Let me tell you about the Sand Hill Crane, one of the biggest birds in North America.
It's the 747 of birds; a wingspan of 7 feet; a great, big, bulky body. I don't know
whether or not God really wanted that bird to fly, but they do. They winter in Mexico,
Cuba, and the Texas Gulf Coast, and then they fly all the way up to Hudson Bay and
Siberia. Then they make the trip back in the fall.
These great big, ungainly birds make that trip under very, very difficult circumstances. Ornithologists have studied them to find out: how do they make it?
They've noticed a few things. They have a leader that flies in front of the formation, and they've found that that leader rakes up a lot of the turbulence that's out in front.
It's a tough job, but these birds have learned to rotate their leadership, so there is always a strong leader up in front.
But most importantly they find that the whole formation during this entire trip is back behind them honking away, encouraging the leader and expressing their affirmation of the leaders to get them to where they want to go.
What a metaphor for a church. "The first church of the Sand Hill Crane." Yeah, the church where we have strong leaders who can handle turbulence, who rotate their leadership and share it, but most importantly, where we have a congregation that is behind them continually honking their encouragement.
Leading the way in God's church, with encouragement from all God's people. Isn't that a wonderful thing?