My Journey to Find Deacons who CARE tagged: ,

My Journey to Find Deacons who CARE

Posted by in Church & Missions

Once a month following the Sunday evening worship service, the deacons and the pastor would gather in the senior adult Sunday School classroom for their regularly scheduled meeting.  There would be the usual small talk about how the Cowboys were doing and whether or not Jerry Jones deserved to own the team.  As soon as everyone was gathered, the chairman would call the meeting to order by calling on one of the men to lead in a prayer.  The meeting’s agenda was almost always concerned with how the church was doing—finances, new people, building upkeep, problems.  The pastor would be given a chance to share some ideas most of which would never see the light of day.  There would be a closing prayer and nothing ever really significant happened.

In a previous church I waded through these waters religiously for a little more than three years before deciding that our deacons could accomplish so much more.

Exodus 18 describes Moses judging the people from morning until evening.  Needed correction comes in the voice of Jethro who suggests a better way.  “You will surely wear out, both yourself and these people who are with you, for the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone” (Ex. 18:18).  Jethro suggests that Moses, “select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain, and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens” (Ex. 18:21).  The goal would be that these men would, “bear the burden” along with Moses.  They would do the task of Moses, only in smaller groups.

This passage revealed a new possibility for me in the way that deacons could serve the church.  And though the previous church didn’t see the vision completely fulfilled, they made a good start that I have continued into my present church assignment.

The initial idea was to simply assign each deacon an equal number of families that they were then to provide care for.  That idea morphed into the deacons selecting their own families sort of like a draft.  Our current practice has worked the best for us though and is the result of more than eight years of practicing.

Let me quickly outline what we expect from a deacon at Cornerstone.  We begin with a fairly lengthy questionnaire that a potential deacon completes answering a broad range of questions having to do with our unique church philosophies as well as the basic biblical requirements.  The current deacons interview the potential deacons to determine their ability, their qualification, their desire, and their calling to serve our church in this capacity.  Deacons at Cornerstone serve a three year term and then must take a one year break before potentially coming back on board.  This helps to prevent burnout as well as the potential for the deacons to become a center of administrative power within the church.

A deacon at Cornerstone has four primary tasks that are carried relationally among the families that they serve.

1. Chaplains:  They are encouraged to provide pastoral care for their families doing the things that a pastor/chaplain would do.

2. Accountability Partners:  They are encouraged to know their families well enough in order to be able to provide direction and guidance.  If a family drops out the deacon should be one of the first to know.

3. Resource Providers:  Acts 2 describes a church where needs were actually met.  We ask our deacons to discover the needs of their families and to provide leadership in meeting those needs.

4. Encouragers:  Fights tend to break out when morale is low.  Our deacons are tasked with catching their families doing something right and cheering them on.  They are the guardians of our unity.

The purpose of this Deacon CARE is to build strength and unity within our church by providing intentional and relational pastoral assistance.

The problem that developed as our church grew was that we were having to assign too many families to each deacon.  We consequently lowered the bar in deacon selection in order to have more deacons and fewer families for each deacon.  That decision led to some disastrous consequences.  We now have fewer deacons serving but we are exponentially more effective having discovered a better way.

Towards the end of this month our pastors and deacons will go on a retreat to the mountains during which time we will begin putting together our CARE groups for the coming year.  Our first task will be for each deacon to list 8-9 people that they are already in relationship with and to whom they have some influence.  We then enter into a prayerful discussion that results in names being removed from the list, names being moved from one list to another, and sometimes new names being added until each deacon has a list of individuals that they are in pretty strong relationship with.  The process includes evaluating leadership ability, agreement with church philosophy, tenure, maturity, and service gifts.  Following the retreat each of these individuals is interviewed/recruited by their deacon.  Those agreeing to serve become what we call a CARE Leader.  They serve under the direction of their deacon and receive training, counsel, and accountability through their deacon.

Each of these CARE Leaders then lists 4-5 people that they are already in relationship with.  Again, some changing in the lists must occur but the result is about 80% of our membership being included.  We are simply recognizing the relationships that already exist and using those relationships as a channel for pastoral care.  Each of these CARE Leaders provides the CARE that was outlined previously to the 4-5 families that they have selected.  The other 20% are cared for by the pastors as we continually seek to engage them in relationship with others.

By the way, our Saturday morning deacon meetings are filled with prayer.  We discuss the problems that our families are having and prayerfully seek to discover solutions.  Tears are not unusual as we really believe that we are called to carry the burdens of the sheep that God has given to us.  It’s not unusual for me to arrive at the hospital following some mishap only to discover several of our folks already their providing pastoral care.  I’ve seen our deacons and our CARE Leaders sacrifice much in order to take care of the needs of their friends to whom they’re providing CARE.  It’s a good system and it just might work in your church too.