All right, you're fortunate I'm not going to be up here the whole time. You're going to be able to listen to all the deacons today. I'm going to kick us off. I'm going to do a little bit of an introduction and then the other deacons will come up and do some other sessions. This originally was going to be the week for the elders session. We're going to do the deacons this week. Elders will be next week. And then there's going to be another session with the deacons in a few weeks. So at this session, we're going to kind of give some background and some introduction to the type of work that the deacons are doing in the church. In the next session, we plan to do a Q&A, where the deacons will sit up here, will answer questions that you have. We'd actually ask that you provide questions ahead of time, if you can. You can obviously ask questions when we're there, too. We'd prefer if you give them ahead of time. So over the next few weeks, or even this morning as you're thinking about it, think of any questions you might have for us that we could answer as a group. And then we will attempt to do that in a Q&A moderated session at our next Sunday school meeting. I think it's, you guys remember what week that is? Week of Thanksgiving, Sunday after Thanksgiving. Sunday before Thanksgiving. All right, so I'm going to do a brief introduction to the diaconate. Then Andrew's going to take over. He'll do a talk through kind of a typical deacons meeting, what kind of things we talk about, what topics, to give kind of a flavor of what that looks like. Then Charlie's going to talk about some of the work we do sort of in between the deacons meetings. What other stuff do we do besides meet once a month? Then Paul is gonna come up, we're gonna go up a level. He's gonna talk about presbytery level diaconate work and some of the committees that exist there. And then Bob's gonna come up to close this out. And he's gonna talk about the denominational level diaconal work. So diaconal committees that exist at the denomination level for the OPC, all right? So I'm gonna start with our, what's this, our primary source, right? So I'm gonna start there. And we'll start with Acts 6, verses 1 through 7. So this is sort of the creation of the diaconal ministry in the New Testament church. I'll go ahead and read that. So Acts 6, verse 1 through 7. Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, and a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. So, what did we learn in that seven verses? Anybody give me one thing we learned about the diaconate from those seven verses? This is the part where you help. Yeah, I would yeah, I would say so there's a separate office created Yeah, so there's a separate office created here, and it's more focused on the physical needs of the church rather than the spiritual needs of the church. Not that there's not a spiritual aspect to it, but the elders are set apart for teaching and for handling the spiritual aspects of the church. The deacons are set for handling the physical needs of the church. In this case, it's giving to the widows, but there's other sections of the Bible, obviously, that tell us about other things the deaconate does in those physical needs. Another thing I think I would point out there along the same lines is that the church, because there's these two offices, the church doesn't have to neglect the physical needs of the church in favor of teaching. And it doesn't have to neglect teaching to handle the physical needs of the church. It gives us multiple people that can do different things with different focuses. So we don't have to neglect either thing. So I think that's a point there as well. And then, can anybody tell me what the result of them creating these two offices, what was the result at the end? It's verse seven, if you need a hint. Yeah, so the word of God increased, so that's a good result. Number of disciples multiplied, also an excellent result. Interestingly, a great many priests became obedient to the faith. I always thought that was, I always thought that was an interesting result of creating the diaconate. Anybody have any thoughts on why many priests came to the faith? Yeah, Wessel? Yeah, so there's an interesting parallel. I'm not going to go into it deeply today, we just don't have time. Perhaps that could be a question for the next time. There's an interesting parallel between the Diaconate and the Levites in the Old Testament, and the work of the Levites and the work of the deacons. A very interesting parallel there in the Old Testament. All right, I'm going to switch to another verse here, Philippians 1.1. So just very briefly, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and the deacons. Just wanted to point out there that both offices are recorded there in this letter. So we can see that it's an established thing now. And then finally, I want to jump to 1 Timothy 3. In 8-13, this is the qualifications for deacon. So, in 1 Timothy 3, we first see the qualifications for overseers or elders, and then starting in verse 8. Deacons, likewise, must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience and let them also be tested first. Then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. Their wives, likewise, must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children in their own households well. For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Jesus Christ. Okay, so qualifications. Throw some out for me. What did you hear there? Okay. What else? You can read it. What's the next one? You can cheat. Open book test. Okay. And I think the last one, there's one more that