I (Jeff) remember interviewing for a job in Portland, Oregon at a Fortune 500 company. They talked about the training I would receive.  I heard all about the opportunities I’d have to climb the corporate ladder. Each rung on the ladder was accompanied with bonuses and an increasingly larger salary. Why wasn’t I excited about it when I left?

Well, I wondered if I was being sold something. In a way I was. Now, they never came right out and said this…but here’s what I believed I had to buy into if I had a chance of advancing in this company: Fake it until you make it! Look good. Put on a good face. Kiss up and you’ll move up. It doesn’t matter how insincere or unknowledgeable you are, just fake it. The better you are at getting people to believe you, the further you’ll get.

Church has the potential of perpetuating the same kind of culture: Christianity is about looking good. Get others to buy the “look good” image and you’ve made it.

I wondered what it would be like to work 40+ hours a week in a culture where faking it was how we all made it…where faking it was “getting it right”? What if that was church?

Or, what if church is a group of people going inwardly deep to be outwardly authentic!? The Door is aiming to be a church who declares Philippians 3:12-13, “I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be. No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead” (NLT)

Riding the change train puts our life on the right track. Yes, it’s a track that brings us to the Cross time and again. But it is only through the Cross that we can find new life – where we die and submit to Jesus’s authority…then raised up stronger by His mercy. “I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back. So let's keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision - you'll see it yet! Now that we're on the right track, let's stay on it” (Philippians 3:14-16; The Message).

At The Door we want to ride the change train together. “Stick with me, friends. Keep track of those you see running this same course, headed for this same goal. There are many out there taking other paths, choosing other goals, and trying to get you to go along with them. I've warned you of them many times; sadly, I'm having to do it again. All they want is easy street. They hate Christ's Cross” (Philippians 3:17-18; The Message)

A few days after the job interview, I was offered a position. I was invited to join others on easy street where together we could fake it until we made it. I rejected the job offer. I rejected a dead end, which is where easy street always leads.

And to this day I’m doing my best to unlearn faking it until I make it because I want to ride the change train. Together. Our lives being transformed (2 Corinthians 3:18). What a ride! And how freeing to forsake faking it.