The famous story about geese flying in a V is half science and half sermon illustration. Here is which half is which, and why the church lessons hold up either way.
The lessons from geese come from a short piece usually credited to Robert McNeish in 1972 and spread through Angeles Arrien in 1991, and the core of it is real: birds flying in a V save energy and take turns at the front.
Some of the popular details are stretched. The church lessons stand on Scripture anyway: we belong to one body, we carry each other, we encourage each other, and nobody leads alone.
So if somebody calls you a silly goose this week, take it as a compliment. You are in good company, as long as you are flying with the flock.
If you have sat through a leadership seminar or a youth group lesson, you have probably met the geese: five facts about a V formation, each followed by a lesson about teamwork. It has been printed on posters, read at Rotary lunches and preached from a lot of pulpits.
It is worth being honest about where it came from, because the attribution is messier than the poster suggests. Two names travel with it, and they are often mixed together.
Lissaman and Shollenberger published a short paper in Science calculating that, in theory, birds in a flock of 25 could gain up to about a 70 percent range increase over a bird flying alone. That is almost certainly where the famous 71 percent comes from. It was a calculation, not a measurement of real geese.
The piece is most often credited to Dr. Robert McNeish of Baltimore, usually described as a science teacher. The original version of this post said it began as a sermon. I have not found a primary source that settles either description, so hold that detail loosely.
The wording most people know was transcribed from a talk Angeles Arrien gave to the Organizational Development Network in 1991, described as based on the work of Milton Olson. That is why you will see Olson's name on many copies.
A good illustration does not need a fake pedigree. Credit it honestly and let it do its job.
Here is the fun part. Researchers have since put real instruments on real birds, and the V formation is not a myth.
In 2001, a team led by Henri Weimerskirch fitted heart rate monitors to great white pelicans trained to fly in formation and reported in Nature that the birds save a significant amount of energy that way. A later NASA review of formation flight summarized their results as heart rates up to 14.5 percent lower than birds flying alone.
In 2014, Steven Portugal and colleagues put GPS loggers on northern bald ibises, a reintroduction flock learning its migration route behind a paraplane. They found the birds positioned themselves in aerodynamically optimum spots and timed their wingbeats to catch the rising air coming off the bird ahead. Not bad for an animal with no flight instructor.
A year later the same flock gave us the best part. The Oxford led team, writing in PNAS, found that ibises took turns, with pairs closely matching the time each spent leading and following. And for the geese themselves, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology says Canada geese “move in a V formation, with experienced individuals taking turns leading the flock.”
Flying in a V saves real energy. Birds position themselves to use the lift from the bird ahead. The lead position is shared, and birds rotate through it.
The 71 percent was a 1970 theory, not a field result. Honking as encouragement is an interpretation. The two geese escorting a wounded bird to the ground is not something I could find documented in the research.
Canada geese do pair for life and travel in family groups, so they are not strangers to each other. The dramatic escort scene is just the kind of detail a story picks up after a thousand retellings. Scripture makes the same point without borrowing anything from the birds.
Where does the famous “71 percent farther” figure most likely come from?
Lissaman and Shollenberger estimated in 1970 that a flock of 25 birds could, in theory, gain up to about a 70 percent range increase. Later field studies confirmed real energy savings, just not that headline number. If you want more, read my study on what the eagle represents in the Bible.
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Manage My Giving"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."2 Corinthians 9:7
A goose that drops out of the V feels the drag and works its way back in. That part lines up with the physics, and with how God built His people.
Solomon saw it long before anyone had a wind tunnel.
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!”
Ecclesiastes 4:9 to 10Paul takes it further. He does not describe the church as a club you attend or a service you consume. He calls it a body, where every part depends on every other part to function at all. You can read more about that picture in our study on the body of Christ.
“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’”
1 Corinthians 12:21This is where modern faith often goes wrong. A relationship with Jesus is personal, but personal was never meant to mean private. The Christian life in the New Testament is lived in the plural. Almost every “you” in Paul's letters is addressed to a whole church.
People drift out of formation because they were hurt, or busy, or honestly think they do fine alone. The drag is real either way. If you have been wondering whether gathering still matters, we walked through it in what the Bible says about going to church.
You were made for the V. Flying alone is possible for a while, and it costs more than you think.
The lead bird works hardest. It breaks the air and gets no lift from anyone. So the birds rotate. The front of the V is a job, and it gets shared.
That is a better picture of church leadership than most org charts. When Paul lists the leadership gifts, he tells us why they exist.
“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ”
Ephesians 4:11 to 12At Sound of Heaven we hold that the fivefold ministry describes functions, not titles. Apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral and teaching gifts are roles inside the body, given so the whole flock matures. They are not rungs on a ladder.
