Peter Y. de Jong · Ordained Servant 3 no. 3 (1994): 53-58.
Summary
Peter Y. De Jong, a Christian Reformed minister and seminary professor, opens his mid-century book The Ministry of Mercy for Today with this chapter, which Ordained Servant serialized in 1994. Asking whether the church still needs an organized ministry of mercy, he answers from four trends of his day: the church’s renewed self-examination, a secularization that handed charity over to the state and stripped it of love, the worldwide entanglement of economic problems, and modern man’s preoccupation with his body.
His central claim is that the church holds a priestly as well as a prophetic calling, and preaching alone cannot discharge it. The deacon is Christ’s appointed agency for that priestly work, an office De Jong judges to be in almost total eclipse.
Excerpt
The Holy Spirit does not “create the creators of a new civilization” in a vacuum. They are born into the family of God, the redeemed humanity that knows and loves and seeks to do the will of the Father in all things. This new humanity, which is the spiritual body of which Jesus Christ is Head, must be disciplined by the Word, so that not only the Christian individual but also the collective life of the Christian community reflects the will of God. And to give expression to that life of God-centered and God-glorifying service she is to be guided by the ministers of mercy, the deacons, who according to the Scripture are among her permanent officers.
Browse by Topic · Browse by Author
Feedback, questions, or recommended resources?
More from Tim Hopper: readmachen.com · reformedconfessions.com · ulsterworldly.com
Maintained since 2015 · last updated 2026
Copyright © 2026
Header photo of Second Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina.