If you were at the 24-7 Prayer international gathering, you couldn’t fail to notice an excited group of people gathering in the foyer for hugs and selfies. You might also have reflected that they didn’t look like a typical friendship group and wondered what bound them all together. The answer: they were all regular participants in one of the OMS online prayer watches, and for some this was the first time they had met in person this year (or possibly ever).
The prayer watches bring people together four times each day, five days per week, timed for morning prayer in the main time zones that OMS members are found. It’s not the only way to build a regular rhythm of prayer into your personal customary, but for those who don’t have anything equivalent in their own church or locality it is a fantastic way of praying alongside others.
Challenged by the joy and sense of community of the selfie-taking pray-ers in Stuttgart, I set out on a “prayer watch safari” aiming to join all 20 watches in a week. Here are 5 things that I learnt about the OMS on the journey:
- We trust each other. I was really struck by people’s willingness to share their personal joys and struggles at 8am in a randomly selected zoom breakout room.
- We’re incredibly creative. I joined in Tunisian worship, meditation on Amos, reflection on the 1936 East African revival, visio divina, and prayers of St Therese of Lisieux, all in 5 days.
- God speaks among us. I’m still processing the challenge of a ‘customary of interruptability’ and the missional call to ‘climb into our catapults and let rip!’
- We really love one another. The sense of deep friendship on those calls just shines through.
- I’m getting too old for this. Much as I love you all, 7am start and 9:30pm finish every day is not something I’m going to be adding to my customary for 2026. But I absolutely will be back to see some of you, and you’ve given me confidence and loads of ideas to lead a watch once-a-week from December.
If you are wondering who the handsome chap in the screenshot is, he was the subject of the visio divina that week (artist: Amy Dury). And if you’d like to know how God encouraged, challenged, and inspired us through reflecting on this image, you’ll have to join watch 2 on Monday or watch 3 on Thursday and ask them 😉
(*Confession: I only actually made it to 18 ½ watches in the end. One I turned up late for, and I forgot that Monday morning in Australia is Sunday night in the UK. In my defence, Phileas Fogg made a very similar mistake).