BEHIND THE SCENES HEROES: DEACONS
It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.
(Acts 6.2)
The word “serve” in that verse is diakoneo – the same root as the word “deacon”, so many see in Acts 6 the birth of the office of deacon. Jesus was crucified and rose again during the Passover feast when Jews from all over the empire had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Many who responded a few weeks later to Peter’s preaching about Jesus were pilgrims who stayed to learn more about Christ and so they had to be fed and have places to stay.
The apostles realized that they couldn’t do anything, so they told the congregation to select good men who could handle these physical affairs and “serve” (diakoneo) so that the apostles could stay focused on teaching the truth.
It is difficult to minister to souls without in some sense caring about physical things connected to that ministry. In that first church in Jerusalem people had to be fed. Today deacons have to care about property, buildings, and finances.
Anytime a property issue arises, our deacons handle it. For example, the electric company and the contractor building the homes across the street recently called and asked about putting a telephone pole up on our property to run electrical lines to the new homes. I forwarded that to the deacons.
Care of the property includes oversight of landscaping and mowing, snow removal, maintenance of parking lots (gravel, paving, signing, painting), sidewalks, and ramps, external lighting, removal of dead trees, and dealing with water and sewer issues, and maintenance of playground equipment. Sometimes this involves interaction with neighbors, with local government, and even with local and state police.
Care of our buildings requires attention to the care and maintenance of floors and carpets, roofs, walls and ceilings, windows and doors, lighting, locks and security cameras, boilers and air conditioners, kitchen appliances, water fountains, toilets and sinks and urinals, trash removal, computers and phones, internet connections and wi-fi, sound and video systems, tables and chairs and nursery equipment – and I’m sure there are tons of smaller things that I’m overlooking. Deacons handle all of these things.
Of course, it takes money to purchase everything that it takes to keep a church running, and the deacons oversee finances as well. They oversee the collecting and counting of offerings (both envelopes and online) and the bank deposits. They also oversee a lot of the bookkeeping. The deacons also attend to property insurance and liability issues (and trust me, that’s a mouthful) for anything that we take on as a church.
As our church has grown and responsibilities have grown more complex, the Lord has provided us with exceptionally competent people who handle all of these things on a volunteer basis. Without our deacons things would be shabby and inefficient.
I’m guessing I missed a good bit of the things that they do behind the scenes, but I wanted to give a shout-out to some of our unsung heroes – our deacons!
Chip Conrad Matt Gardner Mike Knott
Dave Day, Jr. Dave Guy Kevin Peroni
Steve Fegan Josh Huber Bryan Spieth
Ben Galaska Steve Hutt
(Acts 6.2)
The word “serve” in that verse is diakoneo – the same root as the word “deacon”, so many see in Acts 6 the birth of the office of deacon. Jesus was crucified and rose again during the Passover feast when Jews from all over the empire had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Many who responded a few weeks later to Peter’s preaching about Jesus were pilgrims who stayed to learn more about Christ and so they had to be fed and have places to stay.
The apostles realized that they couldn’t do anything, so they told the congregation to select good men who could handle these physical affairs and “serve” (diakoneo) so that the apostles could stay focused on teaching the truth.
It is difficult to minister to souls without in some sense caring about physical things connected to that ministry. In that first church in Jerusalem people had to be fed. Today deacons have to care about property, buildings, and finances.
Anytime a property issue arises, our deacons handle it. For example, the electric company and the contractor building the homes across the street recently called and asked about putting a telephone pole up on our property to run electrical lines to the new homes. I forwarded that to the deacons.
Care of the property includes oversight of landscaping and mowing, snow removal, maintenance of parking lots (gravel, paving, signing, painting), sidewalks, and ramps, external lighting, removal of dead trees, and dealing with water and sewer issues, and maintenance of playground equipment. Sometimes this involves interaction with neighbors, with local government, and even with local and state police.
Care of our buildings requires attention to the care and maintenance of floors and carpets, roofs, walls and ceilings, windows and doors, lighting, locks and security cameras, boilers and air conditioners, kitchen appliances, water fountains, toilets and sinks and urinals, trash removal, computers and phones, internet connections and wi-fi, sound and video systems, tables and chairs and nursery equipment – and I’m sure there are tons of smaller things that I’m overlooking. Deacons handle all of these things.
Of course, it takes money to purchase everything that it takes to keep a church running, and the deacons oversee finances as well. They oversee the collecting and counting of offerings (both envelopes and online) and the bank deposits. They also oversee a lot of the bookkeeping. The deacons also attend to property insurance and liability issues (and trust me, that’s a mouthful) for anything that we take on as a church.
As our church has grown and responsibilities have grown more complex, the Lord has provided us with exceptionally competent people who handle all of these things on a volunteer basis. Without our deacons things would be shabby and inefficient.
I’m guessing I missed a good bit of the things that they do behind the scenes, but I wanted to give a shout-out to some of our unsung heroes – our deacons!
Chip Conrad Matt Gardner Mike Knott
Dave Day, Jr. Dave Guy Kevin Peroni
Steve Fegan Josh Huber Bryan Spieth
Ben Galaska Steve Hutt