Of Cooks and Kitchens

When I would come home from school and complain about group projects, my mom would inevitably say something along the lines of "Sometimes there are just too many cooks in the kitchen."  It didn't help my group-project woes at all, but she meant well.

I'm going through a little of that now.  See, our church is extremely blessed with a hardworking admin team, a communications person and a youth team that can, most days, schedule events far enough in advance to keep the admin team and communications person happy.  And our Family Ministry admin girl is freaking awesome.  She gets ministry AND can kick Excel in the teeth.

But we didn't used to have an admin girl or a church communications person.  So most of the burden of communicating, advertising and keeping everyone up to date on student stuff fell on us.  (Specifically the women on the team, but that really is more about gifting than gender stereotypes...most days)  As the student ministry staff has changed over the years, I've gradually taken over most of the admin tasks - small group rosters, mailings, parent newsletter, thank-you notes, website info, etc.  And now our Excel-kicking admin girl is more than capable and willing to help/take off my plate entirely a lot of those tasks.

**Sidenote: those of you who would give your big toe for a great admin girl are free to shake your fist at me.

So why am I frustrated about cooks being in the kitchen?

I'm frustrated because I now need to explain my entire m.o. to 5 different people.  And maybe it's because it's embarrassing that they can do those tasks better in half the time.  Perhaps, it's partly because sometimes there are details that get missed and I have to make amends.  Or maybe I just like being in control of everything.  And I definitely hate that it means adding another meeting to my week.

So, in a word, it's selfish.  And that's hard to admit.

So one of my goals for this month is to work better with our admin team and slowly kill the desire I have to kick them in the teeth when the work isn't done the way I think it should be done.  Doesn't sound very lofty or inspiring does it?  Sorry, folks.  This is the mess of working with people, of your co-workers being co-laborers for Christ.  People who have been saved, even when they are employed by a church, are just people.  Messy, frustrating, beautiful people.  And I'm one of them.

JB