The Spiritual Nature of the Office of Deacon

Summary

Carl Carlson, a deacon at Amoskeag Presbyterian Church in Manchester, New Hampshire, wrote this 2017 article for Ordained Servant. His case is that the deacon’s duties look temporal but carry spiritual weight: the office arose in Acts 6 to free the apostles for prayer and the Word, and its first holders were chosen for being full of the Spirit and wisdom.

Carlson casts deacons as lead stewards of the congregation, in budget decisions that must serve the church’s gospel mission and in diaconal aid that requires assessing a recipient’s stewardship before funds go out.

Recalling Christ’s healing of the ten lepers, he counsels deacons to expect that many they help will walk away unchanged, and to rejoice when even one returns in faith.

Excerpt

The deacon’s fund can be a powerful tool for good or ill, so cash or other assistance cannot be distributed without taking the time to assess the recipient’s level of stewardship. If the potential recipient of the diaconal aid wastes his gifts, the church rightly expects that he will be denied funds that would merely subsidize his misuse. Wisdom here is essential, and who has it but a deacon who has been instilled with biblical stewardship?

The Spiritual Nature of the Office of Deacon

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