Deacon Ordination Sunday

The Lord allowed the Macedonia church family to witness history as we ordained eight men for the service of Deacon on Sunday. It had been 32 years since Macedonia witnessed an ordination service for deacons, and the wait has been even longer for an ordination service held at our church.

Our church is a great church but like all churches, it is full of people striving to be better but have not yet arrived. We had some deacons who had been ordained the "old-school way: public counsel in front of the church and others who had been appointed deacons, no ordination ceremony. It caused for some division where some church members saw some deacons as "real" deacons and others as "pretend" deacons.

The Lord put it my heart to bridge this gap and after three years, He gave me the opportunity to do so. When we first arrived at Macedonia, we began a DDT Class(Deacon Development Training). Like DDT, I impressed on these men, either you could be used to clear space, make room and achieve progress, or you could exhibit the negative consequences of DDT and explode, cause death and destruction and be a walking time bomb for our church.

We studied the qualities a deacon should have in Acts 6:3 and I Timothy 3. We instituted visitation for the sick and shut-in, hospital and bereavement visitation as well as Lord"s Supper Distribution for the sick and elderly. We engaged the men to do more in worship besides devotion; entrusting them with the responsibility of worship leaders with a servant mentality.

We presented eight(8) candidates for the office of deacon and we are proud to say, Seven(7) received a full recommendation to exercise the rights, privileges and responsibilities of a deacon and one received a probationary recommendation pending further review and examination.

I am proud of these men and I thank God for giving me the chance to work with such a fine group of servants who put God first, support their Pastor and will work for the betterment of Macedonia. These men are:

Deacon Christopher Dudley
Deacon Kevin Howard Sr.
Deacon Jerry Malone
Deacon Perry Patton
Deacon Frederick Prince
Deacon Luther Taylor SR.
Deacon John Williams
Deacon Jerry Willis SR.

Special Thanks to our Four Horseman (our senior deacons) Deacon Calvin Manns, Deacon Roosevelt Starling, Deacon Henry Turner and Deacon Levi Trotter for all of their work that has laid the foundation for these men. Also, special thanks to our Moderator and Preacher for this occasion, Dr. Keith D. Witherspoon.