Deacons and Mercy Ministry

At Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, we are desirous not only to train gospel ministers and kingdom workers through our degree programs in our primary calling, but also to serve the greater church by providing other helpful resources. To that end, we have started to produce video classes we are calling Applied Theology for the Church.

As one of my pastoral passions has been the subject of mercy ministry, recently RPTS recorded me teaching on this subject. Here is a description of the course:

"Deacons and Mercy Ministry” is a ten lesson course consisting of video lectures between 25-30 minutes long accompanied by PowerPoints and discussion questions. The material can be used to instruct a congregation on the importance of mercy ministry and the diaconate, or in the training of deacons for their work. As the emphasis is on mercy, not all the aspects of the diaconal office are treated in this course.

Some of the special features of this course are: 1) helping congregations see the connection between the worship of the Lord, the God of the widow and orphan, and mercy ministry; 2) seeing the honored role the deacons are to have as servants of mercy in a community; 3) encouraging participants to study and discuss the Biblical ways of equipping the church to have an active mercy ministry that recognizes the congregation’s gifts and limitations; 4) learning to become more knowledgeable of and active in mercy ministries that already exist in the area; 5) growing in the wisdom necessary to engage with love and confidence the poor and needy as well as the stubborn and foolish; and 6) developing plans for how your congregation will meet the needs in your particular community.

We are making these courses available for purchase through our Pathwright website. For the Deacons and Mercy Ministry course, just click the link.