Mike 'Roots' Killiany

For the past week I’ve been thinking along the lines of what he calls removing ‘partitions’ as well – I’ve been calling them ‘white elephants’ – I think every church has these. They are things that meant a great deal at some point in the church’s history, but now it’s time to review their worth. The elephant can be rules and regulations, traditions, memorials, plans laid down in the past by someone revered and now gone – there’s no limit to the invasion of the white elephant.

(The term comes from a gift that was given long ago in the Far East. An albino elephant was extremely rare and thus considered holy and in turn had to be treated with extreme care. A ruler would give one to another ruler or one of his wealthy subjects, ostensibly as a generous gift, but in reality as a means of imposing a penalty. The recipient would have to spend large sums of money to house, feed and generally care for this huge beast – which, because it was holy, made no contribution to the recipient whatsoever.)

The leaders of a church are called to a ministry that will forever change. Their church’s congregation, its interests, its giving and above all the culture that surrounds it… everything is guaranteed to change. Leaders must constantly re-evaluate the choices made in previous years – do those choices still apply, or should they be adjusted or even completely removed? If they really ARE white elephants, then they need to be disposed of. They have become resource drains or ministry blockers – we do not have the luxury of wasting the resources Christ gives us for His tasks.

Removing the elephant can be rough – some toes are going to be stepped on (which, for a large elephant, can hurt!) – but then the church is free to clean out the stall, reassign the elephant keepers and get on with the job at hand.

• Abram takes 318 men to battle against the united kings of Shinar, Ellasar, Elam and Goiim (who had already defeated Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Zoar) – Gen 14:14
• Gideon leads 300 men (of the original 32,000) against the Midianites and Amalekites and the ‘children of the East’ without number – Judges 7:7
• Jonathan and his armor-bearer climb a cliff and kill the garrison (which turned out to be 20 Philistines) – 1 Sam 14:13
• Ahab of Samaria in Israel (the northern kingdom) can raise just 232 commanders and 7,000 troops against Syria and 32 other kingdoms and routes them – 1 Kings 20:15
• Ahab in Israel again against the same enemy – the Israelites kill 100,000, and city walls fall on 27,000 more – 1 Kings 20:29
• Asa raises 580,000 men of Judah & Benjamin against 1,000,000 from Ethiopia. The Ethiopians run away – 2 Chron 14:8
• Hezekiah besieged in Jerusalem and can raise only a prayer; the Assyrians lose 185,000 men – 2 Kings 19:35

So what’s the big deal for me when I go out to fight my Goliaths? My enemies aren’t trying to poke holes in me with swords; they’re trying to poke holes in my walk with God instead. Four problem areas come to mind immediately where these enemies are trying to work against me:

1. Waiting – sometimes I want to get going.I think part of this command (just look at all these “Wait on the Lord”s – Ps 27:14; Ps 37:9; Ps 37:34; Prov 20:22; Isa 40:31; Zeph 3:8) has to do with keeping us centered on Him, although the more obvious bits have to do with curbing our impatience and coordinating His plan across several people’s activities.

   Where battle is concerned, how about Saul getting tired of waiting for Samuel (1 Sam 13:9-14)? When he didn’t wait on the Lord, he lost the dynasty for his descendants.

   Or where home life is concerned, how about Sarai and Abram taking matters into their own hands by using Hagar? (Gen 16:1-4) Never a good idea to run God’s plan for Him.

2. Listening – sometimes it’s a struggle.Quite a lot of the time I used to find myself (a) getting an idea, then (b) working out how to execute it, then (c) bringing it to the Lord and saying, “What do you think? Good, huh?” and I justified this process by saying that we are expected to use our brains – that’s why God gave them to us.

   But God wants a different process, and I’m determined to move into this pattern. After (a) the idea, He wants us to (b) bring it to Him, and (c) work out how to execute it while being open to His guidance. I liked the other way because it meant that I had control over how the idea was to be executed. But pushing God out of the picture so I can have my own way – that’s pretty much the definition of sin, right? So I’m trying to move away from that pattern.

3. Understanding – sometimes I just don’t get what He’s saying.No duh – God’s thoughts are pretty sublime, after all (Isa 55:9; 1 Cor 1:18). But He’s very good at making those lofty thoughts simple for me. Usually when I just don’t get it, it’s because there’s something else I’ve put in the way. I’m determined to go in a certain direction, and God has His work cut out to redirect me. This is the hardest of all of these points for me right now, but (Prov 3:5) I’m working on it.
4. Obeying – sometimes I don’t want to do it.Confronted with something we don’t want to do, I think the human response is to find some alternative that is more acceptable. Busywork! It’s like a sacrifice – “Look at how good I’m being and how hard I’m working.” (Psa 40:6; Ps 51:17; esp. 1 Sam 15:22) Unfortunately for our escape plan, God doesn’t want the alternative we’ve come up with. Sin again.

I’m sure I’ll come up with others soon – I’ll leave them for another post.