People who work as administrators grumble about it all the time.  “Another meeting.” “Another performance review.” “Another crisis.”   Yet administration is on St. Paul’s list of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12.  Ann Garrido, an academic administrator in St. Louis, asks, “Why not reconceive administration as a potential spiritual pathway by which good people can become better people, distinguished by a certain translucence and vitality that extends beyond themselves and into the institutions they serve?”

Here’s one of the ways administration stretches us:

Administrators must develop a vision of the whole, an understanding of how all the parts fit together and work together. This is an intellectual exercise that stretches the brain, but it can also be a spiritual exercise that stretches the heart, developing one’s capacity for a different kind of love. Administration cultivates a desire for the common good, for the flourishing of all.

Read the whole thing.

Tagged as: administrators, Ann Garrido

September 1, 2009