Several generations ago, during one of the most turbulent of the desert wars in the Middle East, a spy was captured and sentenced to death by a General. The General, a man of intelligence and compassion, had adopted a strange and unusual custom in such cases.

He permitted the condemned person to make a choice.  The prisoner could either face the firing squad or pass through a Black Door.

As the moment of execution drew near, the General ordered the spy to be brought before him for a short, final interview, the primary purpose of which was to receive the answer of the doomed man to the query: “What shall it be…. the firing squad or the Black Door?”

This was not an easy decision and the prisoner hesitated, but soon made it known that he much preferred the firing squad to the unknown horrors that might wait for him behind the ominous and mysterious door.  Not long thereafter, a volley of shots in the courtyard announced that the grim sentence had been fulfilled. The General, staring at his boots, turned to his aide and said, “You see how it is with people; they will always prefer the known way to the unknown.  It is a characteristic of people to be afraid of the undefined.  Yet I gave him the choice.”

“What lies beyond the Black Door?” asked the aide. “Freedom”, replied the General, “and I’ve known only a few brave enough to take it”.

A number of my coaching conversations about discipleship start with leaders sharing what they do. Focusing on the known and the familiar, they may use a statement like ‘our model is Biblical’. However, when they go on to explain what they do, it is almost always historically based in the 20^th century, not Biblically based. This is not unusual because most of us are entrenched in our thinking and we consider what we think and do to be the best way. We often base our decisions on what we already know, with a fear or suspicion of the unknown.

I was intrigued by this statement from the senior doctor in the movie Patch Adams,“We will ruthlessly train the humanity out of you and make you doctors”. We may have a strong reaction to this statement but the reality is that most of us minister and disciple, according to the training and experience we have encountered. We are well enculturated into our particular practices and don’t respond so well to them being challenged.

Dr. Norman Geisler combines history, culture and philosophyinto one and calls it our worldview. ‘The truth is that a worldview is like coloured glasses; it colours everything at which we look. It is a grid through which one views all of life. As such it helps form our thoughts and decisions. The tragedy is that most people do not even know what their worldview is, how they got it, and how important it is in their lives’. Because we behave as we believe, our worldview guides and informs our decisions and actions. Sometimes the lens brings clarity, and at other times it can distort reality. A seemingly rational worldview can be true, partially true, or entirely false. People seldom question their beliefs because they will always prefer the known way to the unknown.  It is a characteristic of people to be afraid of the undefined and only a few are brave enough to choose the freedom to rethink.

Jon Krakauer in the book Into The Wild says, “So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality, nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.” 

The major 20^th century view of Discipleship is that people encounter Jesus and grow as disciples in a church. It is interesting to note that there is a lack of Biblical examples of this view of disciple-making. People met Jesus at the side of wells, in cemeteries, in the country and were discipled in homes, on hillsides or walking from town to town. I am not suggesting that Christ-followers did not subsequently meet together and grow together and worship together. But what I am saying is that, for too long now, we have been viewing things through institutional lenses to the point where we believe that disciples need the ‘institution’ more than they need a direct, close, Spirit-led relationship with Jesus.

Much of what we think of as evangelism is really a modern invention, much of it flowing from the revivalism of the American frontier that began in the mid 1700s.  Those methods made perfect sense in their context.  People generally knew the gospel; they had been raised in a culture saturated by it.  Their refusal to follow and their indifference to Christian behaviour were the result of rebellion not ignorance.  It is no wonder the “evangelists” of those days would ride in on their horses and preach with high emotion and hot rhetoric! They were scolding recalcitrant children who knew better!

Jared Wilson in The Prodigal Church says the Church is in desperate need of a wake-up call. He paints a vivid picture of the grievous outcome of a church centred on programmatic pragmatism instead of the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ. Freedom has the potential to bring the church to her senses and usher her back to our Father’s restorative embrace.

You may not agree with all of the conclusions I come to, but I ask you to reconsider some of your worldview, particularly as it relates to Discipleship. It may save you from much discouragement and help you to engage with non-believers in a fresh way. I call this a door to freedom.