Deacons Have Several Responsibilities in the Life of the Church

Deacons have several responsibilities in the life of the church:

1. Attend board meetings as a voting member.
2. Pass out bulletins during the month or Sunday you serve, at one of the entrances to the service. We need 4 deacons to do this each Sunday. You need to show up at 9:50 to do this.
3. Take up the offering – we will also need 4 deacons each Sunday to do this.
4. Assist with communion. This will take 4 to 8 deacons, depending on the time of the year.
5. Rotate cleanup each cycle. This means cleaning out the pews – communion cups, bulletins, inserts and set up communion (except for the grape juice) for the next Sunday.
6. First service diaconates need to pour the grape juice for the first service and then reset up the trays for the second service.
7. Help individuals who need it out of the church after the service.

The First Christian Diaconate Schedule will be in the newsletter each week and if it is your Sunday to serve you will receive a postcard as a reminder. I have volunteered to serve as chair for the year, and since we have a couple of new members I thought I’d write and fill everyone in on deacons’ responsibilities for Sunday mornings. For you experienced deacons, I hope this serves as a “refresher course”.

Here are the responsibilities for all teams:

1. Please let me or your team leader for the week know if you are unable to serve on a particular Sunday. It is your responsibility to find a sub and to let me know who that person is. A list of all the active diaconates will be posted on the board at the church, including the youth.

2. We’ll need people from the team to show up in the narthex at 9:50 to pass out bulletins and join the elders in greeting people. There are children’s bulletins as well, located on the same table as the bulletins.

3. Please check in with your team leader when you arrive. They should be in the narthex at 9:55. If you have a favorite position for communion you can let the team leader know – otherwise they will rotate people so that they can experience the different positions in the church.

1. If you are in charge of set up and clean up for either service the instructions are posted in the communion

kitchen.

5. If you are collecting the offering, you need to be sure that you have the plates before you go up. Four deacons are needed for this. The group will head up to the front of the church during the hymn right before the offering, so you need to show up in the back when that hymn starts. The team will line up in pairs, and will walk up once Greg stands up to receive you. The back pair joins the front pair like so:

Once Greg’s prayers finish, person #2 will need to pick up the offering from the choir, which is stacked at the end of the first choir pew.

Persons 3 & 4 move to the far side of the pews, while 1 & 2 move down the main aisle.

The team leader will be in the back to collect the plates.

6. The team gathers again in the narthex during the hymn of invitation, and lines up behind the two elders, who will start walking forward once Greg stands during the hymn of communion. Follow them up to the sanctuary, then turn and face each other.

Once communion starts, the team forms a horse shoe to receive bread from the elders. Once that is completed, stand in a line to pick up your tray. The diagram on the last page shows where each person stands for communion. People 1 & 2 stay in the sanctuary to give communion to the elders and Greg and the rest of you get into position in the congregation. Once Greg receives communion you can start passing out communion to the congregation. People 1 & 2 need to give communion to all others up in the sanctuary (you do not need to give the organist communion). Since second service is using 4, 6, or 8 diaconates depending on the time of year, I have enclosed the diagrams for all of them.

When you are finished giving out communion, turn and face the back of the church. Your team leader will be back there to give you the okay signal to come on back. She will gather up the trays from you – be sure you get your own juice for communion! Feel free to head back to your seats or you are welcome to stay in the back.

Thanks so much for your willingness to serve in this ministry. If you have any questions, please give me a call at 474-9719 evenings or 742-1602 during the day, or email me at or . If you could please send me your email addresses I will use email as the means to communicate when I am doing the scheduling every 2 months!

Peace,