I would point out. Probably an important one. Yeah, that's one. I'm sorry, yeah, that's another one. There was one other one I wanted to point out in particular, I thought was, not greedy. Yeah, it hasn't been. I thought that was an important one. Hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. That means they're good believers, followers of Christ. They read the Bible, understand it. Mature Christian would be a word I would use there, is an expectation, I think, for Deacon. So you wouldn't typically have somebody that's maybe new to the faith take a role like this, I would argue. Okay. So as I said, we're just doing introduction. We can't go too deep here. One last thing I wanted to do before I hand it off, because there's much more to cover this morning. I was going to read from the Book of Church Order. Which level of resource is this for us? Tertiary source. So this is the third source. What's the secondary source? Okay, I'm going to skip that one. Why am I skipping the secondary source as I read through these? Does it say the word deacon in the What's that? Well, yeah. I would argue that the concepts of deacons are in the Westminster, but does it say the word deacon in the Westminster Confession? Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it's in there. I don't think it's specifically laid out in the Westminster. However, the concepts of the deacon work is all through the Confession. So loving your neighbors, serving the needy, all those things are there. But I don't think it specifically lays out the offices in the Westminster. But our Book of Church Order does lay out the offices specifically. So I'm going to read, this is chapter 11, if I can do my Roman numerals properly. It's page 14 in the 2015 edition. The scriptures designate the office of deacon. Let me say something before I read it. Listen for echoes of what we just read in the Bible in here, and then see if you can identify things that are in here that weren't specifically noted in the readings. The scriptures designate the office of deacon as distinct and perpetual in the church. Deacons are called to show forth the compassion of Christ in a manifold ministry of mercy toward the saints and strangers on behalf of the church. To this end, they exercise in the fellowship of the church a recognized stewardship of care and of gifts for those in need or distress. The service is distinct from the rule in the church. Did we hear some of that in the Bible readings, I think? And then the distinction from the rule of the church, I think that's clearly saying there's a separation between an elder as an officer and a deacon as an officer. Those chosen for this office should be of great faith, exemplary lives, honest repute, brotherly love, warm sympathies, and sound judgment. Does that sound like anything we read? Perhaps the Acts chapters, right? In order to facilitate the performance of the duties of their office of the deacon, each particular church shall be constituted a board of deacons. The board shall choose its own members from its membership. So which chapter and verse from the Bible did that part come from? Right, so I would argue that perhaps this is more about the orderly organization of the diaconate rather than the spiritual aspect of it. So the Bible lays out the spiritual aspect and the work that needs to be done. I think this particular section is getting to more the organization of it, and as Presbyterians we like organization, so there's some of that in here. This is the kind of thing as a tertiary source that could be updated at any time if we decide that this isn't the right way we should do it. We can change that because I don't think there's a strong biblical requirement for us to have a board that chooses its own officers. Number four, the board shall oversee the ministry of mercy in the church and shall collect and disperse funds for the relief of the needy. Other forms of service for the church may also be committed to the deacons. In the discharge of their duties, the deacon shall be under the supervision and authority of the session. Accordingly, the board shall keep a record of its proceedings and of all funds and their distribution and shall submit its records to the session once every three months and at other times upon request of the session. If it seems to be for the best interest of the church, the session may require the board of deacons to reconsider any action or may, if necessary, overrule it. Okay, so we submit our record of our proceedings and all the funds every three months. That was the Acts part, right? Where we talked about that? Acts 6 verse something, right? Oh no, no. So that's again, I think, more of the orderly organization of the diaconate rather than the spiritual aspect. It is desirable that the session and the board of deacons meet together at regular intervals to confer on matters of common responsibility. And number seven, in a church in which there are no deacons, the duties of the office shall devolve upon the session. So we would like to avoid that at all costs. biblical order is that there are deacons and elders, so we would avoid having a church where there is no deacons. Although in a very small, like think of a startup church, it may be that there's just not enough officers available. In that case, the session can act as the deacons as well, but that's again something we would like to avoid. Certainly in this church, we have a board of deacons. There's five of us, hopefully more. If any of you feel called for it, we would love to have you join us. And to that point, I'm going to invite Andrew to come up