The gift of administration

The translation quoted here says governments where many others say administration or guidance: keeping the order that a shared work runs on. 1 Corinthians 12:28 names it once, tucked between helps and speaking in other languages, and then says nothing more about it. Paul shows it instead of defining it: he leaves Titus in Crete “to set in order the things that were lacking” (Titus 1:5), and he will not move a large collection without a second man, appointed by the churches, travelling with it (2 Corinthians 8:18-21).

In an ordinary week it is the rota that arrives on Thursday and works. It is knowing which key opens which door, when the insurance is due, who has been checked and who has not, and which of the four people who promised a pudding will actually bring one. It is the gift that turns somebody should into a name and a date.

People notice it in themselves by how loose ends feel. You write the plan down and send it round without being asked. People send you the details because they know you will still have them in March. An arrangement nobody has pinned down sits at the back of your mind until you pin it down.

It is most often confused with leading. Leading decides where a thing is going; administration makes it possible once that is decided, and the two land on the same person often enough to hide the difference. It is also confused with being tidy, and Paul’s word is not about neatness. It is about steering something that would otherwise drift, which is why it comes out of the vocabulary of ships rather than of housekeeping.