Telling Our Story: Diaconal Committee
Please note that this blog post was shared in 2020. The rosters of the committees have (likely) changed since this was published, but the goals of each committee remain!
On Sunday, October 25th, City Church members will vote to elect two new deacons. We go through this process as a church every few years, and when we do, members of the staff and leadership invariably get asked: “What is a deacon, anyway?”
It’s an important question and one that brings with it perhaps even more significance now considering our new approach to leadership. As Erik shared in September, City Church adopted a leadership structure in 2019: five Leadership Committees that work alongside the Session to do the work of the church. One of our Leadership Committees is the Diaconal Committee, a committee that takes its name and purpose from the deacons the church, also known as City Church’s “diaconate.”
But before we get to the Diaconal Committee, let’s back up a bit and address two key questions: “What is a deacon, anyway?” and “How does someone become a Deacon?”
“What Is a Deacon, Anyway?”
The office of deacon is one of “sympathy and service, after the example of Lord Jesus,” so says the PCA’s Book of Church Order. For more on this role, we can look to Acts 6:1-7:
1 Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. 2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.
7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
As David Boyce, City Church Deacon and chair of the Diaconal Committee points out, verse two is “where the deacons come in…deacons serve the physical needs of the church in the name of Jesus so His name may be fully proclaimed. Deacons exist to minister to those in need including, but not limited to, the sick, friendless, and those in distress.”
For the City Church deacons, “serving the physical needs of the church” plays practically out in a few different ways.
As Boyce points out, “A great example of this ministry at City Church is the deacon's role in administering the mercy fund, a fund used to meet the physical and monetary needs of both our church and the greater community.”
The diaconate also has a key role in managing the church’s overall finances; Eric Morgan is the deacon currently serving at City Church’s treasurer and helps manage our budget process any decisions pertinent to the financial health of the church.
Additionally, the deacons oversee mercy and justice efforts and often take on the “grunt work” of making worship and events happen—those folks you see setting up, breaking down, and cleaning up after an event are usually deacons themselves or have been recruited by the deacons to help out.
Currently our deacons are David Boyce (chair of the diaconate), Alex Brito, Barrett Clark, Eric Morgan, Carter Neal, and David Perks.
How Does Someone Become a Deacon?
Carter Neal, a City Church deacon and member of the Diaconal Committee, offers this helpful explanation: “Deacons are nominated by a member of the church. If they accept the nomination, they undergo leadership training. After leadership training, they are tested and approved by the Session. If approved by the Session to serve, they are then elected to the position by the congregation.”
As Erik explained last month, “In the PCA both elder and deacon positions are limited to men. This limitation is based on the Bible’s teaching on the roles of church leadership, particularly through passages like 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. There is no set number of elders or deacons required for a church. The number of elders and deacons is determined by the congregation and depends on who demonstrates the character, competency, and calling to serve.”
As you’ll see during our October 25th congregational meeting, communing City Church members vote for deacons via secret ballot. Once elected by the congregation, deacons are ordained and installed during a worship service. During their ordination and installation, they take vows by answering the following questions in the affirmative:
Do you believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as originally given, to be the inerrant Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice?
Do you sincerely receive and adopt the Confession of Faith and Catechisms of this Church, as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures; and do you further promise that if at any time you find yourself out of accord with any of the fundamentals of this system of doctrine, you will, on your own initiative, make known to your Session the change which has taken place in your views since the assumption of this ordination vow?
Do you approve of the form of government and discipline of the Presbyterian Church in America, in conformity with the general principles of biblical polity?
Do you accept the office of Deacon in this church, and promise faithfully to perform all the duties thereof, and to endeavor by the grace of God to adorn the profession of the Gospel in your life, and to set a worthy example before the Church of which God has made you an officer?
Do you promise subjection to your brethren in the Lord?
Do you promise to strive for the purity, peace, unity and edification of the Church?
But the ordination and installation of the deacons doesn’t stop there; members are also asked to take a vow in response. It states:
Do you, the members of this church, acknowledge and receive these brothers as deacons, and do you promise to yield them all that honor, encouragement and obedience in the Lord to which their office, according to the Word of God and the Constitution of this Church, entitles them?
These vows show us that the office of deacon is one of relationships within the church body—a solemn, mutual commitment to that body, to its work, and to its care.
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Diaconal Assistants & City Church’s Diaconal Committee
While the deacons oversee meeting the physical needs of the church—whether that means the building or the body—they aren’t left to do this work alone. At City Church, the deacons are supported by diaconal assistants.
The role of diaconal assistant isn’t something City Church just made up; it’s laid out, again, in the PCA’s Book of Church Order. Of diaconal assistants it says, “It is often expedient that the Session of a church should select and appoint godly men and women of the congregation to assist the deacons in caring for the sick, the widows, the orphans, the prisoners, and others who may be in any distress or need.”
Diaconal assistants are men and women who are appointed and approved by the Session—they aren’t officers of the church, but they are essential in helping the deacons serve the church. As Neal points out, “A good example of this is the Welcome Team which is currently led by a diaconal assistant: Sarah Johnson.”
Our current diaconal assistants are: Susie Austin, Stephen Day (now a deacon candidate), Sarah Johnson, and Julie Pence.
And many of our diaconal assistants also serve on the Diaconal Committee—yes, we’ve finally made it to that!
When our five Leadership Committees were formed, each was tasked with writing its own mandate, with articulating its purpose. As you’ll see, the purpose of the Diaconal Committee is intertwined with the calling of our deacons. It states:
“The Diaconal Committee attends to the tangible needs of the church and community, and cultivates a spirit of generosity and welcome.”
The Diaconal Committee works towards this purpose with the help of a few different ministry teams that help them more directly carry out its work: the diaconate (our group of deacons), the facilities team, the mercy & justice team, and the mercy fund team.
The events of 2020 have presented the deacons, the Diaconal Committee, and their related ministry teams the opportunity to lean into the Committee’s purpose. From a practical standpoint, the Diaconal Committee is looking forward to responding directly to the needs created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Over the next few months, the Diaconal Committee hopes to assist those who are experiencing the effects from COVID-19,” explains Neal. “Whether that is direct illness or indirect, such as job or housing loss. We also hope to assist the church and area ministries in COVID appropriate outreach events.”
But their goals also run deeper and tap into that desire to cultivate a spirit of generosity and welcome among the City Church family—all of it, not just those in leadership.
“The Diaconal Committee's current and primary goal over the next few months is to identify and provide service opportunities to all individuals at City Church,” says Boyce. “In other words, we are working to identify those individuals that are willing to serve and put them in a position to exercise their God-given talents in service of others and Christ. Over the last seven months, we have observed many needs within and without the church. Our desire is to meet those needs, but we cannot and do not want to leave that work exclusively to the deacons. The Diaconal Committee must find ways to provide City Church the opportunity to work alongside the deacons and diaconal assistants, all while pointing each other to salvation and restoration found only in Jesus Christ.”
For more on the Diaconal Committee, please feel free to contact David Boyce (chair) at davidboyce11@gmail.com and/or Carter Neal nealwc@gmail.com. And remember: we will vote on two deacon candidates—Stephen Day and Seth Huffman—at our Congregational Meeting on Sunday, October 25th, immediately after the service.)