It's a great time to be a deacon! I've blogged before about the denominational task force that has begun to take a look at the office of deacon. It's gearing up, and it's gathering names of people who will be its "advisors". More important, the task force is setting up a survey to gather wisdom from a wide variety of sources and people. I love that they are taking pains to spread their net widely - opening up opportunities for a broad and inclusive dialog.
You who are deacons, you have inside knowledge of the feelings, the challenges, the burdens and the opportunities - you need to weigh in and share your wisdom, share your stories, share your questions. Now is the time to help the task force set a good solid foundation for its work, and that means helping it to have the broadest possible perspective to start with.
Let's not be hesitant to open up any and all questions about the office, role, position of deacon. What is the KINGDOM perspective, the biblical perspective, the catholic (small c) perspective? What's the historical perspective? What's the congregational perspective? What's the future perspective?
I think it's a great moment to reflect and to reflect TOGETHER, to offer this task force the challenge of a hundred pieces of advice, 100 questions, 100 stories - at least!
Could your church deacons spend an hour coming up with something you think would be helpful to the task force? Could your classis share some wisdom from its own experience with deaconal committees, projects, staff, delegates? Have you got a story to tell? a book to recommend? a question to ask?
Want to foment a revolution?
I urge and invite the task force to use this space to keep us informed and to enter vibrant dialog with the deacons across the denomination. I urge and invite YOU to use this space to get into the dialog!
Let's Discuss
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