Nolan Rose was recommended on February 26th as a Deacon Candidate. On March 19th during our Members Meeting, church members will vote. The following is his testimony explaining how and why he feels called to be a deacon.
Thank you for loving and discipling Hannah and me so well – God has used you all as instruments of love, teaching, building and discipleship – growing us in spiritual maturity.
My Love for the Church
I once was without hope and without God. But now in Christ Jesus I was brought near, by His blood – just like you. Since we have all been reconciled to God, we are no longer strangers but mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, members of the household of God. We are joined together, being built into a dwelling pace for God by the Spirit.
By God’s immense grace, he has nurtured within me a seed of love for the Church, Christ’s Bride. He has cultivated a desire to serve you, living stones and royal priests, built into a spiritual house on the cornerstone of Christ.
Vision for Deacon Service
In both communion and baptism we make commitments to each other and God. In baptism, we celebrate God’s redeeming power and serve as a witness to the miracle of a hard heart becoming a heart of flesh. We also commit to walk with them and love them as a member of our church. In communion, we portray together that we are sinners and Jesus is our only righteousness. And we take it together, as one body. “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” – 1 Cor 10:17
By serving the body through good administration and logistics, I hope to promote unity among our body, just as the first deacons in Acts did when they ensured that widows were not neglected. By His grace, I believe He has gifted me in service. He has also placed within me a desire to serve our church well, to promote peace and promote unity through good administration. I would hope that my service can help facilitate our acts of worship and affections towards God when we remember in communion and celebrate in baptism.
Ask for Accountability
With all thankfulness, Mike walked with me through the deacon preparation class. In 1 Timothy 3, Paul lays out qualifications of character for deacons. While there’s no doubt that I still battle to grow more in these attributes, I believe that I meet the qualifications for the role of deacon. I ask that if you see fault or an issue of sin or character in me, that you please approach me with rebuke or reproof. Apart from the Lord, my heart is deeply deceitful and beyond human cure. As your brother, I ask that you pray for my heart that I would model dignity, unity, sobriety, honesty, soundness in faith in life, and blamelessness.