That cuts two ways. It is wrong to build a church around one gifted person at the point of the V who never rotates out, never rests and never lets anyone else lead. That burns out pastors and it keeps everyone else as passengers. It is equally wrong to treat leadership as unnecessary. Somebody has to break the wind. The answer is shared leadership, where people take the front in the area God has gifted them and then fall back and draw strength from others.
And to be clear, the geese prove none of this. Scripture teaches it. The birds are just a nice picture.
Moses learned this against Amalek. Israel prevailed while his hands were raised, and he could not keep them there alone.
“But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.”
Exodus 17:12Everyone has something to lead in, even if it is small. Ask where God has gifted you. Our study on spiritual gifts is a good place to start.
Rest is part of the rotation. Stepping out of the lead is how you last long enough to lead again.
Leaders get tired arms. Hold them up. A stone to sit on and two steady friends won a battle.
In the famous version, the geese in the back honk to encourage the ones up front. Geese do call a lot in flight, and anyone who has stood under a flock over the Sound in October has heard it. Whether that noise means “keep going” is our reading, not a research finding.
But the church version does not need the birds to be right. Paul says it directly to Hebrew believers under real pressure.
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
Hebrews 10:24 to 25The word for encouraging there is parakaleo, to call someone alongside. We unpack it in exhortation in the Bible. And the Day those first readers could see drawing near was the end of the old covenant age, which came with the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. They were told to hold together through that covenant transition, and we are told the same thing in a Kingdom that is here now, present and established. Encouragement is how people keep flying.
Then there is the wounded goose. Whether or not two birds really follow it to the ground, the Bible's instruction leaves no room for walking away from someone who is struggling.
“Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
Galatians 6:2The law of Christ is love, and carrying someone else's weight is how it gets kept. Paul says it again in Romans 12:15, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” No lecture. No timeline for how long the grief should take.
Say specifically what you see God doing in someone. Specific encouragement sticks. General praise evaporates.
Empty seats have names. A text or a call to someone you have not seen in a while can be the lift they needed.
When someone is hurting, stay close. You do not need answers. You need to be there.
Burden bearing only works if people admit they have burdens. Asking for help is part of flying in formation.
Maybe you have been out of formation for a while, and not from laziness. Maybe church hurt you, or grief knocked the wind out of you.
Nobody here is keeping score. Jesus is the shepherd who goes after the one, not the one who scolds it for wandering. If you want someone to pray with you, reach out to our prayer team. You do not have to explain everything first.
Strip the story down and what is left is simple. Birds that fly together go farther for less, and the one at the front gets relieved. That happens to describe the church Jesus is building.
Jesus did not call twelve individuals to twelve private journeys. He called them into a shared life and promised to be present with them in it. He is the lead who never tires, and the one who comes back for the bird that fell. Everything we do for each other in the body is His life moving through us.
So credit the story honestly, enjoy the birds, and get back in the V. For more on the life of a healthy church, read what the model Christian church looks like, where two or more are gathered and what iron sharpens iron means. And if you are on Long Island, come fly with us in Deer Park some Sunday.
The geese really do save energy and share the lead, some popular details are stretched, and the Bible was already telling the church to carry each other, encourage each other and lead together, with Jesus at the front of it all.
Send us a prayer request and someone at Sound of Heaven will pray with you and help you find your way back into the flock.
The popular version draws five lessons from a flock flying in a V. Flying together takes you farther than flying alone. Stay in formation with people headed the same way. Take turns doing the hard work at the front. Encourage the ones who are leading. And stand by each other when someone is hurt or falls behind. Some of the bird details are stretched, but every one of those lessons is taught plainly in Scripture about how the body of Christ should live.
It is most often credited to Dr. Robert McNeish of Baltimore, who is said to have written it in 1972. The wording most people know was transcribed from a 1991 talk by Angeles Arrien to the Organizational Development Network, described as based on the work of Milton Olson, which is why Olson's name appears on many copies. The honest approach is to mention McNeish and Arrien together.
Mainly to save energy. Each bird's wings leave rising air off the wingtips, and a bird flying behind and to the side can ride that lift. A 2001 study found formation flying pelicans saved significant energy, and a 2014 study showed ibises placing themselves in the best spots and timing their wingbeats to catch the lift. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology notes that experienced Canada geese take turns leading the flock.
That is the least supported part of the story. Canada geese pair for life and migrating flocks include family groups, so they are strongly bonded. But the image of two geese following a wounded bird to the ground and staying until it recovers or dies is not something we could find documented in research. The Bible does not need it to be true, because Galatians 6:2 already tells believers to bear one another's burdens.
Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” The law of Christ is love, and carrying someone else's weight is how love becomes practical. Paul says each person still carries their own load in verse 5, so this is not about doing someone's life for them. It is about refusing to let anyone carry a crushing weight alone. Romans 12:15 adds the same heart: rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.