and talk about sort of like what a monthly deacons meeting looks like, the kind of things we cover and topics we cover in that meeting. And so you're going to meet all of your deacons this morning, Andrew. So as Steve read to us there from the Book of Church Order, Deacons, one of the things he read to us is, as Deacons, we're called to show forth the compassion of Christ in a manifold ministry of mercy toward the saints and strangers on behalf of the church. To this end, the exercise and the fellowship of the church are recognized stewardship of care and of gifts for those in need or distressed. I think the work of mercy ministry may often be thought of as helping the poor, and oftentimes with money, or they're needy. And while that may be the case in certain circumstances, the needs are oftentimes much more than monetary. And there's loneliness, and you think back to the biblical text about widows and orphans, so there's loneliness. There's those that are just in need of encouragement, those in need of a friend. There's sickness. There's someone, there's those that just need particular advice or counsel about a particular situation they're going through in life. they look to the deacons for that advice or that counsel. So we've seen all of those and more in the Mercy Ministry at Grace Church, and so we just wanted to give you an overview from a somewhat high level of what sorts of things occur on a month-to-month basis when we meet. We meet every month, ordinarily the first Monday of the month. given various other responsibilities outside of church. We do sometimes have to meet on a different day of the month, but it's ordinarily the first Monday of every month. We begin our meetings with prayer and an opening devotional, which in recent years we've done book studies together where we've spent 15 or 20 minutes reading through a book that we've selected, and then just a short time of discussion about it. Usually it has some sort of diaconal bend to it. We've read When Helping Hurts. I know that that book has been referred to probably from the pulpit before, but When Helping Hurts. Side by Side, which was written by Ed Welch. walking alongside one another, how to better walk alongside each other. And most recently, we're just about finished with a book entitled Brave by Faith, which was a little bit different from the diaconal bend, but very apt to our work. It's a book written on the first seven chapters of Daniel about how to live bravely and confidently and obediently in an increasingly secular world. And so we're just about finished with that book. We follow our devotional time by moving into the business of the evening. We approve the previous month's minutes. We roll call, we approve the previous month's minutes. We review correspondence that we've received since our last meeting, whether it be people had phone conversations, emails, text messages that have come to the deacons, letters written. And so that may be requests from people. And many of those get handled between the meetings. And Charlie's going to speak to that, like a request to use the building. But there are certain things that just wait for the meeting. And then we discuss these correspondences, whether a decision needs to be made, whether it needs to be really something that the session weighs in on or approves. So we review correspondence. And then we have members. We delve into our members and non-members, visitors. We have a section of our meeting dedicated to discussing member needs, those that have needs for financial assistance, those that have needs for encouragement, those that have needs for friendship. And so we probably spend, I would say, about 60% of our meeting talking about members and new visitors that are among us and how we can help them if we believe there are needs. So to that end, we kind of have a break. We stop and we pray through that list, often name by name. We go around the table and we each pray for these members and these individuals. After that, we move into the more, I'll call it, administrative tasks of our role. So we would include matters of finances for the church, of the property. facility itself, you know, exterior and interior, some maintenance, upkeep, improvements, cleaning of the building, building use, things of that nature. We rely so much on volunteers. We work closely with the Women of Grace at various times to make sure that we're coordinating things together with them. We have volunteers who help with the landscaping and with mowing, and we have people that clean inside, and we have people that oversee the cleaning, and so there's There is a fair amount of time at each meeting spent reviewing. How are we doing? What's on tap for this summer or this fall? What do we need to be looking ahead for? So we spend probably the balance of our meeting really discussing those matters. We then started this practice a couple of years ago. I think it was Bob who encouraged us to, if we know one another and we are working effectively together, we need to be praying for one another. So the five deacons close our meetings by sharing personal requests in nature, you know, what maybe a difficult decision at work or a difficult situation, decision a family's needing to make, what have you, and we stop and we conclude our meetings by praying for one another. And that's been a helpful and an enjoyable thing that we've done and I think we've seen the fruit from that over the last couple years since we implemented that. Much more could be said, but I want to save time for the others. So I'm going to turn it over to Charlie. He's going to speak for a