© 2025, Dr. Tamilio

Have you ever wondered why geese fly in “v” formation?  Scientists has figured out why.  As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following.  By flying in a V-formation, the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.  Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front.  When the lead goose gets tired, he rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point.  The geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.  Finally, when a goose gets sick, or is wounded by gun shot and falls out, two geese fall out of formation and follow him down to help and protect him.  They stay with him until he is either able to fly, or until he is dead, and then they launch out on their own or with another formation to catch up with their original group.[1]

What a perfect model for the church:

• Adding energy to the cause that will give us all a lift.
• Encouraging one another to fulfill our various callings.
• Helping those who are hurting so that they are loved.

It also sounds as if the geese read today’s Epistle reading.  Paul’s theology of how the church should run is reflected in their flight pattern, that’s for sure.

At the heart of Paul’s ecclesiology is the belief that the church is Christ’s body on earth and just like a human body, which is comprised of different parts, the church has different members who function like those body parts.

Paul was writing to a church that was embroiled in conflict.  W. Harold Mare writes, “it Paul’s purpose [in these letters to the Corinthians] to rectify certain serious doctrinal and moral sins and irregularities of Christian living including disorderly conduct in worship.”[2]  There was much that divided the Corinthians.  One of those bones of contention centered around who, in the church, was most important.  Paul used the body as a metaphor to illustrate how all the members of the body, even those we think are less important, are all essential for the body to function as a healthy unit.  No member is more important than the other.  The same is the case with the church.  No one member — and that member’s gifts — are more essential than another’s.  All the members are needed to build up the church.

But does Paul’s Corinthian correspondence have anything to teach churches that are not mired in conflict?  Of course.  His Epistle is as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago.  It isn’t so much about the proper structure of the church as it is about working together towards a common goal.  It is about having that all for one and one for all mentality.

Some of you may have read the book The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, the founding Pastor of the mega Saddleback Church.  Prior to writing The Purpose Driven Life, Warren wrote The Purpose Driven Church.  In this book, Warren claims, as the title suggests, that churches large and small need to be purpose driven if they want to grow.  He claims that they need a vision statement that can be easily memorized by all of its members.  It is a way of calibrating the congregation’s compass.  Here is Saddleback’s vision statement:

To bring people to Jesus and membership in his family, develop them to Christlike maturity, and equip them for their ministry in the church and life mission in the world, in order to magnify God’s name.

That’s only thirty-six words long: just about half as long as the Lord’s Prayer.  You’ve memorized that.  Some of you have memorized the 23^rd Psalm, too.  That’s about three times longer than Saddleback’s statement.

I am not looking for any of you to memorize Saddleback’s vision statement, but I do think it is high time that we wrote our own: a clear and concise sentence or two that tells people, particularly those who know little to nothing about us, who we are and what we are all about.

Maybe before we start drafting such a statement, we need to think about the values and the tasks that are at the heart of who we are.  The deacons are going to distribute index cards to you.  I want you to take a moment to jot down an idea — one or two things — that you think defines who we are.  This of course can be related to something specific you love about this church.  The idea is for all of us to take a moment to reflect on what it is about the Congregational Church of Canton that defines who we are and what we are all about, what we believe, and what we do.  Think of it this way: you meet someone who is a total stranger, and he/she wants to know about your church — what it does, what it’s all about.  You only have a minute.  What would you say?  Take a moment now to write it out.

Sir Richard Harvey…give us a minute of travelling music, if you would be so kind.

There will be a basket in the rear of the sanctuary.  Please deposit your card there when you leave today.  My goal is to go through these cards — to read them carefully; to find common themes.  Then, I will begin to construct a vision statement that encapsulates what we are all about.  I will present it to the Visionary Board.  With their help, we will further distill these ideas into a clear and concise statement that will be made available for public consumption.  Maybe we will read it together each week at the start or at the end of worship.

Think of it this way: if you were looking for a new church home (which none of you ever will be), and your search was based on just a few sentences that described the beliefs and overall feel of the congregation, what would appeal to you the most?  What would make you say, “This sounds like a place I would like to visit”?

The truth is, we are also a church that flies, much like geese, in “v” formation.  We are the body of Christ — Jesus being the head of the church, as Paul declared.  If we want to grow, we need to proclaim who we are from the rooftops.  Well, maybe not the rooftop, but certainly through social media and other outlets.

We are the body of Christ: bound together by the love made manifest in Jesus.  We are called to proclaim His Word and to minister in his name.  We know what that looks like, but we have a story to tell to the nations, as that old hymn declares.  Let’s sing it.  Let’s sing it loud.  Amen.

[1] James S. Hewitt, ed., Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale, 1988), 125-126.

[2] W. Harold Mare, “1 Corinthians” from The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 10 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976), 180.