Secret to An Open Door: Igniting a Passion for the Lost - A Review
Praying for Open Doors
David A. Morel's short book, Secret To An Open Door: Igniting a Passion for the Lost, was recommended to me by a dear friend and brother in Christ. I'm glad it was.
This focus of this book is different than virtually every other book on evangelism that I've ever read. I found it refreshing and beneficial. I think you will, too.
Greatest Strength
Being different isn't always better. In some cases, books are better simply because they are different. I found the difference in approach that was presented by Morel to be a refreshing and edifying angle.
The biblical information that Morel starts with isn't what you might expect. He doesn't start at 1 Corinthians 15 or John 3:16. The content of the proclamation is not the primary aspect of this model. Morel instead starts with prayer.
The biblical content of the gospel is not ignored. It is emphasized as a “mystery.” Morel spends a good amount of effort to trace the importance of this theme through the pages of Scripture and the life of the Apostle Paul in particular.
Morel makes the point that the gospel isn’t just information. There is a spiritual component to the content of the gospel that is often neglected or ignored in other evangelism methods and approaches. It is good and right to spend some time thinking about the spiritual nature of the gospel.
Understanding the spiritual aspect of the gospel is an important theme to grasp. Morel tries to make this clear. This spiritual understanding requires us to rely on spiritual means to advance the gospel. Such talk may make some people nervous. But denying the reality of spiritual warfare would be a mistake for Christians who want to faithfully engage in the ministry of reconciliation. Morel focuses his attention and writing on the importance of understanding the unseen forces at work when preaching the gospel. He seeks to help Christians learn the secret to fruitful evangelism based on the ministry and prayers of the Apostle Paul.
Learning to pray like Paul for success and open doors in evangelism is an extremely important point. Morel’s discussion of this is clear and based on the inspired prayers of Paul recorded in the Bible.
Relying on God instead of methods of the flesh is crucial. After reading this book, I immediately began praying for God to open doors for me to witness. I found that God was pleased to open a door for me to share the gospel unexpectedly right away. If every Christian prayed this way for themselves and for members of the body of Christ, I am confident that much more genuine and fruitful evangelism would be the result.
Greatest Weakness
I mean everything I said above. Even so, I do have a significant number of theological differences with the material in Secret to an Open Door. Reading the section on the process of personal witnessing was very difficult for me. Aside from the discussion on the spiritual nature of evangelism and the importance of prayer in opening the door for effective witness, I can't say I found much of value for me personally.
In other words, I think the material content of our gospel proclamations is much better informed by other studies. My personal recommendation would be to read the first half of this book and skip the second half. It’s a big knock to say that half of the material isn’t worth your time (in my opinion) but I would still recommend this resource, in general, which should prove that the strength of this study is beneficial enough to outweigh the rest.
Conclusion
For people I know who are already practicing evangelism in their daily lives, I would have no problem recommending this book. I would qualify my recommendation by saying they could read the first four chapters (only 46 pages) and ignore the last four.
Even with half of the book removed, I am not exaggerating when I say the part that remains is well-worth careful consideration. It is extremely easy for Christians, especially those who are comfortable in their personal witness, to rely on their experience and methods instead of the power of God. The Apostle Paul clearly understood the importance and power of prayer in effective gospel ministry. Morel's book brought clarity to this important subject more than any other book I've ever read. For that, I will always be thankful.
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