couple minutes. Good morning. Paul and Bob, you guys have been deacons for how long? 40 years? How long have we been? Eight for us? Ten. Time goes really, really fast. I'm going to talk a little about, pardon me, what we do besides our monthly meeting. There's a lot of things that go on behind the scenes. I made a short list. You guys help me out if I missed one or two or 50 items. A big part of what we do has to do with finances. We try to be extremely conscientious of how money is spent. We take a lot of time going over that particular issue and we try to make sure that we are responsible in that task. We always look at the building and we go, boy, wouldn't it be great to have a kitchen that was like an industrial type kitchen which had stainless this and stainless that? We're working on it. We're trying to get there. Wouldn't it be nice to have more parking lot space? We're trying to figure that one out. It's a bit challenging. But the things that we kind of focus on outside would be, as we've mentioned earlier, ministering to members and even non-members. But we also work within our confine here in the building. We want to make sure that the building's clean. We want to make sure that things are working, the camera, the audio. the bathrooms are clean, that everything has been well cared for and just ready for Sunday worship. See, Bob is involved with, I think it's the Cranberry, it's not the Retirement Village, Yeah, assisted living. We work with people on the outside, so the parking lot is falling apart. Well, okay, we need to make sure we have enough money to spend on repaving or resurfacing. Yeah. And we like to delegate. We can't do everything and we can always use volunteers. Kathy in the back has picked up working audio and managing that. Wessel is in charge of the piano. Let's see. Cleaning is a big deal, I've mentioned that already, but it seems to be real, real important. And we always wanna make sure things are tidy. And if you see something out of sorts, let us know and we'll tend to it. We have done upgrades in the North Ex and more upgrades here in the sanctuary, but we are Presbyterian. which means we move painfully slow. We review and then review again and again. Little things like, right, reserving the building. Somebody will say, hey, can we have the building on a Saturday or a Friday? We kind of go down the chain and make sure that there's nothing on the schedule. And then, of course, we're always glad to have our members use the building. We stress that. It's here for your use. We send flowers out when there's a funeral. You know, little things like that. We purchase new hymnals and new Bibles. Let's see. And we fix stuff, particularly Bob fixes stuff. And he's very, very good at it, and we're very, very appreciative. There's all kinds of things. You know, we have issues with the fire alarm. It, for some reason, will just, you know, go off and start, you know, aggravating our neighbors. Okay, well, we need to figure out what's wrong with that. And I think after several years, we've kind of figured that one out. We're installing security cameras soon. And we also are working in security in other ways. Not to get in too much detail, but it's a weird, weird world, and we want to make sure everybody's safe. So we're working on that as well. We purchased, and it was a couple years ago, we purchased the refibrillator. Never thought about that, and somebody came up with the idea. Yeah, that's probably a good idea. We should probably have one of those. So we did our homework and purchased one, and it's mounted on the wall in the kitchen. I think I've covered a lot. I certainly haven't covered everything. Do you guys want to—are there things that I may have missed? I'm certain I have. We're good? All right. Thank you for your time. Good morning. One of the big emphasis of the work we do is providing aid and assistance to those who are in need. Andrew mentioned that we spend a lot of time in our meetings talking about, we kind of go through a whole list of members and friends of the congregation. So it's a very specific list we go through and we're concerned especially for the elderly, widows, orphans, in that case we have orphans, but we do spend a considerable amount of time talking about people's needs and how we might bless them as a church. So I want to make sure that, we don't want to go into any specifics there, That is obviously one of the big emphasis of the work we do. So part of what I was asked to talk about was the Presbytery Diaconate Committee. I haven't been here all the Sunday School meetings, so I don't know how much has been said about the Presbytery and the organization of the regional church in general. But our regional church, the Presbytery, there's about 15 churches. in Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. And the job of the Presbyterian Diaconal Committee, which is a committee set up by the Presbyterian of Ohio, is to care for is to minister to the diaconate committees of the churches themselves. Maybe I'm a little confused here, but let me make sure I back up a little bit. So it's an organized, it's a standing committee of the Presbytery. The Presbytery Diaconate Committee is a standing committee of our Presbytery. Its mandate is set up by the Presbytery. Its membership and responsibilities are set up by the Presbytery. It consists of six members. The Presbytery Diaconal Committee has six members, two of whom are elders or ministers, and four of whom are deacons. The Presbytery Committee, Bob has served on that, I've served on that from our church, but there'll be deacons from obviously