Your gift of administration: How to discover and use it

Written well, and written from experience, I believe this is a helpful book on the subject of administration. The bulk of the book is written theoretically, which is great, but it lacks a lot of practical suggestions and illustrations. Practical books and books laced with illustrations are often very effective in actually influencing people. Heavily theoretical books such as this one, often are only effective in influencing those who are disciplined enough to be able to translate the theory into "rubber-to-the-road" practicality. The content is clearly wise and helpful, but maybe lacks the "how-to" that would make the book more practical. The following are three things that I learned through this book. 1) The effective administrator must understand and respect the body principle taught by Paul in Romans 12, 1Coritnhians 12 and Ephesians 4. People are valuable, and God has given everyone a function in the universal church. 2) Ignorant is the leader that doesn't make a concerned effort to be clear in communication. An interesting statistic in this book says that the emotional impact of any message is over 50% non-verbal. Our clothing, facial expressions, scent and body language communicates more than we think. The responsible administrator will recognize this and make sure that he are she doesn't' accidentally communicate something accidentally through their non-verbal communication. Not only must the administrator make his communication clear, but also the administrator must also not be afraid to communication a large quantity of information to those he or she leads. Many leaders like to keep information classified and secret; this often is a result of their own insecurities and shows the lack of trust the administrator gives to those on his or her team. 3) Ironically, this book that I perceive to be unimaginative and uncreative, promotes the importance of creativity. The author makes a good point is saying that the average Westerner gets his education that focuses almost exclusively on objective reasoning and thus lacks in any kind of education that develops creativity and the imagination. And contrary to popular belief, creativity is not something that is inborn, but it is something that needs to be developed. Many administration positions, especially in churches, require great imagination and creativity. If this is truly the case, administrators should seek out opportunities to better himself or herself in the area of creativity.