Gifts of God - really

In the church God has appointed... those with gifts of administration... 1 Corinthians 12:28

Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way. 1 Corinthians 14:40

The dots in the first quotation indicate that I have left parts out - quite important parts in fact. I’ve done so because I think that often in church life we don’t value highly enough the faithful people who simply “keep the show on the road”, so to speak. I’m talking about the organisers, the administrators, the number-crunchers, the rota-arrangers, the practical sleeves-rolled-up people. 

When Paul speaks about people “with gifts of administration”, that’s not the only possible, or even the best, translation. The word he uses conjures up the idea of a helmsman, the person who guides the ship with their hand on the tiller. But I personally like the translation we have, because it draws attention to that army of people without whom the church simply couldn’t function. Another translation speaks of “organisational gifts”.

Why is this on my mind? Because in my own Bible reading at the moment I’m working my way through Leviticus and Numbers. If you have ever done this, and you are anything like me, there are times when you find yourself thinking “Why on earth did God see fit to preserve all these obscure details in his word?”

Numbers 1, for example, has a string of short paragraphs, each about one of the tribes of Israel, which are virtually identical. They all have just under fifty words, and the only differences are, first, the name of the particular tribe being spoken about, and, second, the number it contained of “men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army”.

And you think, Why? Why do I today need to know about all this?

In chapter 2 we learn about the precise arrangement, when camped, of the tribes around the “tent of meeting” (that was where the ark of the covenant was kept, and was the nearest equivalent the Israelites had to a shrine or temple at that time). We learn too the precise order in which the tribes set off on the march.

In chapter 3 we learn about the work of the Levites, the men who did the donkey-work, the heavy lifting, when Israel was on the march, and who generally were responsible for looking after the enormous amount of “stuff” that needed to be carried around while Israel was in the wilderness. 

Yes, not only the altars and the ark, the sacred table and the lamp-stand, but also the poles and posts, the curtains and other hangings, the ropes and tent-pegs - all these items and a whole lot more needed to be taken care of. And chapter 3 tells us exactly who did what. Everyone knew what their particular responsibility was.

So again: Why? Why all this detail?

One reason, I think, is to give us a flavour, a feel, of what the camp of the Israelites must have been like in those exciting early days. Even the strange names and the precise numbers stir our imaginations (if we let them), and we can somehow “see” in our minds this vision of God’s holy pilgrim people on the move. Orderly, disciplined, controlled. 

Well, it’s a long leap from Israel in the wilderness to the church in first-century Corinth; an even longer leap from there to us today. But certain things don’t change, and the need for order and discipline is among them. And that is why “those with gifts of administration” are so important. In the church of Christ, even in these very relaxed and informal days in which we live, things should be done “in a fitting and orderly way”, as Paul puts it in chapter 14.

So here’s a suggestion. When you go to church next Sunday, by all means say thank you to those who lead and read and pray and preach. Don’t forget to say thank you too to those who teach the children and look after the babies. Not to mention those who set things up at the start, those who make the coffee, and those who do the washing up.

But why not also go up to the secretary, or the treasurer, or the administrator - whatever name you call these background people by - and give them a great big sloppy kiss on the cheek. They too are exercising “gifts of the Spirit”.

They might get quite a surprise...

Thank you, Lord Jesus, that in your church there is a place for everyone, and everyone has their place. Help me to find my particular place, and to fulfil to the best of my ability the work you wish me to do, so that your church operates in an orderly and efficient way. Amen.