![]() ![]() We developed a bond through sharing our lives. I played softball with Russell, Richard McCloud, Dane Hawk, Mel Hyde, Bret Becton, and other deacons. We traveled on a 20th anniversary vacation together. In my previous church, I discovered that Russell and Lisa Smith had the same anniversary year as my wife and I. Both of us are sports fanatics, and we travel together to ball games - sometimes without even talking "church." Our daughters have developed a close relationship, so much so that their daughter is now our "adopted daughter." Hardly a day goes by that Steve and I don't talk by phone on the way home from work, and usually it's friendship talk more than business talk. My current chairman of deacons, Steve Campbell, has become one of my best friends. If I had developed an adversarial relationship with them, I definitely would not have had the opportunity to be the leader our church needed. Over the years deacons have been my closest friends, my strongest encouragers, and my barometers for the church's spiritual condition. I've not only enjoyed working with the deacons of the churches where I've served, but I've also developed meaningful relationships with many of them. One of the most important aspects of a good pastor/deacon relationship is to develop a friendship with them instead of merely a business relationship. ![]() If that relationship is strained, the church will have division, strife, and distraction from its primary purpose. Having a successful pastor/deacon relationship can create a harmonious environment within the church. In reality tension between deacons and pastors shouldn't cause laughter. For some reason, the jokes always seem funnier if they exploit an adversarial relationship between deacons and pastors. Some pastors take joy in explaining their children's mischievous behavior as a result of playing with the deacon's children. Scribbled on the pad were the words, "Pastor, get off my oxygen hose!" The pastor stuck it in his pocket without reading it and opened it on the day of the funeral thinking it might provide a dramatic affect to the funeral. The dying man wrote a note to him just before he passed away. It might be the one about the pastor that visited a deacon in the hospital. This article originally appeared in Deacon Magazine. ![]()
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