The Baby Elephant Principle

Tag Archive - stuck

The Baby Elephant Principle

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Some years ago when I was in Africa on a short-term mission trip my wife Lisa and I had the opportunity to take an additional day to spend in Masai Mara, a famous game reserve that spans the boarder of Kenya and Tanzania. We got to see all kinds of animals in their natural habitat. We saw lions with their cubs, rhino, giraffes, hippos, and more. It was literally like something right out of National Geographic. But surprisingly some of the most incredible animals to watch were the elephants. These were a far cry from those circus elephants from my childhood. These elephants were larger than life powerful animals that trampled a path as they walked through the brush and knocked over trees, and broke branches. They were spectacular to be around. The largest living land animal, the average adult male is 10-13 feet tall at the shoulder and weighs between 10-13 thousand pounds. To get your head around just how massive these animals are, get this, their molars (their teeth) weigh about 11 pounds each and are 12 inches long! Their tusks weigh between 50-100 pounds and are between 5-8ft long! These are massive and impressive animals.

And when I think about those elephants that I saw in my childhood at the circus it’s almost comical that one of these grown massive, powerful 10,000-pound elephants could be tamed and chained to a little stake in the ground. What happens is when the elephant is young the trainer will drive a metal stake in the ground and chain the baby elephant to it. Unable to pull the stake out of the ground and lacking the strength to break the chain the baby elephant eventually gives up. It grows accustomed to the stake and conditioned to believe it can’t break free. In adulthood when the elephant is literally thousands of pounds, and has the strength to push a railway car, the trainer can still chain that elephant to a small stake in the ground to contain this giant powerful animal. All because it’s been conditioned to believe it can’t break free.

3 Questions to Ask about how Your Past is Affecting your Present:

1. What behaviors and practices does your church need to break free from that worked when you were smaller but are restricting you from moving forward and are keeping you stuck?

2. What ministries were effective at one point and breathed life into the church years ago but are now limping along and take energy to prop up?

3. What Staff Members were the right person at the right time some years ago, but have since hit a lid and need to be shifted into another role or off the team?

Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation

Stuck in a Funk

Sunday, April 7, 2013

I recently caught up with Tony Morgan to talk about his new book, “Stuck in a Funk?: How to Get Your Church Moving Forward.” It just released on Amazon! Click here to get your hands on a copy and check out the interview with Tony below.

Paul: Your writing, speaking, coaching and consulting consistently focuse on this idea of churches getting “unstuck.” Where does this passion for helping churches get “unstuck” come from?

Tony: Well, not to over-spiritualize it, but I really do believe God called me to this. I accepted Christ when I was in high school, and from the very beginning of my walk with Christ, I was captivated by the story of the early church…particularly in the Book of Acts. God put something in me to help the local church fulfill its mission. I want the Church to have impact in people’s lives. People need Jesus, and that’s what drives me to help churches get unstuck.

Paul: You’ve worked with all kinds of different churches through coaching and consulting relationships. Denominational and non-denominational. Traditional and contemporary. Small, medium, and megachurches. Church plants and churches that have existed for years. Through your experience have have you observed any common reasons that churches get stuck regardless of these differences?

Tony: Every church is unique and because of that, the combination of contributing factors that lead to a church getting stuck are going to look different from church to church. That said, one common challenge is being inward-focused. Another is holding onto leadership approaches or structures that may have worked in the past, but don’t now. Another common issue is gaining a clear vision, but, more important, being intentional about the strategies and systems to see that vision become reality. To get to where you want to go tomorrow, you have to know what’s important right now.

Paul: You mention in the book that many pastors default to thinking they can “teach their way out” of being stuck. What are some other common mistakes that church leaders have a tendency to make as they attempt to address their “stuckness?”

Posted in Leadership

Does your Team need to Change?

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Churches get stuck for all kinds of reasons. But a common reason Churches get stuck is that the Sr. Leadership Team gets stuck. Last week I had the opportunity to sit in the room with Sr. Leaders from some of the nations leading mega-churches and talk through this issue. Here are a couple of the thoughts I captured about Sr. Leadership Teams from that conversation.

1. If the team begins doing the wrong work it may be time to change the team

The purpose of the Sr. Leadership Team is to make directional decisions that build a strong unified culture around your values and move the organization closer to vision. When decision making and implementation begin to consistently slow down it is probably means a change on the team is in the future.

