Each Lord's Day pastors throughout the world stand before their congregations and deliver sermons they believe are messages from the Lord. Speaking from experience, the weight of such weekly work is both exhausting and exhilarating. The sheer effort required in researching for and crafting sermons that keep listeners engaged (or at least awake) is enormous. Moreover, the task of preaching the Word is an awesome responsibility that weighs heavily upon the shoulders of most pastors. This issue of the Herald is devoted to them and their task.
But pastors are not the only ones who are challenged to “stand and deliver.” I am thinking particularly of those spiritual leaders called deacons. Almost every Baptist church has them, and almost every Baptist deacon is a deeply devoted Christian who takes the servant role very seriously.
My own pilgrimage in Christ has been aided immeasurably along the way by these caring soldiers of the cross who demonstrated what discipleship looked like in the form of a farmer. Or a factory worker. Or a banker. Or a stay-at-home-mom.
As a child, they encouraged my fledgling faith and challenged me to allow the Spirit within me to do his transformational work. By the witness of their examples, I grew up with a healthy attitude about the church. I never witnessed church conflict spilling onto the floor of a business meeting. And on one occasion when a church member was disciplined when the church withdrew its fellowship and membership, I remember the remorse demonstrated by these spiritual leaders I came to love. The person later repented and was reinstated due largely, I believe, to the genuine love of these leaders even in their disciple.
As a pastor, I came to appreciate the support of these servant-leaders who I knew to be on the “same page” spiritually speaking. They were not promoting a particular agenda and were not caught up in denominational strife. They had the capacity to see kingdom issues for what they were. What mattered to them was not professed theological positions but Christ-like performance. I learned a lot from them.
And, on those occasions when my own resources were depleted and I needed ministry, they were right there beside me offering their strength when mine was gone. They helped me stay focused on our common vision when mine became blurred by my tears. They were partners in ministry in the best sense.
Deacons have enormous capacity for transforming the church in our age into an energetic and joyful force of the faithful. They can lead the church to gently but irresistibly apply the great commission.
Even so, some are confused or discouraged about their mission. Perhaps they agreed to serve as deacons with great expectations and a sense of mission. Later, however, finding their principle tasks to be collecting the offering and distributing the Lord's supper, many settled into half-hearted complacency. People have a tendency to rise to the level or our expectations.
Some deacons in our churches are disillusioned. Some are even asking whether deacons are really needed these days. Anyone can take the offering; and does one have to be ordained to hand out the bread and grape juice? Are the effects of ordination negated the first time an unordained person hands the tray to his neighbor in the pew?
One crisis we face as churches is that we have not challenged our leaders to abandon themselves to the demands of the gospel. We have acted as if discipleship lite is an option. It may be less fulfilling but it's more to our taste for ease.
Modern-day deacons are called upon to demonstrate that the church's priorities are to be defined by our Biblical mission rather than by our personal preferences. Such spiritual leadership is sometimes risky and often wearying. But the times demand a diaconate that will stand and deliver.
Church members need the powerful challenge of dynamic sermons. But they also need to see in the quiet discipline and confident witness of their spiritual leaders examples of what they can become. They need to be encouraged by the humble faith of “ordinary” Christians to believe they, too, can be joyful and obedient Christ-followers.
Pew-sitting Baptists are hungry for sermons that help them understand and apply the good news of Christ in their own lives. But most also need to see the faith fulfilled in the practice of those who dare to live according to the Spirit; who will allow their iron wills to be melted and recast in conformity to the will of the Father.
Pastors rightly need our encouragement and prayerful support. But they are not alone. Deacons are right there with them both in their responsibilities and in their needs.
If either pastors or deacons fail in their tasks the church is in deep trouble. In every age the church is tempted to conform to the cultural norms of the society in which it ministers. As antidote, God has provided spiritual leaders who continue to call the church to its mission of transformation. It is time for men and women who crave to see the church arise in prayer-governed power to lead the way. The church will never march to Zion in power while its leaders are rooted in complacency.
This is the second crisis. Many leaders have settled into their comfort zones. The church is in crisis for deacons who will stand and deliver as spiritual leaders in their churches — alongside their pastors. The sermons they preach will not be recorded on CDs or downloaded on the internet. Their messages are delivered not in thunderous prophetic directives from the pulpit but in selfless deeds and Spirit-induced attitudes that proclaim authentic day-by-day lived-out Christianity.
But too many congregational lay leaders are passionless in their discipleship. They are passionate about their hobbies. They can talk hunting and fishing or cooking and shopping on line. They become passionate if they can't find the remote on Sunday afternoons during the race or the game.
But, where is the spiritual fire? Where is the bone-deep desperation to see the church launch a full-scale attack on the forces of evil; and where is the spiritual discernment that understands that the church's armaments are unique to itself? The fruits of the spirit are our weapons (Eph. 5:9).
Some of us learned it in Sunbeams: “Arise, shine for thy light is come” (Is. 60:1). Time for us all to stand and deliver.