In this sermon, James Lundquist discusses the deacon nomination process within the church, building on previous sessions about the roles and functions of deacons and their qualifications. The church's constitution outlines that the diaconate is responsible for the care of the poor and needy, supporting the elders' ministry without having authority to rule. Deacons must meet scriptural qualifications and maintain a life of holiness. The nomination process involves the elders or congregation nominating candidates, who must be confirmed by a two-thirds majority of voting members. Candidates must be members in good standing for at least a year. The speaker emphasizes the importance of candidates discussing with their wives before accepting a nomination, as the role requires significant commitment and should not conflict with family life. The process is deliberate to ensure candidates are solidly qualified and can serve without being in competition with their family responsibilities. The sermon also stresses that being a deacon is not a stepping stone to becoming an elder, but a dedicated role of service in itself.

Well, this is our third session talking about deacons. The first session was about roles and functions out of Acts chapter 6. The second was out of qualifications. We actually have a lengthy list of what a man must be to serve the church in this way because they serve in potentially sensitive areas. They're going to be having access to people's lives, the most vulnerable people in the church's lives and they need to have wives who can function in that environment.

That's part of the qualifications. And now we're going to just give you some of our thoughts. I'm gonna start and then James is gonna come after me to give you some thoughts about the Deakin nomination process. We wanted to begin just with what our Constitution says about Deacons and the nomination process. So I'm gonna read the whole section on Deacons.

I think it reinforces what we've said so far, so you get a little bit of a reminder of that and then the process for nominations. Our Constitution, deacons. The diaconate will oversee the special care of the poor and needy and other duties as assigned by the elders in support of the elders being devoted to the ministry of the Word, prayer, and shepherding. The Scriptures hold out the office of deacon as a distinct office in the church with a focus of service to the church, especially benevolence, and with no authority to rule. All deacons must meet the qualifications outlined for them in the scriptures.

They and their families must practice the holiness and purity that befits their calling. Here's really the key paragraph on nominating and how that process works. Prospective deacon candidates will be nominated by the elders or the congregation and elected by a two-thirds majority of voting members. So members can nominate anyone they think is fitting for the work, as elders are members. So we can too.

We just function as members in that way. And then it's required of two-thirds of the voting members to approve to launch a deacon into ministry in the church. It's meant to be a high bar. You want really an overwhelming sense, a dominating sense that a man is fit for it. Continuing, their examination and installation will be overseen by the elders.

This office is perpetual. It just means we don't have terms. They serve until they decide they need want a break or something like that. Consistent with the elder selection process, a deacon must be a member in good standing of this local church for a minimum of one year prior to being nominated for the office. The duties of deacon include one, ministering to those within the congregation who are needy, sick, and any who may be in distress, especially widows and orphans, Act Six.

Devising effective methods of collecting the gifts of the people and distributing these gifts for the purposes for which they were contributed, Act 6, engaging in tasks which support the biblical requirements for the elders in their ministry, Act 6, setting an example to other members in matters of spirituality, dedication, and character, 1st Timothy 3. Although deacons may be asked to share in the teaching duties of the church from time to time, the function of the office of deacon is not to teach but to serve the church. We have teaching deacons but it doesn't have to be that way. The deaconate may draw up the budget under the supervision and approval of the elders. All financial matters are subject to elder approval, the office of deacon may be terminated by resignation or the well-considered discretion of the elders.

So that's our constitution. Start to finish on deacons. Now, a few thoughts. One, I'll give you four and then get out of the way and James can fill in my mistakes. One, please don't nominate anyone for consideration until you've listened to and considered all three of these sessions.

So the first two are available online just on our website now, just in the sermons portion on the weeks that we did them. You won't have to go back far to get it. And we'll put this one up right away, though you don't need that because you're here and listening to me now. We just want everyone to think through roles and functions, qualifications, and then our appeals on the nomination process before you would nominate someone. Two, here's a question that I'll ask and answer.

What will happen if you nominate a brother in the church? You'll let an elder know. We'd prefer, I'm going to send out an email probably tomorrow, just soliciting nominations and giving some of this information. The best way is just to reply to that email. We've got in writing your nomination and your thoughts on it and then we'll reach out to those brothers that brother or those brothers to get them thinking about it and to learn about his disposition towards being considered.

So we'll take that nomination and then we'll reach out to whoever you've nominated and just take their temperature, get them thinking about it. This won't be a really quick process. We want the man to think about it, have time to percolate on it for a little bit. We're not gonna give him an aggressive deadline or anything like that. So we're gonna work through this for a period of weeks, maybe months, we'll see.

