The Gift of Administration

Is your church lacking people in leadership who have the gift of administration? When a church tries to function without one or more people in leadership who have the gift of administration there will be confusion, conflict, misunderstandings; and, often times, chaos and hurt feelings. Bottom line; it will be a dysfunctional church.

Some signs that your church needs people with this gift would be:

• A lack of resources available for members which are accurate and kept updated on a regular basis as things change in the body (i.e., ministry contact lists) 
• Literature composed, produced and printed with typos and errors. 
• Lack of proper communication to the entire membership regarding church needs, events, meetings, and announcements. 
• The same individuals doing all the work, all the time. 
• A lack of knowledge of the gifts of all of the members of the church and the inability to effectively use the members to most edify the body and bring Glory to God. 
• Members who feel invisible, unloved and insignificant. 

The gift of administration is really needed in the Christian community. Paul spoke many times about the church as a body with many essential parts, each being necessary for the body to function wholly. People with the gift of administration may well hold the key to pulling all the various parts together in harmony. Being able to absorb detail, organize and delegate are traits of this gift, and these qualities, when employed effectively, can be helpful in allowing the Holy Spirit’s work in one committee to compliment, rather than conflict with, the work of another. The instincts for what comes first and what follows, who can plug in where, and how to arrange things so that everything fits into the schedule or that everything gets done are sorely needed in a busy church environment. This is a wonderful spiritual gift to have.

With this gift you can help the church get in order and stay in order. That orderliness surely pleases God for he ordered the whole world.

The gift of Administration: the special ability that God gives for understanding clearly the immediate and long-range goals of a particular unit of the Body of Christ and the ability to devise and execute effective plans for the accomplishment of these goals. The ability to organize and guide human activities in such a way that Christ’s program is carried out.

As a spiritual gift, administration has to do with guiding the affairs of the church and kingdom. The person with this gift has management ability. The administrator accepts the goals set by others and devises and executes plans to accomplish these goals. A sense for organization is evident. Often a person with this gift is characterized as able to direct and motivate people and coordinate their activities. Often, but not always, people with the gift of administration also have the gift of leadership.

A person with this gift will take an organized approach to most undertakings, and this attribute can be valuable in planning, coordinating, directing, supervising, or in committee work. Some would refer to this type of individual as a “how to” person. One might expect a person with this gift to enjoy preparing agendas and reports to help a committee become more productive. Expect that careful attention will be paid to even small details in planning an activity. Someone with the gift of administration is characterized as one who takes satisfaction in a well-run organization.

When a church tries to function without one or more people in leadership with this gift, there will be confusion, conflict, misunderstandings; and, often times, chaos and hurt feelings.  If this is true in your church.  Pray!   Pray that God will send you those with this gift!

My Last and Only End!

God of my end, it is my greatest, noblest pleasure to be acquainted with Thee and with my rational, immortal soul; it is sweet and entertaining to look into my being when all my powers and passions are united and engaged in pursuit of Thee, when my soul longs and passionately breathes after conformity to Thee and the full enjoyment of Thee; no hours pass away with so much pleasure as those spent in communion with Thee and with my heart.

O how desirable, how profitable to the Christian life is a spirit of holy watchfulness and godly jealousy over myself when my soul is afraid of nothing except grieving and offending Thee, the blessed God, my Father and friend, whom I then love and long to please, rather than be happy in myself! Knowing, as I do, that this is the pious temper, worthy of the highest ambition, and closest pursuit of intelligent creatures and holy Christians, may my joy derive from glorifying and delighting Thee. I long to fill all my time for Thee, whether at home or in the way; to place all my concerns in Thy hands; to be entirely at Thy disposal, having no will or interest of my own. Help me to live to Thee forever, to make Thee my last and only end, so that I may never more in one instance love my sinful self.

(A Puritan Prayer)

"...in extremis..."

You have seen a dog after a long run; how he stands with opened mouth panting for life and breath. Oh, that we had desires after God and divine things strong enough to make us thus open our mouth and pant! We may never have seen a stag in extremis, but I dare say David had. He had seen it in the fierce hunt, when it longed to have its smoking sides in the water brooks and to drink long draughts, and he said, “As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.”

Nothing puts such energy into prayer as intense anguish of desire. Desire comes out of a sense of want; and in proportion as the necessity is overwhelming, the fervency of the desire will be vehement. My brethren, we have not, because, although we ask, we use a kind of asking which is as though we asked not.

An old Puritan says, “He that prays to God without fervor asks to be denied.” There is a way of asking for a thing in which the person to whom the request is made finds it very easy to decline the request, but persons in dire necessity understand how to put the case, so that only a very hard-hearted person could say “no.” They know how to place their petition in such a way that the request wins, not merely because of the rightness of the petition, but also because of the very style in which it is put. We must learn how to pray with strong crying and tears, for there are mercies which cannot be gained by any other mode of supplicating.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Opening The Mouth."

A Prayer for the New Year

Oh LORD,

A long life does not profit me except the days are spent

     In Your presence,

     In Your service,

     For Your glory.

Give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides, sustains, sanctifies, and aids every hour, that I may not be one moment apart from You.

May I rely on Your Spirit to

     Supply every thought,

     Speak every word,

     Direct every step,

     Prosper every work,

     Build up every ounce of faith.

Give me a desire to

     Show forth Your praise,

     Testify of Your love and

     Advance Your kingdom.

I launch my ship on the unknown waters of this year, with

     You, O Father, as my harbor,

     You, O Son, at my helm,

     You, O Holy Spirit, filling my sails.

Guide me to heaven with

     My lamp burning,

     My ear open to Your calls,

     My heart full of love,

     My soul free.

Give me

     Your grace to sanctify me,

     Your comforts to cheer,

     Your wisdom to teach,

     Your right hand to guide,

     Your counsel to instruct,

     Your law to judge,

     Your presence to stabilize.

May Your fear be my awe,

Your triumphs my joy.

The original version of this prayer, along with many others, can be found in The Valley of Vision by Arthur Bennet.

An Echo of His Excellence

My heart's cry is that this would be the cry of my heart in prayer.  My heart's cry is that this would be the cry of the hearts of all those who are in Christ.  How feeble are our petitions.  How easy we slip into a man-centered, temporal mind-set, even in our prayer life.

"Banish from our minds low thoughts of Christ.  Saturate our souls with the Spirit of Christ and all His greatness.  Enlarge our capacities to be satisfied in all that you are for us in Him.  Where flesh and blood are impotent, reveal to us the Christ, and rivet our attention and our affections on the truth and beauty of your all-glorious Son.  And grant that whether rich or poor, sick or sound, we might be transformed by Him and become an echo of His excellence in the world."

Excerpt from "Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ" by John Piper