A short while ago, I spoke about how we function in terms of the regularity and content of our elders’ meetings (TL;DR: weekly, organised by two halves (1) people; (2) practicalities). But what about the deacons? How often do they meet and what is the content of their meetings?

As I said in that previous post:

there is no right or wrong model here. Some go for monthly elders meetings. Others have weekly ones but rotate what they focus on each week. Others still have a set format. Some even choose to link their elders and trustees meetings and don’t meet that regularly at all. These are not questions of rights and wrongs. Just pragmatic means of fulfilling some of our eldership duties together. A lot is going to focus on the particular personalities of your particular elders, when they are free, the nature of your context and whatever you might need to discuss together.

The same is basically true of your deacons meetings. We are not in the world of biblical mandates here, we are talking about pragmatically doing what best helps your deacons to fulfil their duties. So, how often should they meet?

For us, the answer is pretty straightforward: by and large, they don’t. The way our church is organised, we have elders and we have deacons. Elders are responsible for oversight of the church whilst deacons tend to be responsible for a particular area of ministry in support, and under the oversight, of the elders. Which means, in the ordinary run of things, deacons don’t meet at all but are individually responsible for overseeing their particular area of ministry (safeguarding, treasury, children’s work, etc, etc).

That doesn’t mean there are no meetings at all for the deacons to attend. Instead of having their own meeting, once every three months – in conjunction with and typically just before our quarterly members’ meetings – we have a meeting of all the elders and deacons together. This is partly so the elders can share their plans, get feedback from the deacons about how their respective areas might be affected and get input on best ways forward. It is also so the elders can hear about how different ministry areas within the church are going and where we can collectively address any related issues. It is further so that outstanding diaconal issues – that might have no specific deacon overseeing it – might be met by the deacons somehow.

So, for instance, we will always have an update in that meeting on the state of our finances. We will usually have something about how we might then want to spend our money (or if we are in a position to spend any money at all!) We usually have an update on the state of the building where we raise any issues that might need addressing and warrant money spent on them. If there are questions or ideas we are going to put to the church members, this is usually our first point of discussion (after the elders’ meeting), not least given the deacons are often the ones who will have to implement whatever it is we are hoping the church might agree upon.

As it goes, the majority of the agenda for the meeting between the elders and deacons then becomes our de facto agenda for our upcoming church meeting. We may make a few changes – there might be the odd item that isn’t worth bringing up to the members – but by and large, what we discuss in the elders and deacons meeting tends to form the basis of what we then take into the members meeting for the whole membership to discuss.

So, deacons don’t really have their own special meeting. They have their particular areas of responsibility to oversee under the oversight of the elders. There is a quarterly meeting between the elders and deacons for updates and directional support which then forms the essence of what we discuss with the church members.