Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - July/53

Contributor - Peter De Jong

Title - The Duties Of A Deacon

Topic - Deacons

The church of Jesus Christ is repeatedly called the "body of Christ" in the Word of God. It is the place of His habitation. It is the instrument through which He expresses Himself and exerts His influence in the world.

Jesus Christ, the Head and Ruler of the Church, stands in a threefold relation to His Church. He is her "Chief Prophet", her "only High Priest", and her "Eternal King". He discharges the duties of these offices in His Church to some extent directly through the operation of His Word and Spirit, and to some extent indirectly through some of the members of His body. He is pleased to discharge some of the duties of His prophetic office, namely those of teaching the members of His body, in part through the ministers of the Word, generally regarded as the teaching elders. He is pleased to discharge the duties of His kingly office in part through the elders, that is, the ruling elders. And it is His pleasure to discharge some of the duties of His priestly office through the deacons. Through them, as we learn from the sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, He expresses His mercy and compassion to those in misery and through them primarily He is pleased to regulate the physical and temporal affairs of His Church.

The office of the deacon is often regarded by many as one of secondary importance. This is a serious mistake. When we consider the nature of the office as described above we find that it is a very important and exalted office as well as any other in the Church.

The deacon has very important duties to discharge as appears from the passage of Scripture in which the institution of the office is recorded, namely, Acts 6. It is his duty first of all to minister to those in physical need, as is very evident from the passage referred to above. The compassion of Christ constrained Him to minister to such. The deacon, the member of the body of Christ through whom Christ is pleased to express His merciful compassion, must do the same. In order to do this task faithfully and efficiently he must give careful consideration to circumstances in which the less favored members find themselves; and where real need is found to exist, he must seek to meet those needs with the means at hand and always in a tender, sympathetic, Christ-like spirit. But the deacon's task is not fully discharged when he has ministered to the needs of those who are "of the household of faith". Jesus Christ ministered to those who were not of the "house of Israel". Those who represent Him must of course do the same. And so, when there are needy folks in the community who are not members of a Christian congregation, the deacon must seize the opportunity to minister to their physical needs and thus manifest and demonstrate the compassion of Christ to them. Such action no doubt would be a very strong testimony concerning the compassion of Christ and attract such people to the church. The deacon in the discharge of his duty perhaps would act wisely if he would seek to prevent privation, whenever that would be possible, as well as seeking to relieve it.

Since Jesus Christ manifested mercy to those who were sick and suffering, and to those who sorrowed, it is the duty of the deacon, the minister of Christ's mercy, to do the same. He must visit the sick and suffering and thus manifest Christ's interest in them. And if the sick and suffering need treatment which they cannot afford, then it is the duty of the deacon as Christ's representative to see to it that the means for such treatment are provided. From this it follows that the deacon should ever be the champion of all institutions and causes of Christian mercy.

And where the heart of Christ was ever deeply moved with compassion upon those still dwelling in darkness and languishing in the bondage of sin, the deacon must also have a deep interest in such, be touched by their plight, and do what he can in order that the knowledge of God's redeeming grace in Jesus be imparted to them. To this end deacons are charged in our liturgy to "give particular attention and care to all the benevolences of the church, to the end that they may be constantly and liberally maintained."

From the sixth chapter of the Acts we further learn that it is the duty of the deacon to look after the physical and temporal affairs of the body of Christ and to administer the physical resources of that "body". The deacons were appointed in the church at Jerusalem to look after the temporal matters of the group so that the apostles could continue to give their time and effort to the spiritual affairs of the church. It is for this reason that the liturgy charges the deacons to "give themselves faithfully and prudently to the temporal affairs of the church, to the providing of its ministry, the maintaining of its services, and the care of its property and of every financial interest of the congregation."

It therefore is the special responsibility of the deacon to look after the physical and temporal matters pertaining to the church and her program. It is his business to see to it that the means are at hand to minister to those in physical distress and need. He must see to it that funds are raised and at hand for the maintenance of the program of the congregation. He must see to it that means are available for the maintenance and extension of the Kingdom. And this does not mean only that he is to receive the offerings of the congregation on the Lord's then take care of and distribute what has been He is to do that, of course. But that is not all of assigned to him. It means that if not enough is in the offerings to meet the needs of the church, put forth efforts to secure the necessary funds. He must then go to those members of the congregation who are not supporting the work of the church according to the principles laid down in the Word of God and try to persuade them to support the program of the church "as God hath prospered them", so that the needs of the church and her program will be met. And if there are members who do not share the resources under their control with the church according to the principles laid down in the Word of God and thus do not conduct themselves as becomes Christians, then it seems that it is the duty of the deacon to report such delinquency to the ruling members of the church, the elders' in order that they may deal with them according to the authority entrusted to them. In order that the deacon may be able to deal effectively with his delinquent brothers or sisters, he must first of all himself, in the words of our liturgy, ",show liberality" and support the Lord's work "as the Lord hath prospered him." And certainly the proportion given should not be less than the Scriptural minimum, the tithe. Surely he cannot ask others to do what he him is not doing.

Since it is the special responsibility of the deacon to look after the temporal matters pertaining to the church and her program, it is also his duty to seek to know the needs of the church. The deacon must carefully evaluate the appeals that come to him from the various departments of the work of the Kingdom. Surely he should be present at such meetings where information concerning the needs of the Kingdom are imparted, e.g., the annual area conferences where the needs of the various parts of the work of the denomination are presented and discussed. If he fails to do this, he certainly is not able to do the work with which he has been charged as intelligently as he should. Such, in brief, are the duties of the deacon, according to the Word of God and the liturgy of the Reformed Church.

From all this it is evident that the office of the deacon is an exalted and noble one, and that the faithful discharge of the duties of the office requires that the deacon needs to be a man of noble, Christ-like character, with outstanding administrative abilities, entirely trustworthy, deeply devoted to Christ and His cause, and endowed with sound judgment, a generous amount of genuine Christian courage and a rich measure of the Holy Spirit.

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