Vocational Deacons’ Ordination: Paul’s Story

In the lead up to the Vocational Deacons’ Ordination service in October, Paul Carey and Hannah Rowan will be writing about their journey to ordination. This week Paul shares on his calling into becoming a Deacon for Administration.

On the 11th of October I am due to become a Deacon for Administration. For most people the word “administration” will likely bring into your mind something different from what is in mine! For me it is a holy task, a gift from God to build up the church, and about freeing others into their gifting. I call this ‘godly administration’.

My ordination will mark the start of the latest chapter of a story that began when I was a young man in England (long ago in the 1980’s!). I was recognized as having spiritual giftings in administration, which was highly regarded in the ‘house church’ movement that I was then part of. I was just about to start a paid church administrator role and had dreams of one day administrating for a great apostolic leader (the height of aspiration for administrators in that movement). But then my first marriage broke down, my life fell apart and my nascent godly administration journey came to an abrupt end.

I went on to have an all-consuming career in another field (and am happily married with a son!), but God never forgot my dreams or the plans he had for me. Through a series of interventions and miraculous events in my life from the year 2000 onwards (which are too numerous to cover here), God led me step by step back into godly administration. At nearly 60 years old, I am now living out on a daily basis my young man’s dreams of supporting apostolic leaders!

Nobody really knows what deacons actually did in the early church, but one thing we do know is that they worked closely with bishops (who were then overseeing individual churches not dioceses). The relevance of this to the modern diaconate is limited, but it does strongly resonate with my story!

By Paul Carey