What's More Important | This Christian Life

October 04, 2003

What’s More Important

Category: Church

As the chair of deacons at my church I have been meditating on my role as leader. Some days it can be easy and even fun, but some days the magnitude and responsibility of the task of leading the church as a deacon is overwhelming.

Lately, I’ve been struggling over what my MAIN role should be. Should I mainly concetrate on cultivating the spiritual life of the deacons (and therefore the congregants), or should I be leading people down the path of a primarily financial focus? Does one become a subset of the other? If we are spiritually focused, will the financial part automatically come into focus as well?

Posted by pablohart on October 04, 2003 10:44 AM

Comments

A portion of scripture comes to mind. Romans 12:4-8: "4Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5so it is with Christ's body. We are all parts of his one body, and each of us has different work to do. And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others.
6God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out when you have faith that God is speaking through you. 7If your gift is that of serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, do a good job of teaching. 8If your gift is to encourage others, do it! If you have money, share it generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly."

In otherwords, I think that you should seek balance. If your strength is spiritual leadership then try and excel at that, but as the overall leader, try and make sure that the other bases are covered.

As to whether or not the financial will come into focus by focusing on the spiritual, as long and your church has been faithful in listening to God in regards to whom to ask to serve as a deacon, then God should have a pretty balanced mix on your board. If that's the case, then the pieces are in place, and by strengthening them spiritually you'll be strengthening them overall.

Posted by Jamison Stepan at October 4, 2003 8:41 PM

Oh, how I wish I had visited this site last week before our deacons meeting!
I have struggled recently myself over my role as vice-chair of deacons. Thank you JS for your gracious words.

Posted by kgr at January 21, 2004 11:15 PM

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