He will take over from Jeremy Jennings, who has led prayer at the church since he launched the first weekly corporate prayer meeting in 1990. Mr Jennings – who has been closely involved in Pete Greig's appointment – will remain on the HTB/Alpha staff as Pastoral Director and in charge of church finances.

Pete Greig, whose recent book God on Mute has been acclaimed by Christian leaders across the UK, will continue to lead 24-7 Prayer, the global, inter-denominational movement which began in 1999 and now has offices in nine countries.

From September this year, he will work one day each week at Holy Trinity in order to acclimatise and to begin the handover. Then from January, he will combine his responsibilities at HTB and Alpha with his role for 24-7 prayer.

As Director of Prayer, he will take charge of all aspects of HTB and Alpha's prayer ministry, including corporate prayer meetings, prayer at Sunday services, Alpha Invitation prayer events and prayer conferences.

Pete Greig started the 24-7 Prayer movement 'accidentally' in 1999 in Chichester where he led a student congregation called 'Warehouse'. Drawing on the experience of the Moravian church's 100 year prayer meeting, he proposed a month of non-stop prayer in September 1999.

They began praying in a room adjoining the church offices – and more and more people became involved. By the end of the month they decided to continue.

He wrote later in his book Red Moon Rising – a history of the movement, 'By the end of October the prayer momentum was unstoppable. People were almost becoming addicted to the presence of God. There would have been an outcry if we had tried to stop the flow...'

Pete and his wife Samie and their two sons Hudson and Daniel are planning to continue living at their home in Guildford, Surrey, when he takes up his role at HTB.

Pete said, 'I'm very excited by this new opportunity to build on Jeremy Jenning's considerable legacy of prayer at HTB and have lots of ideas already! 24-7 Prayer shares Alpha's absolute passion to see the re-evangelisation of the nation and the transformation of society and the conviction that prayer really is the key.'

HTB Vicar Nicky Gumbel said, 'Pete Greig has built up an extraordinary ministry which is growing all over the world – and we have much to learn from him.He is a friend and has spoken on many occasions at our Home Focus holiday and at Alpha conferences. We are delighted that he will be joining us.'

Jeremy Jennings said, 'Pete is unique. I have been trying to encourage him to come to HTB for ages and I couldn't be more thrilled.'