Elephants, Elephant Riders, and the Path

Hi friends,

 

I trust your summer is going well!  I know most of the groups or ministries you facilitate, lead, and host are moving into a summer schedule of sorts.  You deserve a break and some time to refresh in order to minister and serve others again as God leads.  Part of my role in serving you is to help you think, plan, promote your groups and grow in your ability to lead them.  I love this role because it gives me a chance to be with people--all of you!--who help me to think, plan, and promote better.  Thanks for your service to and through our church. 

 

As you are winding down, I encourage you to reflect on your groups and ministries and what future God desires to bring about.  I have found one model particularly helpful in discerning and executing some of these ideas. 

 

Chip and Dan Heath talk about how to make hard change.  They give three things that are necessary: 1. Elephants. 2. Riders. 3. A Path.  It's not so strange as it first sounds!  The Heaths say that our minds are like elephants with riders.  The elephant is the emotional side; the rider is the intellectual side.  Change elephants but not riders and there is no direction; change riders but not elephants and you run out of steam; change riders and elephants, but have no path and you'll get discouraged.  So, as you plan and pray about your groups, and as you discern what changes might need to be made, ask, "How can I change the emotional culture?"  Ask, "How can I change the thinking process?"  Ask, "What are the first steps down the path that leads to the change God has for us?"

 

I am here to think, pray, and plan with you. 

 

Grace and peace,

 

Aaron