XPastor tries to help churches by providing some of the essentials for running a church—items like job descriptions, employment applications, review forms and policies. Below is the 2001 Deacon Policy of Northwest Bible Church of Dallas, Texas.

 Description of Office

As found in Acts 6, Elders delegate specific responsibilities to Deacons. According to 1 Timothy 3:8-10, a Deacon shall have: spiritual maturity, exemplary lives, good reputation, sound judgment, and rule their own houses well. A candidate for Deacon must be a member of this church for at least six months prior to appointment.

Term and Appointment

The term for each Deacon is one year (July 1 to June 30). Annually, each Deacon will be contacted by the leader of the Deacon Development Team to determine their continued interest to serve and re-appointment will be made by the Elder Board. A first year Deacon will participate in the twelve month Deacon Development Program.

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of Deacons are the leadership and involvement in projects and programs that need volunteers for service. Deacons should aspire to be an example of servant leadership. Through this example, the Deacons will encourage others in our Body to experience the joy of serving others.

Meetings

During the one year development period, the Deacons will meet monthly at a Deacon Development Meeting. A leader will be assigned the responsibility of leading the Deacons at the beginning of each fiscal year to provide communications, training and encouragement to the Deacons. There will be training on church policy, church history, and process to the Deacons at their monthly meetings.

Organization

The Deacon’s spiritual nurturing and the coordination of their functional roles will be the responsibility of the Leader of the Deacon Development Team or his designee. He may delegate the supervision of the Deacon’s operational duties to a senior staff member depending on the job function of the Deacon.

The office of Deacons is not a training ground or stepping stone to the office of an Elder.

Suggested Job Functions—The specific role for each Deacon (i.e. missions, finance/administration, discipleship, ushering, etc.) will allow him to work with a designated staff member as assigned by the Senior Pastor. These assignments should be made in accordance with the assignments made to the Core Vision Team in the leadership structure (i.e. all Deacons involved in Equipping ministries would be assigned to specific staff members by the Core Vision team member responsible for the Equipping ministries).

View the original PDF: Deacon Policy