A Proposed Job Description for a Deacon

Summary

A. G. Edwards, a retired OPC pastor, wrote this template job description for Ordained Servant, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s journal for church officers. Grounding the office in Acts 6 and 1 Timothy 3, he insists the deacon derives his office from the apostles rather than the elders, so it is no apprenticeship for eldership, then lays out the work as objectives and goals in two categories: the deacon’s own walk with God and family, and the service duties of his position.

The second half gets concrete, proposing four board officers and six committees (benevolence, building, grounds, janitorial, finance, ushers) with sample duties for each, plus a blank committee roster to fill in.

Useful to a diaconate trying to put its duties on paper or organize its board for the first time.

Excerpt

Within these frames of reference the Deacon is looked on as a man called and equipped by God to be a servant of the Lord in the church, whose gifts and calling are recognized by the congregation through his election, testing and ordination. He is a servant entrusted with the special responsibility of the handling of the temporal affairs of the church, including the administration of temporal relief

A Proposed Job Description for a Deacon

Where to read it

Related readings