Not All Organizational Charts Are Boring

This week is the last week of classes at IGSL. Everything is winding down, and our graduation is Saturday. But in the midst of the goodbyes, we have to get ready for next year. We are already processing student applications, and making decisions about next year's classes. So the Leadership Team of our Partners in Ministry program for wives decided that we needed to look at our organizational chart. We gathered for a weekend retreat to encourage our young PIM faculty to take new responsibilities for the coming year. But we wanted it to be pretty and fun.

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We often use orchids as our icon for PIM, because it is a plant that is easily moved. Its roots are in the air, not the ground. As we equip our PIM students, we hope that they can easily adapt what they learn in our program, and transplant it to their own ministries back home. So, with the orchid theme in mind, we did our planning with the PIM faculty. We each had six orchids to represent ourselves, and we laid out 60 stamens -- the center part of the flowers -- to represent the various jobs that need to be done for the coming year.

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As we talked and prayed and planned, we each selected six responsibilities for the coming year, including teaching classes, coordinating events, discipling a group of students, and administering various parts of the program. We have spent a lot of time as a group learning about our strengths and gifts, so we have a good idea of where each person can serve best. We are committed to working as a team because we know we need each other.

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We stayed in a guest house outside the city for a day and a half so we could work on this project without interruptions. As the people and the jobs came together, our garden began to take shape, and we formed the work groups for the coming year. We posted our orchids on the wall of the guest house -- easily removable, like real orchids -- and then carried them back to our campus, where the garden will grace the walls of our PIM office. It was a pretty way to get organized, and we can't wait for the new school year to start in June!

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