Bringing the Secret Place to the MarketplaceRyan Milner - 10 Sep 2007

If the vision becomes reality, then the prayer room might be making its way to the strip mall. Nestled between the tanning salon and the insurance agent, might be the holy of holies. The prayer closet that has sat so quietly for so many deep in the heart of church buildings, Salvation Army units, and Boiler Room communities might be ready for its public debut. 

This is the dream of Jeff Mosley, the owner of several Chick-fil-A restaurant franchises in the Indianapolis, IN area. He has been in love with the idea of 24-7 prayer since he picked up Pete Greig's Red Moon Rising two years ago.

"The revolution that was in that book was amazing," said Mosley, who found himself sharing the vision with his pastor, who caught it too.

Soon his church was launching a month of 24-7 prayer and Mosley, who has three children, was wondering how his teenagers and the youth of his church might respond to their own prayer room, their own place to come and meet God and pray about issues important to them. To cry out for their friends and schools and get healed of hurts and help with struggles. The next question was the perfect logical extension, how might his employees at Chick-fil-A, so many of which were youth themselves, respond to the same thing?

So Mosley and a few like-minded friends began dreaming of just that, of a way to intersect the prayer room and the storefront. A friend of Mosley coined the phrase that may well soon mobilize a movement, "the secret place to the marketplace."

Mosley has been running with the vision, setting up stretches of 24-hour prayer open to both the teenagers in his youth group and the employees of his Chick-fil-A. Though Mosley rightfully points out that participation is "very, very optional," he has seen a great response.

"The thing that's really been encouraging for me," said Mosley, "is kids today, they love Jesus, but they're really under-whelmed by the church. It's been amazing to watch them come alive with the 24-7's."

And come alive they have. This most recent stretch of 24 hour prayer organized by Mosley, held August 18-19 at Mosley's home church, saw several youth from both the youth group and the restaurants communing with God. Some focused on a wailing wall set up to pray for all the high schools in the area. Others blessed a missionary couple about to head out to Nepal, washing their feet and laying on hands. One thirteen-year-old signed up to pray one hour and ended up praying seven. They scheduled a half-hour worship session at midnight. They played and sang and danced until three AM.

"They want to be a part of that underground movement," Mosley said of the youth. "They want to be part of something radical. They're hungry. They want more than putt-putt. They're an inspired generation that will go for it if they can catch the vision."

And Mosley wants to meet them where they live, or in this case, where they shop. He's dreaming that soon he won't have to schedule weeks or even months of 24-7 prayer as special events. He's dreaming of a storefront prayer room that will be always on. Always open. Always ready for anyone, youth or otherwise, who want to stop by between Chinese food and a haircut and connect with the God of the universe. And while it is, at this point, only a dream (though Mosley is looking into the logistics of renting available property near one of his restaurants), Mosley has much to dream about. He wants a place where hundreds of youth, regardless of denomination or home church can meet regularly, pray to God and live communally with each other.

"That's the vision," he said, "that we give them a place where they can meet with God. That prayer will become a lifestyle."

So as Mosley and his friends continue to dream of the beautiful intersection of the secret place and the marketplace, of the prayer room and the strip mall, he knows he will continue to work with youth, whether from his family, his church, or his Chick-fil-A's, to help them commune with a God that wants both to listen and be heard.

"The Lord's really uniting the body of Christ for 24-7 prayer," he said. "The more we can do to facilitate that, the better. It's not a Vineyard thing or a Baptist thing or a Presbyterian thing. It's a body of Christ thing."