Open now, and every hour since March 2019
I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night.
Someone is praying in the old bank at 31st and Troost right now. Walk in any time; after midnight, ring the night bell.
What this is
A room that has not been empty for 2,775 nights
Nightwatch is one room, the old lobby of a 1920s bank on Troost Avenue, with a long table, forty chairs, a piano, a few prayer stools and a lot of candles. Since March 3, 2019, at least one person has been in it praying at every hour of every day.
That happens because about 340 people from 60 churches across Kansas City each keep one weekly hour. Six times a day, musicians lead a two-hour worship set. The rest of the time it's quiet: people reading, writing, kneeling, sometimes asleep in a chair at 4 AM, which we have decided also counts.
You don't need to belong to anything to come in. Sit anywhere and stay as long as you like.
The room
Forty chairs, one long table, the candles always lit
The bank's teller windows are still on the north wall. Prayer requests are pinned in them, and the watch-keeper on the hour reads each one aloud. The vault is the quiet room: no music, no talking, a single lamp.
- Worship sets with live music six times a day
- Quiet hours from midnight to 6 AM
- The vault for silent prayer, any time
- Coffee and tea in the back kitchen, always free
Keeping watch
Four ways to hold an hour
A weekly hourAny of 168 hoursAnyone 16 and up
The backbone of the house. Pick the same hour every week and keep it. Swap with someone on the board if you're away.
Get connectedThe night watchMidnight to 6 AMPairs, 18 and up
Six hours that are always hardest to fill. Night watchers come in pairs, use the side door code and keep the request book.
Get connectedA worship setTwo hours, six times a daySingers and players
Lead or play in a set. Audition is a single Tuesday rehearsal with Selma, mostly to check you can keep going for two hours.
Get connectedReading requestsOn the hour, every hourTrained readers
Read the requests aloud and pray over each one by name. Ninety-minute training, then you join the schedule.
Get connectedThe ledger
Kept in the book by the door
Every watch-keeper signs in and out. These are the totals since the first night.
March 3, 2019 to October 7, 2026
Seven weekly hours are open right now, five of them between 2 and 5 AM.
- Consecutive hours with someone in the room166,600
- Weekly hours currently kept161 of 168
- Prayer requests read aloud248,912
- Churches that send watch-keepers60
- Nights the night bell rang31,207
- 1Counted from the sign-in books, all thirty-one of them.
- 2Each request is read on the hour it arrives, then again on the next three Sundays.
- 3Usually night-shift nurses on the way home. Sometimes someone who needed to talk.
From the notebook on the long table
Written in the room
Came in at 3 AM after a double shift. Didn't say anything. Felt better anyway.
I've kept Tuesday 5 AM for four years. It's the only hour of the week nobody needs anything from me.
Prayed for my brother here every Friday for a year. He came with me last week.
The candles were lit when I got here. Somebody I'll never meet lit them for me.
We play the same four chords for twenty minutes and something opens.
I don't know what I believe. I know I sleep after I've been here.
The watch log
One week in the old bank
Watch-keepers take a photo at the end of their hour, when they remember. These are from the first week of October.
Key
- 1Mon 6 AM. Psalm 130 on the roof as the sun comes up
- 2Tue 6 AM. A men's group from Northeast, praying before their shifts
- 3Tue 2 PM. Three friends from a Westport house church, out front after their hour
- 4Thu 7 PM. Thursday's city watch, praying down Troost
- 5Fri 4 AM. Hands up, an hour before the dawn set
- 6Sat 9 PM. A youth group from Raytown takes the late set
- 7Sun 6:50 AM. The last ten minutes of the night watch
Every face here asked to be included. If you would rather not be, tell whoever is on the watch.
Thursday at 3 AM has no one yet.
Seven hours of the week are open. Most of them are in the dark ones. Take one for a season and we'll pair you with someone.