United in diversity: A call for working together

Roland Pierce, pastor of Broadway Missionary Baptist Church in Phoenix and president of the Arizona African American Fellowship, used observations about geese to illustrate how, as the body of Christ, we should work together. Ephesians 4:11-16 was the scriptural basis, and equipping the saints and edifying the body was the focus of his message at the Arizona Mission Network annual meeting, held Nov. 14 at Cross Church, Surprise.

Citing pastor and author Charles Swindoll, Pierce shared four lessons about the flight of geese that are relevant regarding faithful leadership and the edification of the church.

1. Those in front rotate their leadership. The geese that start the migration at the front of the V formation don’t remain there throughout the journey. They rotate out of their leadership roles. This keeps them from burning out and allows others to lead.
2. By flying as they do, geese create an upward air current for each other. Each flap of the wings creates an updraft for the bird immediately behind the goose in front, which allows about 71% greater flying range. By going together, they can fly further than if they were flying alone.
3. When a goose in the formation gets sick, two fall back to protect the one that is struggling. No goose is left to fend for itself.
4. The geese in the rear are still a vital part of the formation, and they are constantly communicating with the geese at the front of the V, as if to say they are still there and to encourage the leaders to keep flying. They are working together throughout the journey, regardless of their individual roles.

Likewise, we need to be so connected to each other that we are tirelessly working together, planting churches together and lifting each other up in prayer, Pierce said. When we come together, we go on mission together, we make an impact on the souls of others together and we make our ministries better than when we started.

“If we all looked alike, if we all acted alike, if we all did the same thing, then one of us wouldn’t be necessary,” Pierce said.

But our diversity is for the strengthening and proper functioning of the body of Christ, he said. Through Christ the body is joined together. The call to Christ means joining together and working together. Missions connects us. The Great Commission connects us. Whatever your background, we are all connected together.

While on a mission trip to Jamaica with the National African-American Fellowship last summer, Pierce said a Jamaican pastor told him, “Just because we’re different, it doesn’t mean that we are deficient. … Don’t think that what you bring is better than what I have.”

Pierce stated it another way.

“In other words,” he said, “there’s no Tom Brady without a front line. There’s no Walter Payton without a frontline or a quarterback to hand him the ball. … I may be different, but we’re all necessary, because our jobs, our giftings and what we’ve been called to do is different from one another. However, we are trying to get to one goal, and that’s to praise and lift up and glorify Jesus.”

Believers are to be knit together so that each different part helps to make the whole, Pierce said. Every believer brings something to the table. Every believer is necessary.

Ephesians teaches us to be unified in our diversity as we grow into Christ-like maturity, he said. Through our connection with each other we get to realize the blessings of the Christian journey.

“We have to understand that we are in this together,” Pierce said.

Philip William Calvert is senior pastor of Trinity Southern Baptist Church in Casa Grande.

Victoria White, a freelance photographer living in San Tan Valley, is the social media strategist for the Arizona Mission Network of Southern Baptists.