“Matters Of The House”

Thursday, November 08, 2012

     Hi, I have a question about the qualifications of a deacon. We have a man who our congregation would like to appoint as a deacon, however, in the past I know that his wife and he defaulted on a home loan and walked away from their house picked up their belongings and moved to another state.  Wouldn't that be the same as stealing from the bank?  He signed those loan papers promising to pay the mortgage payments for the life of the loan.  I know situations arise, but there wasn't any major illness or anything like that, just the same economy that all of us are living in.  It gives me pause to put him in a position like that in our congregation knowing this.

Sincerely,
Fiscally Sound

Dear Fiscally Sound,

1 Tim 3:12 says that a deacon must rule their own household well.  As the head of his house, a man is responsible for the overall order and health of his household affairs.  It is important to remember that the criteria that a deacon “rule his own house well” is a generic one.  Every man is going to make mistakes and suffer setbacks in his life; the job of the congregation is to assess the overall health of the man’s household.  This particular incident is worthy of note and should be factored in when looking at the man’s ability to serve as a deacon, but it doesn't necessarily disqualify him.

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