How to Train an Elephant

A friend of mine gave me the following story:

"Have you ever wondered how to train an elephant? The first step is making it believe it can't run away. Get your elephant -- preferably a baby one -- and tie it to a strong steel stake in the ground, like you would tie a horse to a hitching post. The baby elephant will try to break free, but it won't have the strength to do so. Eventually, the little elephant will give up and stop trying to escape from the rope and the stake that limit its range. Once the young elephant has learned that it cannot pull the stake from the ground, you can replace the strong stake with a smaller wooden one, even though it wouldn't have enough strength to hold the elephant. An elephant trained in its babyhood to believe that the stake is strong and won't budge won't attempt to break loose and run away -- even after it has grown strong enough to easily yank almost any stake out of the ground."

I cringe when I hear someone say that they "have been a Christian all their life" or that they were "raised a Christian." This sends off red flags to me because it makes me wonder if these people have ever had a moment in their life when they expressed a true saving faith in Christ. Nobody has been a Christian all their life. They may have been raised in a family who were involved in a local fellowship or denomination. However, going to church all your life doesn't make you a Christian anymore than sleeping in a garage makes you a car. Normally, these people end up having placed faith in their church rather than in Christ. Yes, they will say they are saved, but it is a byproduct of their familiarity with the scriptures, in my opinion, rather than a recognition of a point in their lives when they became born again of the Spirit of God through faith in Jesus Christ. When you talk to these people they define their faith through the prism of their religion not through an encounter with the living God. They are great defenders of their faith, but not of Christ.

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:24-25

The elephant was trained since infancy to be in bondage to that pole. Even when it was big enough and strong enough to pull that stake out the ground it stayed still. This is no different than believers, or churchgoers, who have been told that they have to go to church in order to be a Christian. Hebrews 10:24-25 is the primary passage used to foster this belief. However, when this passage was written, the organized church had not yet been developed. There were no buildings on each corner full of so-called worshipers. The actual church, individual believers all over the world, has been replaced with organization after organization claiming to be the Body of Christ. Like the mature elephant still in bondage to that stake, believers grow in the knowledge of their particular fellowship rather than in the Lord. They don't have a relationship with their God. They have a relationship with their church. They become proclaimers of its teachings rather than proclaimers of Christ. It is funny how so called believers jump from one faith to the next and still call themselves Christians. They convert to a different organization, but still claim to be a Christian despite all the varying doctrinal beliefs. The Body of Christ is an organism, not an organization.

"We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." Hebrews 5:11-14

What happens when you are built up in the knowledge of your church instead of Christ is that you don't know the basics of the Gospel message. Everything you say and believe is filtered through your church experience. I have lost count of all the so-called believers who can go on for hours about their church history, church doctrine and the pillars of their faith, but can't tell you the meaning of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Their "gospel" is inviting people to church, sending them to a class on church membership and a vast array of other religious functions. They may sound knowledgeable, but are mere infants in Christ, if they are in Him at all. I don't say all this to tell people not to attend church or to fellowship with each other. I attend a fellowship weekly and fellowship daily on the Internet. But, I do this in order to be equipped for the work of the ministry not for training and instruction in the unique beliefs of a denomination or fellowship. Christians don't go to church. Christians are the Church! We take the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. And we can only do that when we are built up and rooted in Christ. You cannot go out into the world and fulfill the Great Commission when you are tied to the stake of your denomination or fellowship. It is time to rip the stake out of the ground and go out into the world to share with others that which God, in Christ, has given to you. Stop being elephants and start being evangelists.