To Organize or Not

Last Sunday I made of list of spiritual gifts. It was part of my notes for the class I taught. I was having trouble articulating the difference between a talent and a spiritual gift, so I thought if I made a list of the spiritual gifts mentioned by Paul in his letters, I could use examples to help me express my point. I'm not sure I ever made the particular point I was striving to express in class, but I did find that the list was interesting (to me).

One "gift" on the list I made which still stands out to me is the gift to organize. (I would post the scriptural reference for you, but now I can't find it. Isn't that typical for me? Maybe I made the whole thing up? We'll continue on as if I didn't...)

I have to confess that I love to organize. I tell you truly that you wouldn't know that if you looked at our house, but outside the house, I really like it.

I walked away from a recent VBS meeting (this week) with questions about organization. Where is the line between organization and rigidity? And if we consider that organization can be a gift from the spirit, then how is it used to "build up the body of Christ?" And can it be an impediment?

I was walking down the hallway with two of the VBS coordinators from other churches. One of them has impressed the socks off of me with her organizational skills (we'll call her "O"). The other one (while she is very nice, and has wonderful ideas) reminds me of our previous DCE (which actually might explain some of my responses to her -- I'm having flashbacks -- we'll call her "N"). Please understand that they are BOTH wonderful people.

Conversation: (Italics are my thoughts)

Me: (something like this) -- OK, this is great. I'm feeling it coming together (and we all know that it's alll about making Kim feel better).
N: So you're not one of those "fly by the seat of your pants" people?
Me: (laughing hysterically inside, but trying to be calm) -- Uh, no.
O: Me neither. I need to have a plan.
Me: That's right -- if I have a plan, I can adapt -- I can be flexible (Does anyone else see the irony in that? It's true though, in a paradoxical sense)
O: Right!
N: Not me.

I pushed pretty hard at that meeting to have some decisions made (not the outcome of the decisions -- just, please please please make some). I pushed harder than I usually do, and went home feeling that the "loving" part of spiritual gifts had perhaps been abandoned by me.

How do we know the line? How do we judge how much organization is necessary, and how much will just get in the way of God's actions in a project? I am of two minds:

If I'm honest, detail oriented people -- list makers -- can sometimes miss the big picture. We can miss the point of the project all together in the effort to make sure that we have enough chairs and there are signs telling people where to go. In the frenzy of making sure that each brush stroke is "correct," we can end up with a "paint by numbers" portrait when we're done, with no room for inspiration or art. I'm not saying that that is what I do all the time, but it is something that I have to be careful of.

That said, there are times when organization is what teaches us the steps of the dance. If we can use pre-planning to move obstacles out of the way, then we start the evening with an empty dance floor. We know the steps, and we can keep our eye on the One who is leading. The dance becomes about getting closer to God, rather than about the distractions. There are moments (and they don't happen very often) when I know that God has done something through one of my lists that has cleared the dance floor for someone else, and I love those moments.

I think this VBS is going to work out. I think that it may be successful because of all the many people who have worked on it -- each bringing his or her own gifts to the party. It will be more than any of us could have done on our own, and God is going to take the many offerings and transform them into what He wants them to be -- whether or not we have enough chairs.