What's a deacon do in the Lutheran church?

So I was sitting at work today musing, "I wonder what I am going to blog about today?" Not conspiratorial, "so, self, with what pulsating nuggets of dramatic tension shall we titillate the readers today?" sorts of musings, but rather musings of the first-row, Mystery-Science-Theater-3000, making-sarcastic-comments-about-other-people's-work genre. Who is driving this boat, I wonder sometimes.

But then I read the comment from PPB featured in the above title, and I realized that I had been given A Momentous Task. What's a deacon do in the Lutheran church? Why, I'm so glad you asked, PPB! I have been known to give a little spiel about diaconal ministry once in a while (this and this come to mind), and my friend Charlie wrote this about my consecration (which took place on January 30th). So that's a start.

I think nobody really knows (yet) what diaconal ministers do in the Lutheran church. Or maybe a better answer would be: the door is wide open! There are guidelines, oh yes, plenty of those. And folks are quite sure about what we don't (or can't) do, as they spent lots of time legislating that (we don't consecrate the elements or baptize, and aren't eligible for the Clergy Housing Allowance tax break or synod payscale guidelines).

Diaconal Ministers are still in the process of creating an identity and a niche in the ELCA. They have had Deaconesses since forever, but diaconal ministry per se was first introduced in 1993. Since then, a little over a hundred ELCAers have been consecrated as Diaconal Ministers (compare that to nearly 12,000 ordained pastors). But still, we must do something, right? After all, over 100 of us are doing it already!

Indeed, we do do. We do chaplaincy and social work and volunteer coordination and nursing and administration and community organizing and outreach ministry and medicine and teaching and social justice and campus ministry and and and. "Diaconal" ministers (from the Greek diakonia, roughly "to serve") in my denomination follow a call to Word and Service (as opposed to Word and Sacrament--that's the ordained folks). We practice servant leadership, we are rooted in community and in the Word of God, and we exemplify the life of service that Jesus Christ modeled. Our calling is to equip the baptized for a life of faith and service, to reach out to those who are on the outside, to interpret the work of the church to the world and the needs of world to the church. We sometimes describe our work as "ministry on the margins," or "where the church meets the world."

I think about us as the hands and feet of the church (but of course, not the only ones)... reaching out and serving and walking and healing and encouraging and dancing and helping and doing. DMs have a master's degree from a seminary plus an area of specialization (see above). Um... wow, it gave me a little thrill to be able to say "we" all the time in this post. I'm one of them! One of us! Woo-hoo!