Deaconal Power Lines

 OK, I got that purple Gothic prose thing off my mind last week, so now we can get back to normal. (I wonder – is life in the Kingdom ever supposed to feel “normal”?)
 

Here’s what I’ve been wondering about – could it be that human relationships are the power lines along which the Holy Spirit’s power most often runs? When God wants to bring about change in lives, does he most often use relationships?   Does the gospel most often get communicated within human relationships? Does Spirit-life typically get demonstrated and experienced in human relationships? 
 

What if the most important thing a deacon could do to facilitate CHANGE would be to build a couple of really good relationships with members of the congregation? What if the purpose of the relationship was to discover together how to live a more Christ-like life, a life more marked by grace, and sensitivity to needs, and better use of gifts, and increased generosity? 
 

Just suppose that each such diaconal relationship had a purpose of fostering one additional new relationship beyond the membership. And suppose that these new relationships were aimed at discovering gifts, and discovering new ways to use gifts to help others discover their gifts and bring them to bear on blessing others…..
 

Would this be just another additional “busyness”?   Somehow it seems so organic and so communal and so natural….   It could bring life to what otherwise might be just routine “deaconing”. And it seems so consistent with how things ought to work in the Body….  
 

What do you think?