The Testing of Deacons

The deacon is a special office of a servant for which a man must be qualified and approved. Everyone who is a Christian is to be a servant. We are called as Christians to serve one another. But the fact that a man does not serve as a deacon until he is examined, tested, and approved, shows that not everyone who serves is a deacon. A deacon is a servant acting publicly and officially on behalf of the church. The kind of testing which is being spoken of in this verse, is the evaluation by the existing leadership and the congregation, over time, as to the prospective candidate’s character qualifications in action. Is he blameless, is the question? So what I want to do this afternoon is to set before you the process which you as the congregation and I as your pastor, will engage in. What will the process be like which will bring a man into the diaconate? That is what we want to think about this afternoon.