Waves of Mercy

Although I’ve been serving on the Diaconate for some time, it’s not until recently that I’ve understood the full magnitude of the Diaconate’s mercy-centric ministry. The bulk of the Diaconate’s work is to serve our congregants who are experiencing hardships by providing practical help. Deaconesses and deacons (“deacs”) involved in client work typically do not have access to information about cases other than their own. This is in adherence to the Diaconate’s policy of strict client confidentiality.

The preeminence of client confidentiality policy creates silos in which information is available only to the Diaconate staff members and partnering deacs on their respective cases. Though one of the functions of the Diaconate’s Operations Team (Ops team) is to review and approve financial requests, only client situations, not their identities, are made known to the Ops team.

In my new capacity as a member of the Ops team, I am beginning to realize the sheer scale of the Diaconate’s work in the lives of our church community. What I have observed through the simultaneous efforts of numerous deac teams are powerful collective waves of God’s redemptive love that are being unleashed and lavished into scores of broken lives. From my vantage point, I am able to see deacs fully immerse themselves, enmasse, into the struggles of their clients’ broken lives, and generously giving of themselves in order to be vessels of God’s mercy and love. Each case has its own set of complexities but the vigor, sincerity and gospel-centric approach utilized by deacs in each case is a source of great encouragement to me, providing a glimpse of the future promise of restoration and God’s coming kingdom. I invite you to pray for God’s leading in the ongoing work of our Diaconate.

---

Thank you for subscribing to the Redeemer Report. If you would like to support the work of Redeemer in NYC, please use the button below to make a gift.

Make a gift

Articles in this Issue

		Koinonia: Experience It This Fall Matthew Paul Buccheri
		From Isolation to Community Tommy Haskins
		Covenant Renewal and Redeemer’s “DNA”
		Change Your Life in Seven Weeks Matthew Paul Buccheri
		Redeemer’s Artists Support the Vision Campaign
		Book Review: Good News About Injustice