1. Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Deacons Assigned to Certain Church Members

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by saturneptune, Jan 17, 2014.

  1. saturneptune

    saturneptune New Member

    Joined:
    Jan 16, 2006
    Messages:
    13,977
    Likes Received:
    2
    Does your church divide their congregation so that each member has a certain deacon to minister to that individual or family for a spiritual need? Is there a reason this was started and how has it worked?

    For those who do not have this policy, is there a reason it was never considered? Thanks for your response.
     
  2. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2006
    Messages:
    52,013
    Likes Received:
    3,649
    Faith:
    Baptist
    I am new here at this church and the deacons have not practiced this but we will be implementing this. It is called the Deacon Family Plan. It divides the church membership up evenly between the deacons. The deacons are required to make at least two personal contacts a month with everyone on their lust to see to their well being and if the church can be of service to them.


    The reason for this that I have found is that there have been times when there were issues in families of the church that the church could have ministered to them but they did not feel comfortable just coming to the church to ask. If the deacons are visiting and checking on them then members often will feel more comfortable talking about it. It also sets up a more intitmate relationship with a deacon that allows trust in personal matters.

    In another church I pastored we had a couple who are retired Namb missionaries who have gotten on up in years. He started to suffer from dementia and she had found it difficult to care for him. The church has no idea how bad it had gotten and their kids were not caring for them properly. She about had a nervous break down, he was finally put in a facility and she had to go stay with a sister in another part of the state for a while to get some rest.

    Once we realized what was going on we went in after they left the home and it was in terrible disrepair and in need of cleaning in a big way. So we went in and cleaned and repaired the home while she was gone. We scrubbed and painted and replaced some of the flooring.

    It should never have gone that far.
     
  3. thisnumbersdisconnected

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2013
    Messages:
    8,448
    Likes Received:
    0
    This has been done at our church for years, and I believe it is an outstanding method of building community within the church. Ours is done very much like Rev's outline in his post. It has been very successful. People know who to contact if, for some reason, they can't reach a pastor outside of church and office hours, and the deacons are very responsive to the needs of those who have been assigned to them.
     
  4. Earth Wind and Fire

    Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Jun 5, 2010
    Messages:
    33,376
    Likes Received:
    1,568
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Wow.... I never see churches do that anymore. Nice to know they are still out there.
     
  5. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Mar 19, 2012
    Messages:
    52,624
    Likes Received:
    2,742
    Faith:
    Baptist
    We have elders and teachers in church involved in "mentoring' programs with teenagers, and many additional situations are handled by cell group ministries!
     
  6. JohnDeereFan

    JohnDeereFan Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Mar 26, 2009
    Messages:
    5,360
    Likes Received:
    134
    Faith:
    Baptist
    That's closer to what we do. Rather than assigning deacons to specific family members, we have "cells" of families and a deacon may be assigned to a given "cell", but primarily, we match young people and new Christians up with older saints and elders for mentoring.
     
  7. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Mar 19, 2012
    Messages:
    52,624
    Likes Received:
    2,742
    Faith:
    Baptist
    About 5 years ago, the Pastors and the Elders made a bigpush to cell groups and ministries, and MUCH of the "ministry: is getting done outside church building!
     
Loading...