Dear Friends,
Have you ever put your hope in a spreadsheet? It's a dangerous game. You line up your formulas, double-check your sums, and feel quite pleased with yourself—until that one rogue formula decides it has a mind of its own. Cue the panic. Suddenly, all those neatly arranged figures collapse like a house of cards, and you find yourself questioning everything.
We do this with people too, don't we? That new volunteer who seemed like an admin star until they sent a church-wide email about the bring-and-share lunch but forgot to mention the date. Or the latest software that promised to revolutionise how you organise room bookings until it wiped out half the calendar. Sometimes, we even put our hope in ourselves: "I've got this," we think, only to find ourselves drowning in policies, risk assessments, and an inbox that breeds overnight.
Here's the thing: hope is a good thing. In fact, it's a God-given thing. But misplaced hope? That's where we can get ourselves in trouble. Proverbs 11:28 says, "Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf." Now, I doubt many of us are trusting in riches (have you seen church budgets lately?), but we can certainly fall into the trap of trusting in the work of our own hands - our systems, our processes, our ability to keep everything together. And that can set us up for disappointment when things don't go to plan.
So where should we put our hope? We can trust and hope in our dependable, never-failing, ever-present, ever-loving God. He is the ultimate administrator—ordering the universe, keeping track of our days, and never missing a detail. While our best-laid plans may falter, He remains steadfast. Psalm 62:5 reminds us, "Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from Him." What a relief! It means that when our carefully structured schedules unravel, or when people let us down (even with the best of intentions), we don't have to spiral into despair. We can take a deep breath, hand it over to God, and keep moving forward.
This doesn't mean we stop hoping altogether. It's right to have expectations, to plan, and to do our very best. But our expectations should always come with a healthy dose of grace—grace for ourselves, grace for others, and the deep assurance that even if things don't work out quite as we envisioned, God is still at work.
So, let's keep those spreadsheets going, double-check those rotas, and do all that you do with excellence. But above all, place your hope not in the systems, the people, or even in yourself, but in the One who holds all things together. He is the God who sees, who sustains, and who never lets us down.
For you,
Jules Morgan
Director, UK Church Administrators Network