various churches within the Presbytery. We, the committee serves as a liaison between the local Deaconate committees and the general and the denominational committee. And I'm just going to try to give you an idea of a little bit of flavor of what the committee does. I'm sorry, is this not coming through very loud? OK. So the Presbyterian Committee individuals and generally deacons who have had much experience and been deacons for quite a while, we come alongside and help the deacons in the other congregations where that help is needed, oftentimes There may be one deacon. In some churches there are no deacons. And so we'll come alongside and just help them through issues they're having. Maybe they're having trouble making decisions about the church budget. Maybe they're having trouble making decisions about how to help a member in need or even counsel somebody who needs help with their budgets. caring for those in their church. So that one of the primary functions of this Presbytery Committee is to come alongside of the deacons in those other churches or fill in in some cases where there are no deacons to help out. Another job of this Presbyterian committee is to serve in educating and training of deacons in these other local churches. We've been blessed here ever since I've been at this church to have multiple deacons and that plurality of deacons with different thoughts, different ideas, different wisdom. It's just been really helpful. It's a tremendous blessing. That can be very difficult and very challenging for a deacon in a church where he's alone. So the committee tries to come alongside those. The Presbyterian Committee also instructs, provides that liaison with the denominational diaconal committee, which Bob's going to talk about. You know, we're just kind of trying to funnel needs. If the need can't be met in a local church, then the presbytery tries to meet that need. If the need can't be met in the presbytery, then the denomination will step in and try to assist with that need. So we're kind of in between as a presbytery, just helping. as we need to in whatever the situation is. The Presbyterian Committee is also responsible for assisting with local disaster relief. And we're fortunate in Ohio, we haven't had, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, this area, we haven't had a lot of disaster issues that we've had to deal with. But you can imagine, if you're a presbytery in Florida, you have a regular, or sometimes in the Southeast, you have regular occurrences where these churches need help, and the presbytery committee will organize the disaster relief for that area. The Presbytery Committee will also serve in encouraging members to assist other presbyteries. So if there's a disaster need in North Carolina, for instance, or in Florida, and those presbyteries need additional help, they'll put out a call for help, and then our presbytery will try to identify men. We have a team, right? We have people listed in So men who have traveled and are kind of on call in a sense, are willing to be on call. One of the other things that the Presbyterian Diaconal Committee does is annually call retired ministers and their widows and just check in on them and see how they're doing. Sometimes retired ministers and widows, it's hard to believe, but sometimes they get a little bit lost in the shuffle and they need help. So we're checking in on them at least annually. There's a fund called the Obadiah Fund, which the denomination has, which funds are given to pastors and retired pastors and to widows. And so it's one of the jobs of the Presbyterian Committee to check in on these members. The Presbyterian Committee, if needs cannot be met in a local church, if it's a financial need that's much too large or it's a need for some construction or work that needs to be done, if it can't be handled in a local church, that local church will contact the Presbyterian Committee, the Acronym Committee, and then we will either raise funds, solicit funds from the other churches, make that need known, or just solicit the help that's needed organize that. One last thing, which is a difficult thing to do sometimes, is keep just an active role of the deacons throughout the presbytery. It's really helpful for us to know if we know there's an issue we need help with, there's somebody down in Dayton or there's somebody over in Indianapolis or Cincinnati or Grove City, Pennsylvania. It's really helpful to know who these men are and try to keep a list, but that list is always changing, so that's a bit of a challenge, but we do try to encourage gatherings every once in a while. We'll have the presbytery get-together of the deacons, and that's a benefit to us to find out what's going on in other churches, where are their particular needs, and who has strengths, abilities in certain areas where we may be weak. So we try to promote that communication amongst the deacon boards between the different churches. So that's, I guess that's an overview. I'll let Bob talk about the diaconal or the denomination diaconal committee. A couple committees, diaconal committees, I want to talk about this morning. One is the Committee on Diaconal Ministries and the other is Committee on Ministerial Care. I've served on the denominational diaconal committee kind of when it changed in 2005. It really became proactive, really caring about the full-orbed ministry of the church. And Andrew has served on the committee on ministerial care, which is a wonderful committee as well. I talked briefly about it as well. Two committees on a presbytery level. We are a connectional church. We're