when/how are org-mode settings loaded

[Julius Dittmar <Julius.Dittmar@gmx.de>]

Hi,

I'm an emacs-newbe, so please bear with me. I must be doing something
wrong and I have no idea where to look.

If my emacs-starting sequence is

1. call emacs with no arguments (and a config file adding various
org-mode settings)
2. launch org-mode agenda once
3. open a file with .org suffix

then highlighting and keybindings for that file are as I expect them and
in sync with the org-mode settings in the config file.

If I omit step 2, then highlighting in the file does not work.

Even if I then call agenda and later, either by choosing an agenda item
or directly, go back to that file buffer, highlighting still does not
work there.

Any pointers as to what might cause such behaviour? Or perhaps a faster
work-around than generating the whole (over-full) agenda?

Thanks in advance,

Julius

PS: GNU Emacs 24.3.1, org-mode release_9.1.6-159-g8554aa9