Principles for the Ministry of Mercy

Summary

The OP Uganda Mission adopted these forty numbered principles for mercy ministry in 2015, and the OPC’s Committee on Diaconal Ministries distributes them with a compilation of supporting texts from Scripture, the Westminster Standards, and the OPC Book of Church Order. The principles run from a working definition of poverty through the place of work and the duties of the saints to twenty-two rules for boards of deacons.

Those diaconal rules get specific: disbursement decisions require a plurality of deacons, distributions ordinarily should not be cash, requests far removed from basic needs should lean toward interest-free loans, and recurring support ordinarily belongs only to widows, orphans, and the incapacitated. Deacons are also told to work ahead of requests by building networks of local employers and relief resources and by addressing causes of poverty near the congregation.

Excerpt

Following the example of our Savior, who though He was rich, yet for our sake He became poor, so that we by His poverty might become rich, it is the duty of all saintsto be hospitable and to come to the aid of one another in material things, according totheir various abilities and necessities.

Excerpt

The deacons should encourage members of the church to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share in order to provide for those in want, especially those in the household of faith, such provision to include not only monetary gifts or tangible gifts in kind (i.e., food, clothing, and shelter), but also an appropriate ordering of their affairs so as to be able to volunteer their time and skills to bless and assist those in wan

Principles for the Ministry of Mercy

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