Presbyterians. We've got three levels of diaconal ministry. And which is the most important? Amen. You got it. If there's any point that I can make this morning, it's that point. That we are a connectional church and the primary means that we have diaconal ministry is the local church. If you don't get anything else, get that point. This is where it's important that we serve the mercy, ministry, and compassion of Jesus Christ. to the church, especially, to the household of faith, but also to the world, that they might know that Jesus Christ lives. Our focus is the gospel. I can't say anything more important than that. The focus of diaconal ministry is, is, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you know, that is so important. I could talk to you much about that. But that is why we do what we do. We don't do it to promote ourselves. We don't do it for any other reason than to show forth the mercy, the compassion, and kindness of Jesus Christ to the world, and especially to the household of faith. Both of these denominational committees at this high level, we have the local, we have the presbytery, and we have the denominational, focuses on coordinating, promoting, and stimulating the local churches and their diaconates. Exactly what Nigel said. We've had a lot of wonderful men that have served and ministered at these denominational levels. Leonard Koppus, back in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, Leonard was the denominational diaconate man. I remember reading so much about the diaconate from him when I was a very young man. Lendl Smith, Nathan Trice, Drew Troutman are all part of the CDM, Committee on Diaconal Ministries. David Naukle is the administrator. Trish Duggan and Allison Groot are also assisting David in his work as the administrator for this Committee on Diaconal Ministries. These are wonderful men that have served the church faithfully. The CDM is made up of nine men, predominantly in what office? Pastor? No. Elder? No. Deacon? Deacon's the answer. It's a diaconal committee. And so therefore, the majority of the men on that committee are deacons, because they are gifted with the love and the mercy and compassion of Christ for the gospel. And so again, they've been really focused on this since about 2004, 2005, in terms of proactive ministry to the gospel of Christ. by Mercy Ministry. The CDM has five standing committees. When I was on the board for six, seven, eight years, we didn't have standing committees. We kind of worked as a board. And how much more effective it's been since we've made five standing committees and they focus their attention on certain areas and they move. And they actually get things done, which is really, really good. So the five standing committees that they have on the CDM, the Committee on Diaconal Ministries, is one finance and administration. You've got to have men that organize and make sure that the finances and the work of the organization is moving. They have an aid request. And Paul talked a little bit about this. If the local church can't handle a large request, then it goes to the presbytery. and if the presbytery can't handle that need, maybe it's too great financially or otherwise, then it goes to the denomination. And then the denomination handles that through this standing committee of aid requests. What a blessing to see that we're not alone. We're a connectional church and we care about one another from the local church, the Presbytery, and the denomination. In our Presbytery, we have not been able not to meet the needs for the last 25 years. We've requested money from our churches, the 15, 16 churches we have, and the Lord has provided graciously. So we haven't had to go to the Presbytery, I mean to the denomination. And that's a blessing, but other churches have. and the denomination and the CDM is very willing and able to help in those needs. Disaster response. We have two major hurricanes in the last three or four weeks. And we have our administrator, Dave Naukla, and our president of the CDM, Joe Troutman, down the last week working and ministering to the people that have been affected. Praise God that our church, the OPC congregations, haven't been hugely affected. We have, I've heard some words that there are, there's a pastor down in Tampa that has some issues with flooding in his house, but relatively low amount of impact by the hurricanes. But that doesn't mean that we don't minister to other churches, Reformed and Persevering churches, in the areas that are. And so they were actually assessing the EPC and some other churches for damage and our church, our OPC denomination will go and help those churches if they need help. What a blessing, what an encouragement. Cranes to Ukraine, that's been ongoing. I think they've had four or five drives to provide for the Christians there in Ukraine and for the needs that they have for medical supplies and other things. What a blessing to see the denomination work in that level for the cause of Christ. and for the cause of compassion for him. Another wonderful thing that the CDM does is diaconal training. This is not a small thing. We have about a thousand deacons in the OPC and every three or four years they have a diaconal summit and they encourage all the deacons to go and to participate in diaconal training. And this is on a large level. 