And so we'll reach out to him to take his temperature on his disposition towards being considered. Third, here's another question. What if I think a brother is qualified, but it probably isn't the right season of life for him. That happens. There are brothers with young marriages, a lot of children, a lot of young children, and it's questionable whether this is the right season of life for him.

I might say he's be the perfect guy to serve our church, but is this the time he should be doing that? I think here's what James and I would say, let him and his wife sort out those issues. If you're convinced that he's solidly qualified and it would be a blessing to his service, it would be a blessing to the church if he if he thought it was right to. The first thing that we say to guys when we take their temperature is you need to go talk with your wife. Have some long discussions with your wife about her view of your qualifications, about her view of your fitness.

The last time, the last thing that we want is for the church to be a sort of girlfriend to our deacons. You know what I mean by that? Like, oh, now you're off to be with your girlfriend again. I thought you were married to me. We don't want any elders wives or deacons wives feeling like the church is in competition with them in ways that are that are harmful.

So that's the first things that we're gonna say to the guys that you nominate is, go talk to your wife. If she thinks it's not the right season of life, just determine that it's probably not the right season of life. You want your wife shoulder to shoulder with you and enthusiastic about you serving the church that way. If you don't feel like you're in that position, then now's just not the time and that's not a problem. But don't screen out guys because you think they might not be in the right season of life.

Let him and his wife engage on that. And don't take him out of the funnel before he's even in the funnel for consideration. Let him go consult with his friends and his elders, but most importantly with his wife. And then they can sort that out. Lastly for me, number four, another question.

What if I nominate someone and elder isn't confident is solidly qualified? So here's what I'm talking about. You nominate someone, but I'm not confident that they're solidly qualified. So I'm picking my words carefully, like solidly qualified. Not questionably, probably qualified.

We honestly don't want elders or deacons that are probably qualified, because there's a lot resting on it. If you do that, that'll be really tricky. Here's why. You're setting that brother up to feel like he's rebuked when the only thing that's happened is an elder isn't confident that he's solidly qualified. The bar's high.

This is a level of Christian maturity that's significant. And if it's just that he might need a little more before his elders would be confident that he's solidly qualified. Let me cut to the chase. We're not serving alongside a man that we're not confident is solidly qualified. We just will refuse to do it.

But if you nominate him, we'll have to talk to him and you'll be forcing conversations that are potentially hard conversations. That's not always bad, by the way. I mean, I think both James and I have benefited in the past from conversations that have actually been driven by nominations. So we won't duck that and it might turn out to be for the best, but just understand, we want you nominating people that you're confident are solidly qualified. So please think about it in those those terms.

That's it for me. Let me start with two items that were not on my original list of things. Just backing up a couple things Jason said. One on nominating men that you're not confident or solid qualified in the tricky and the awkward conversations you would have. Another part of that is his wife.

Maybe it seems like the man's solidly qualified, but you look at what Timothy says about their wives, to look a man in his eyes and tell him, I'm rebuking you for your wife, That would come across that way, that could be hard. So I mean, look at the marriage. Look at the marriage as well. On the benefit of being nominated, so I've gone through two nomination processes. I was a deacon and then an elder, and I benefited tremendously from both of them, not just because I became a deacon and then became an elder, but there were things, especially in the elder qualification, it's the same in the deacon, I just remember that because it's a lot more fresh than 11 years ago for the Deacon, of Jason and at the time two other elders sitting down and saying, hey, because you were nominated, or not nominated, but because the elders are considering you and you've been willing to be considered in the case of eldership, Hey, here are some things we need to talk about, right?

And whether I became an elder or not, that was very beneficial to me. So if you're nominated and we come to you, we'll be as gentle as possible and be and humbly receive that please please humbly pray humbly receive that. All right we talked about qualifications last week Let me tell you what's not your comparison, what's not your qualification. Jim and Josh, great deacons, but they're not your comparison. They're not.

They're great examples. They're marriages. They're great examples, things to look at for how deacons should operate. But ultimately, they're not your comparison. If you go down that road too much, you're going, all right, I don't have a large family.

I don't have a 15-past-year van. All right? All right? You may not have that as beneficial as it can be, right? Hey, I don't work from home.

I don't have the flexibility. Jim has a lot of flexibility. You may not realize Josh didn't have a ton of flexibility in his role, but you may look at them and think that they do. But their roles with large families, that takes up a lot of time. So before, go ahead, put them up on a little bit of a pedestal.

