John McClintic was recommended on January 5th as a Deacon Candidate. On January 26th during our next Members Meeting, church members will vote. The following is his testimony explaining how and why he feels called to be a deacon.
I thank my God for his immeasurable kindness and grace towards me. In his infinite wisdom he chose my parents, who faithfully modeled and taught me how to follow Jesus. As they taught me God’s Word, the Spirit convicted me that I stood condemned as a sinner before a just and holy God, and that only through Jesus’ death on the cross in my place could my sins be forgiven, and that only through his resurrection from the dead could I have life in him. So I called on the Lord and he answered me. He forgave all of my sins, filled me with his Spirit, and adopted me as his child.
It has been my greatest joy in life to know and follow Christ. He has shown me remarkable patience and grace, teaching me to put my sins to death and growing in me a love for his Word and his Church. And I praise God for the way he has used you, the members here at Church on Mill, to bless Rebecca and myself. When I moved here and had no friends or family within 1000 miles, you became my friends and family. God has used you to teach me, encourage me, and correct me when I needed it. God has given Rebecca and I a place where we can serve here in the college ministry and it has been our great joy to see him at work in the lives of the students we have met.
Now, through the encouragement of the elders and the conviction of the Spirit, I am seeking to serve you as a deacon. If affirmed by you, my focus would be in the area of benevolence. Through your generous giving, our church has a fund dedicated to helping church members when financial needs arise. My role would be to support the elders in overseeing this fund and distributing money to those in need of it. In discerning whether or not I should seek this role, Jesus’ words in John 13 have been particularly compelling:
“34A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
And Acts 2 shows that one of the most powerful ways that the first Christians loved one another was to provide for those who had financial needs:
45And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
With the result being that:
47bthe Lord added daily to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Church on Mill, it would be my great honor and privilege to help coordinate the way in which we care for one another financially. It would be my great joy to serve in this role, knowing full well the love and generosity you already show to each other. And it would be my great hope and prayer that through our generous financial care for each other, many would see and understand the truth of the gospel and come to put their faith in Christ.
