Promoting Happy Pastors

Tim Hopper, a deacon and the maintainer of this site, wrote this article for Ordained Servant in 2022. Starting from R.C. Reed’s remark that a good deacon is the pastor’s most valuable ally, it offers fifteen ways deacons can lighten their pastor’s load and make his calling a joy.

The counsel runs from knowing the flock personally and befriending the pastor to guarding the tongue, anticipating needs, and praying for him, with Scripture attached to each point. Hopper also draws on John Lorimer’s 1842 work on the deaconship for the character such service requires.