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.

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But good times with good friends are precious and deserve to be remembered.

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