Adventist Shop Opens a War Room

By Taylor McDonald, Columbia Union Visitor

Do you have a war room?

When more than 700 DVDs presold for the movie “The War Room,” a Seventh-day Adventist Church-owned book and health store in the U.S. state of Maryland saw an opportunity to reach out to the community.

The film tells the story of how one family overcame difficulties through the creation of a “war room” where they waged war through intercessory prayer.

The number of DVD presales was usually high for LivingWell, a rebranded Adventist Book Center owned by the Potomac Conference and located beside a Target store in a plaza in Silver Spring, Maryland.

“We began to think, ‘What if, like the premise of the movie, we created our own war room to connect customers with Christ?’” said Laura Worf, LivingWell’s general manager.

So staff members created a war room at the back of the store complete with a seating area, Bible, pens, and note-cards for people to write their prayers on and stick to the walls. Customers are welcome to use the room, whether they are looking for a place to pray or simply to rest.

In addition, pastor Mike Faison, a sales associate at LivingWell, leads a war room Bible study that is open to anyone interested in spending time learning about God or about the movie.

The war room has proved popular with customers and staff members alike. Note-cards with prayer requests cover the walls.

“Overall, the room generated an interesting conversation about prayer and about the services we are able to provide our customers,” Worf said.

She said the success of the war room has encouraged the staff to press ahead with community outreach programs that show the love of Christ and demonstrate the store’s primary mission of bringing people closer to Him.