Service Needs a Tested Life

A church can reach the end of a meeting with one question still controlling the room: Who will do it?

Someone must organize the food deliveries. Someone must handle the assistance requests, count the offering, or visit a household carrying a difficult burden. The need is real. An available person can look like an answer to prayer before anyone asks what kind of trust the responsibility requires.

Consider this imagined situation, not a biblical event. A willing volunteer offers to manage a relief fund. Everyone appreciates the offer. Yet previous helpers have noticed inconsistent explanations about receipts and a habit of repeating personal stories from people receiving help. The church needs the vacancy filled.

It also needs to face the warning signs. Gratitude for availability cannot answer a question about character. First Timothy 3:8-13 addresses people entrusted with service in God's household. The title deacon comes from the language of service represented here by the WEB word servants. Paul takes this work seriously enough to name qualifications and require testing. Practical service belongs to the church's faithful life. It is worthy work in its own right, not a consolation assignment for people who do not preach.

Those entrusted with service must unite trustworthy conduct with sincere faith. We should hear that as a summons to patient preparation and accountable service, including for those already appointed. We should also hear it with hope. Christ does not require us to manufacture a spotless past before coming to him. He saves sinners and forms truthful people who can receive correction. Office and salvation are different questions.

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