Giraffes & Elephants

There’s a great story about a Giraffe and and Elephant that I heard about from a pastor in Virginia, which you can read more at https://onevoicefellowship.org/love-is-flexible/ or find the original fable in a 20 year old management book, “Building a house for Diversity” by R Roosevelt Thomas.

It’s a rather American sounding giraffe but it’s a story that seems to have resonated a lot with people who deliver diversity training …and with people who recognise that we might sometimes need to ‘do church’ differently, or better still, ‘be church’ in some new ways in which the people who’ve traditionally been in charge, don’t insist that outsiders conform in order to be accepted.

I’ve only read the parable, not the book, but know that there are many challenges. It’s not as simple as giraffes and elephants, because sometimes the real differences are not so apparent.

More thoughts to come. Meanwhile, like many of us, I’ve a lot of listening and learning to do.