Teaching the Elephants to Dance

I think one of the qualifications to being an effective leader is if you can lead your people through change. The fact is change is mandatory for any group that wants to make a mark in today’s world. In his book, Teaching the Elephants to Dance, James Belasco uses the analogy of liberating elephants. Trainers shackle young elephants with heavy chains to deeply embedded stakes. In that way the elephant learns to stay in its place. Older, powerful elephants never try to leave-even though they have the strength to pull the stake and free themselves. Their conditioning has limited their movements. With only a small metal bracelet around their foot attatched to nothing, they stand in place. The stakes are actually gone!

Like powerful elephants churches are bound by earlier restraints. The statement “We have always done it this way” is limiting to a churches progress. What happens over time is that church becomes paralyzed to the change that is taken place around them and quickly find themselves no longer being essential to the culture they are called to reach. To the younger generation the church slowly begins to look irrelevant to their lives.

Yet when the circus tent catches fire-and the elephants see the flames with its own eyes and smells the smoke, it forgets its old conditioning and changes. The elephant physically escapes the fire. The leaders task is to Set a Fire.  Point out the fire so the church can see the smoke with their own eyes and smell the smoke with their own noses. In my opinion the fire is the vision that God has for your church. When people begin to embrace the vision things begin to change.

I am sold out to keeping the flame stoked for those that partner with Five Stones Church. Our mission/vision is to Encourage people to know God and to take their next step with Him.
Which will result in: Christ followers that are changing the community and the world by actively living out their faith.

If this fire resonates within your heart then maybe God is leading you to partner with us.