt God’s presence with us - it is important that we just learn how to make ourselves available to Him. We will continue to ask for more of the Holy Spirit to equip us in all we do and look forward to seeing what He gets up to in clubland across the country and beyond."

report:BELFAST (Tim Carroll)
"We did go out and it was really cool. It had sort of been building up for a while lots of emails were sent and we had an announcement at our evening service. About 17 people actually turned up and we ate together and then had a time of worship and prayer. We really had a sense that God was in this and had some different words about God raising this group of people up. A group of us headed to a club called Shine which is Queens University students union during the week.

Then some people who aren’t into clubbing as much just walked the city centre streets talking to people and got praying with some guys while trying to be as normal as possible. Us in the club had fun praying and getting into a few chats, everyone who went out has their own wee story to tell, so everyone came away from it really encouraged.	"I personally felt that praying while dancing was really powerful. I felt there was some warfare going on."

I personally felt that praying while dancing was really powerful. I felt there was some warfare going on.

So it was a good first night out everyone’s up for doing it again. I really sense that this is a new thing for us in Belfast, and its weird cos other guys from different churches have heard and are up for joining us so things are exciting. So thanks for letting us get involved, it has sparked us off!"

You wanna get involved / find out more / pray for us? Email Sarah Smith on [email protected]