2. If someone is building their own kingdom, get them off the team

When someone on the team cares more about their own personal mission, personal posturing or positioning, or a sub ministry in the church; it’s time for them to leave the Sr. Leadership Team. People who serve on your Leadership Team need to be able to think conceptually and transfer principles across disciplines quickly and they must care more about the mission of the church than their particular ministry

3. When you make changes you’re going to hurt feelings

As the church grows and changes so will your Sr. Leadership Team. Different leaders have different capacities. This isn’t a good thing or a bad thing. It’s just a simple reality that we all have a part to play in the body. When a body is smaller someone may play a larger or more public role than they do when it is larger. But be prepared, not everyone will approach these conversations with sober mindedness and a healthy sense of self awareness.

4. Are there too many people in the room?

Span of care is a major issue on any team, but particularly on a Sr. Leadership Team, because so much is at stake. Because a Sr. Leadership Team is not about ministry representation but decision-making and culture formation as the church grows you will consistently be tweaking the team to both have the right people and the right amount of people on the team. Think of it as breathing, the team will contract and expand as layers are added and growth take place.

Want to learn more about Sr. Leadership Teams? Check out my interview with Tony Morgan about his most recent book “Take the Lid Off Your Church, 6 Steps to Building a Healthy Sr. Leadership Team.”

Posted in Leadership, Staffing

Taking Steps to Make Vision Real

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Typically churches aren’t stuck when it comes to the mission. Fortunately we don’t have to search very far in the Scriptures to discover God’s intent for the church to reach the nations. However where churches are notorious for being stuck is what comes next. Understanding and developing the steps that are necessary to take in order to make that vision reality. This is where strong leadership is needed. The task of leadership is to break a complicated process of moving from where you are to where God wants you to be into clear, simple, easy, natural steps that make vision real.

Clear:

If what you’re asking people to do is confusing, chances are they’ll move in a different direction than you intend for them to, or worse they won’t move at all. Your idea and message may seem obvious and clear to you, but it doesn’t matter how clear it is in your mind. You’ve got to figure out a way to make it clear to the people you want to take the step.

Simple:

If you want people to take a step that will move them and the organization in a preferred direction then it can’t be complicated. If you’ve ever put together IKEA furniture then you understand what I mean. It’s amazing how they can fit a 6×6 entertainment center in a box the size of a Rubix Cube, and for some reason there always seems to be parts left over! The best and quickest process is always a one step process.

Easy:

Let me be clear. By no means am I saying that helping people take steps towards making vision real is easy in the sense that it is painless, peaceful, or comfortable. Moving people towards a preferred future vision of reality (change) by its very nature is difficult and painful. Rather I’m asserting that easy solutions to complex problems lead to movement.

Natural:

If you are intentional in forming the culture of the organization then you will be creating an environment that tells people where they should naturally move towards and how they should behave. People should begin to see it as the natural obvious step they should move towards.

Posted in Leadership

is the church for christians?

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Churches all across America are stuck. In a large majority of these churches people come every week to the worship services and faithfully attend bible studies. They love being with each other, they know one another’s names and they have a good general working knowledge of the Scriptures. But they’re stuck. They’ve plateaued or they’re declining. Their best days are behind them and they consistently talk about the “good ‘ol days” and a high water mark that happened some years ago. It was an incredible moment and they should remember it, they should talk about it. After all it was a great moment. But today they’re stuck.

It’s not because they’re not faithful in their church attendance or commitment to the Scriptures. But because they have adopted an unbiblical view of what Church is all about.

What if I told you that the church was never intended to be a box that we sit in, but a movement we’re a part of? That, as a Christ Follower you can’t come to church, because you are the Church. What if I went as far as to say that the Church isn’t for Christians? Got your attention yet? The Church simply doesn’t exist FOR Christians. Because the Church IS Christians, and we don’t exist for ourselves; we exist to be on mission with God. And God’s mission is all about His people taking on the posture of a servant and thinking about others before they think of themselves.

Could it be that the reason that many Churches are stuck today, is because they’ve been sold a lie that says Church is for Christians? That’s absolute opposite direction of what God has called His people to.

Click here to check out the talk I gave at Sun Valley Community Church this past weekend where I unpack this idea even further.

So what do you think? Is the Church for Christians?

Posted in Spiritual Formation

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