So Colchester Boiler Room is committed to the vision of Jesus and carry that out through the values of Prayer, Mission, Hospitality, Justice, Creativity and Learning. We recognize that developing a relationship with Jesus is a personal and individual thing, but we also know the blessing of Community and what an encouragement it can be to "do life" with others.
Our community prayer is "Lord Jesus, help us to be true to you, kind to people and to take the gospel to the nations"
Here are our Rhythms
Sunday Community Shared Meal
meets the values of Hospitality, Creativity, Prayer and Learning
1:00pm to 3:00pm
At 170 Berechurch Rd
Colchester, Essex
CO2 7QQ
What you can expect if you come: We have a rota of people that sign up to cook a meal. We normally have a group of about 20 join us for a shared me. We set up loads of tables in our large front room and turn the kitchen into a serving area. We start off by gathering in the kitchen and say a payer to bless the food. Then we hang out for the next hour serving up lunch and catch up with each other. There usually is a large age range of people that attend from little babies to wise older folk and couples, children and singles splattered in between. At about 2pm we serve up dessert then around 2:15-2:30pm all the kids are taken into the prayer room for an inter-active Bible story telling time. The adults sit out in the main lunch area and drink cups of brew while we discuss a question from a not so crafty set of cards that have the top 50 questions people have about God/Jesus. We don't promise that we have the answers, we have lots of questions ourselves, but the idea is to work together to see if we can uncover a hidden truth that we maybe missed before.
Wednesday Prayer Day
meets the values of hospitality, prayer, justice, mission, creativity
11am to 11pm
At 170 Berechurch Rd
Colchester, Essex
CO2 7QQ
What you can expect if you come: On this day we open up our prayer room for 12 hours. The idea is to find 12 people to each sign up for there own hour of prayer. Every monday we email out a prayer sign up sheet. If you would like to be included in this just email Tina at rockstartina83@gmail.com. We also have a facebook group called Colchester Boiler Room that we post the link to the on-line sign up sheet on. The sign up sheet is broken down into 12 X 1hour slots. You just sign up for an hour that works best for you. Then on Wednesday come to 170. There will always be someone there to welcome you, give you a hot brew of your choice and show you around the prayer room. If you have never been before and would like someone to pray with you just contact as stated above and we can organize something for you. In the prayer room you will find lots of resources for helping you engage in an hour of prayer; paints, bibles, paper, markers, lights, music, candles, pictures, art supplies, books... there even are guides for how to pray for an hour so if it seems like it will be to much, don't worry. A large magority of people's responses when they come out of their first prayer room experience is "Wow I can't believe that was an hour! It went by so quickly!!"
There also are two opportunities through out Wednesday to pray with people.
11:00 am to Noon Pray for the Nations: Liz Andrews faciliates an hour of prayer for the nations. If you come along to this you can expect to meet up with 2 to 3 other people that really care about praying for other nations. It is more of an adult group that gathers and isn't necessarily geared for including children, as a large part of the time is spent updating the group on happenings around the world and then praying for them. If praying for people in other places is important to you this is a great opportunity to join in. Contact Liz by email at: jabadoc@gmail.com
8:00 pm to 9:00 pm Community Prayer: This is faciliated by a member of our community. If you come along to this you can expect to meet up in our prayer room with about 4 to 5 other people from our community. We use this time to worship together creative (sometimes by reading the bible, playing music, writing psalms, playing games, reading poetry, creating things, drawing, being silent). We spend time praying for each other and our local neighbourhood. There is no pressure to join in more than you feel comfortable as some people come and are quiet and other come and are not so quite. We use this time to be together, to get to know each other more and to tell God collectively as a community that we love him. Its open to all young or old, happy or sad, busy or not, individuals or families.
Thursday Learning Day
meets the value of learning, hospitality
At 170 Berechurch Rd
Colchester, Essex
CO2 7QQ
10:00am to Noon Morning Group: This group is open to people who are free during this time and focuses on welcoming young toddler age children. This group is facilitated by Jim and Liz Andrews. What you can expect when you come is to meet with about 3 to 5 other people interested in hanging out and hearing a bible story. The group gathers from 10 to 10:30 with hot drinks. They meet in the big front lounge. There are lots of toys out for the young kids to play with. About half way through the morning Jim or Liz will share a bible story with the group. They talk about what they learn, questions they have and how/if it will change anything in their life. This group is open to people with or with out kids and there are a few people who come that don't have any young children. Everyone pitches in to help clean up and then heads off around Noon. If you have questions about this group email: Jim and Liz at jabadoc@gmail.com
7:30 pm to 9:30 pm Evening Group: This group is open to Adults who are interested in learning about Jesus and hanging out with other people. It is facilitated by Tina and Steve Lawton. What you can expect when you come is to meet up with about 4 to 5 other people and sit around either on sofas or our mega comfy cushions in our front lounge. We have print outs of the bible verses we are going to look at for that night so you can bring a bible if you want, but you don't have to. We read the verses and then ask any questions people might have about what we have read. We don't have all the answers, but we try and work together to uncover some truths that we might have missed before. We are not offended or scared by hard questions or unanswerable questions as we have loads ourselves and just want to do our best to keep digging to uncover a bit more of the endlessly deep character of God/Jesus/Holy Spirit. If you have questions about this group email: Steve Lawton at mctkz@aol.com
We purposefully try and leave our gathered times to a minimum as we love to encourage people to be hanging out with their families, friends and neighbours. We also like to have space in our week to respond to the invitations and needs in our local community. We regularly host one off gatherings and activities to support and be encouraging to those around us. These have included house concerts, children's clubs, fundraisers, neighourhood clean up, community celebrations, University Christian Union away days etc. We always are looking for people to get involved in our community and share what is on their heart and then support them as best we can to be about the things God has called them into.