150 deacons meet together and they're encouraged by talks and by just simply talking to one another about what's going on in the church. in the in the terms of diaconal ministries. And so it's been a I think we've had four or five of those in the last 15 years and what a blessing that has been for the cause of Christ and diaconal ministries for our church. They also have Presbytery diaconal meetings where they encourage the leaders on the presbytery level. And they've had, I think, four of those in the last 10 years. And every two years, I believe, they try to have those. And what a blessing it is because, again, remember what Paul described in terms of the presbytery. They work between the denomination, local church. And so if the presbytery doesn't work, It doesn't work. So they make sure that the presbyteries know their job, are encouraged, and are a blessing to the diaconal ministry of the local churches. Two new ones that they've put on the last 10, 12 years, which I haven't been on the committee, is one for missionary deacons. And who do we have as a missionary deacon historically at our church the last 10 years, 15 years? Who has that been? We're involved in that. Jim Knox, Jim and Jenny, what a blessing that they were ministered to by this committee for their work as missionary deacons. We have two other missionary deacons in Uganda, and they are being supported, encouraged, and blessed by the CDM. There's a new one called Refugee Ministry, and what a blessing that is for the aliens, the strangers in our country. This subcommittee, the standing committee, works and ministers to the needs that the refugees have in the United States. And so what a blessing that is as this new standing committee works and ministers and encourages churches in their work for refugees. I think there's going to be another one. My hearing is that prison ministry may be a true new one that may come on. And I can't guarantee that, but that's kind of the inklings I get is that they probably are maybe looking at a prison ministry, which I would certainly agree with and support. Charlie and Wessel have been involved in a prison ministry for our church here in the greater Central Ohio region, and it is just an important ministry to minister to those that have virtually no families and that need encouragement and support that are Christians in prisons, and those that aren't Christians that they might know the compassion and mercy of Christ. I want to go real quickly, the Committee on Ministerial Care. What a blessing this committee is as well. And again, Andrew served on this for numbers of years. John Fickert is the manager, the overseer of that CMC. And they would look and encourage financial health, soul care, compensation, rest, and retired ministers and their widows. Those are the kind of things that they do for our pastors and our ministers in the OPC. Paul mentioned the the Obadiah Fund. And I'd like to mention that again. It is something that the OPC denomination has supported and encouraged. A large, large fund was given to the OPC for specifically caring for retired pastors and their widows. And each year this Obadiah Fund gives between 750 to $2,000, depending on the status of the individual or family, for their help each year. What a blessing to our pastors. We have four pastors that are retired from our congregation alone, and they are being helped each year with their finances. And we have three more pastors that someday will need that help as well. These servants of Christ are being helped and ministered to for the cause of Jesus Christ. What a blessing. our deacon fund just recently was able to donate $10,000 to this fund. Thank you. Thank you. You gave, we saw it, and we were able to minister perpetually long-term to our pastors. Wow. This blesses my heart to know we care enough about our pastors to care and give a one-time gift for their good. This is diaconal ministry, at the heart, at the soul of what we do. May God bless these efforts. There's much more I could say about these two committees. I've enjoyed being a part of at least the CDM for a number of years, and it's such a great blessing to see how God has blessed our church. As a connectional church, to see both local, Presbytery, denomination, work together for the gospel of Jesus Christ to share the compassion and mercy of Jesus Christ to others. It's about the gospel. And may God bless his church from the work of Deacon Deackel Ministries. I would ask that you give us questions that you have. We had to go over things very quickly. We certainly didn't have enough time to say everything. But if you've got questions that you'd like to ask, We're going to have an informal question and answer period the week of Thanksgiving, that's Sunday, and we'll be able to answer more of your questions about what's important to you about the diaconal ministries of our church and of the Presbytery, and the denomination. So think about that. Get back to us. Talk to one of your deacons. I'm glad that we're all able to get to know us a little bit better. That's important. And so we are thankful for this time with you all. I'll close in prayer. I think we're just about done, so I'll close in prayer. Father God, we thank you for your church and for the way in which you have given to your church mercy ministers, the Church of Jesus Christ to share the love and the compassion of Christ for the gospel. We pray, O Lord, that you'd bless the work of your deacons here, the work of the deacons on the Presbytery, and the work of the deacons and elders and pastors on the Committee on Diaconal Ministries in our denomination. We pray, O Lord, for all these ministries. May the gospel of Christ go out. May the people of this church be blessed. May there be growth in the Lord and may we see the love of Christ being shown to others. And we pray this because of Christ and his mercy to us. Amen.