But still, don't think that you have to be that way. And so those aren't qualifications. Those just happen to be two men that are similar in a couple meaningful ways. But that doesn't mean you have to be. I want to reiterate that this is not an elder path, not a career path.

I know Jason talked about it a couple weeks, so I want to say it this way. I was nominated to be a deacon before we had officially created Sovereign Redeemer Community Church. I became a deacon week two of Sovereign Redeemer Community Church with a deacon for six years. During that time, during that time for the first five years, maybe four years, but I'm going to say five years, I think it was two years in the elder process. It was slow on purpose and needed to be.

And we look back at the history of the church, glad it was in so many ways. Let's say at least the first four years, I had zero desire to ever be an elder. I did not become a deacon in order to become an elder. You can talk to Jason about that process. There were some things along the way that I actively pushed back on because that wasn't what I wanted to do.

That wasn't what my love was. So I pushed back on that. I wanted to be a deacon. I wanted to focus on being a deacon and serve the church on being a deacon. When you're talking or you're considering, sorry, when you're considering these men, don't consider, please, do not consider them on how well they can preach or how well they can teach at a father, daughter, or father, son.

So thankful that Josh and Jim can teach at those retreats. That's not what you're considering. That's not. Whether it could be somebody that's never been upfront other than to help lead recitation and prayer and sermon text. That's all they've done.

But behind the scenes, you've seen them operate as a deacon and doing things that are so helpful to the church. I love being a deacon, I love serving you in that way, I love serving the elders in that way. You're nominating somebody that can have that sole focus of what can I do to serve the church? You've seen them that they're going to be trustworthy with so many sensitive matters so many sensitive matters and you would you would see it that way those those were the main things I wanted to bring bring to you is we have great deacons, been blessed to have great deacons all the time here, and they're examples to look at, but they are not the qualifications to look at. Look at scripture.

Their lives are different than your life, whoever you may be that would be nominated. They're different. And that might be great. Don't think of, and don't think of yourself either as complimenting to fill in their weaknesses either, don't they? Oh, this would be great.

They can come in there and fix everything that I think. No, don't think that either. Just look at the pure qualifications. If you find those qualifications and if that's a right man, God's gonna have him right there. It's gonna be a big blessing to all of us.

Somebody that's gonna be focused on this, not looking to the future of what they might be someday. They may be a deacon for the rest of their life. Amen, Fantastic. That would be a blessing if that's what happens. Before you send back, and if you haven't been doing this already, before you reply to the email Jason will send out, please pray.

You, if you're single member, fine. We've got a couple single men head of households that would, their own households that would vote. The vast majority of your married, counsel with your wife on this. And pray together over this. And pray, pray specifically, God reveal who we should, if we should.

If you don't have anybody nominate, we're not going to be taking role of who put in nominations and who didn't, right? It's not a contest. So you can come up with the biggest names, the most names, whether you did or not, right? Who are we to say whether or not God has brought up anybody up in your eyes, right? That's telling if we got none, that would be telling of what you think about whether we have anybody qualified or not as well.

One of my best examples of that is, as an elder, so three years ago went through a phase where I couldn't really do, I had just so much going on, I couldn't do anything. We had three elders at the time, Michael was one. And these guys just completely freed me up from doing anything. Right, and I took two months, it was about two months, because of work and other things that are going on. I just, it's work together, work together.

And thanks to the nature of the order of our church, there aren't a ton of activity things that take that away. There's some times and times of father, daughter, father, son, other things organized, and then there can be some significant things when benevolence needs done and caring, but it does ebb and flow and care for one another. Thank you, Jim. Our God, you have ordered churches, you in your holy wisdom, this is the way to order churches. So we ask that you would give us.

You know, I've prayed for, I've prayed for more deacons and for a while I prayed that God, if it's their time, if it is time, that they would be recognized by the church, and you would raise them up, that they would see this humbly, and that, God, this would be such a blessing to the church and them that this would increase their boldness in the faith. It would be such a help that the well, all of a sudden we would see if one, two, however many men would be in that role that we would be thinking, how did we ever have a deaconate without them? And just see the great blessings that would come and would your church flourish because of that? God, please bless this process. Bless the considerations.

Bless the conversations. They'd be very brotherly, anything that need to happen. Please God, we ask for your blessing on us in this. Thank you for this time. Thank you for this day.

In Jesus' name, amen.