Key points:
- The difference between deacons and elders is often unclear to members of The United Methodist Church.
- Elders tend to be pastors, while deacons focus on taking God’s work outside the church into areas such as immigration law, hunger alleviation and fighting human trafficking.
- This year marks 30 years since The United Methodist Church declared deacons to be a distinct, permanent order of ministry.
You might find them protesting outside of a county jail detaining immigrants. Some work at food banks getting people fed. Prisoners released from incarceration might get their help in reintegrating into society.
They are United Methodist deacons, who serve as bridges connecting The United Methodist Church to the world outside the church.
This year, The United Methodist Church marks the 30th anniversary of General Conference establishing deacons as a distinct, permanent order of ministry rather than a transitional step toward becoming an elder.
The Rev. Emily Kvalheim, a provisional deacon in the West Ohio Conference, works as a staff attorney at Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio and is a member of the Task Force on United Methodist Immigration Ministries of Ohio. She cites the description of deacons in the United Methodist Book of Discipline, the denomination’s policy book.
“United Methodist deacons witness to the word of God in our words and actions and embody and lead the community service in the world for the sake of enacting God’s compassion and justice,” Kvalheim said. “That’s what it says in the Discipline. … But I still get questions from people like, ‘So you get paid to be an immigration attorney, but what do you do for ministry?’”
The different roles of United Methodist deacons and elders sometimes are misunderstood. Complicating matters is that not all geographic regions of The United Methodist Church have adopted the order of deacons with a separate role from that of elders. In Africa and the Philippines, United Methodist deacons are the equivalent of provisional elders in Europe and the U.S. — that is, elders in training.
Most church pastors are elders, who are the primary sacramental and pastoral leaders in the denomination. But the 2024 General Conference authorized deacons to preside at the sacraments of baptism and communion “when contextually appropriate” without first seeking permission from their bishop.
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“Many deacons are serving in settings where the people there do not have ready access to sacrament,” said the Rev. Meg Lassiat, executive director of ministry at the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry and a deacon herself. “We’re wanting to expand the ways that people can experience God’s grace through sacrament.”
Many deacons also are employed by churches to help with community outreach.
But a good many, like Kvalheim, do not work for a local church. She is more likely to be found in her community, in places like the Butler County Jail in Ohio, where she helped organize a May 30 prayer vigil that drew 100 people to protest individuals being detained because of their immigration status.
“One speaker shared that her husband is currently detained in the Butler County Jail,” Kvalheim said. “The task force sent him letters of encouragement, added money to his ICE commissary account and organized volunteers to observe and provide a supportive presence during his upcoming immigration court hearing. We are also organizing volunteers for clergy visitation and pastoral care for him and his family.”
The Rev. Kristin Weschler is a deacon employed by the federal government as a victim justice program specialist with the Human Trafficking Division in the Office for Victims of Crime. She helps decide how to distribute grants to shelters and other programs that help survivors.
“My role is twofold,” Weschler said. “One is making sure they adhere to the parameters of their grant for federal funding. But I also provide training and technical assistance to make sure they are providing quality trauma-informed, victim-centered services that are not causing more harm.
“Survivors are already traumatized,” Weschler said. “We do not want to add to their trauma by making the eligibility process more rigorous or having them to have to keep repeating their trauma over and over again.”
Weschler’s status as a deacon means she might pivot using her training and judgment when a need arises. These days, Weschler counsels her fellow federal employees who are stressed by fear of losing their jobs because of the current presidential administration, which has fired many government workers.
“I’m supporting fellow federal workers because of what we are all going through collectively in the last 15-18 months,” she said. “I’m doing intentional support and engagement with people on my team, or within my office, even though I work remotely.
“I’m making a very special intention to connect with them and have coffee chats with them remotely and just checking in with them.”
Some deacons aren’t as connected to the denomination as they would like.
“I think deacons who are in extension ministry, you have to form your own path and create ways to stay connected,” said the Rev. Lindsey Russell, senior manager of programs at Northwest Arkansas Food Bank. “You don’t always have the opportunities for spiritual connection because a lot of those retreats and things like that for pastors happen during the week and so if you’re in an extension ministry, you’re probably working somewhere where you can’t be away.”
It will always be a challenge for deacons who work beyond the local church to stay connected, Lassiat said.
“I believe there needs to be intentionality on both sides (to improve connection),” she said. “You’re not daily in a local church, so the approach to ministry is different and the relationship with the annual conference is a bit different.”
Deacons who work in communities instead of local churches model Christianity to people who might never enter a church, Russell said.
“If there’s no clergy that are witnessing to the world around us, the church is just going to continue to die off,” she said. “People are not going to know that there are Christians out there that want to love their neighbor and live the way that Christ taught us.
“A lot of times local churches can be kind of insular, maybe because they have these big buildings and a lot of financially pressing matters,” Russell said.
“They get bogged down by things that are immediately around them, and it can be more challenging to completely dedicate your ministry to the world around you,” she added. “There’s also a lot of people that have experienced church trauma, or for a variety of reasons would never step foot in a local church.
“They still need pastoral care or connection with the love of God.”
Jim Patterson is reporter for UM News. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
