Trinity Church
Pass Christian, MS
Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved
The Deacon's Corner
"God now calls you to a special ministry of
servanthood directly under your bishop.  In the
name of Jesus Christ, you are to serve all
people, particularly the poor, the weak, the
sick, and the lonely"   
1979 Book of Common Prayer, pg 543
Ordination: Deacon
A place to talk about
outreach ministry, liturgy,
scripture, tradition, and
your questions!
What are deacons and what do they do?  A deacon is a member of one of four orders of
ministry in the church.  The four orders are; Laity, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.  Deacons
belong to the Diaconate which is an ordained order within the church.  The word Deacon is taken
from the Greek word Diakoneo which means "servant".  Hence the Diaconate is often called the
"Servant Ministry".   As quoted from the Book of Common Prayer above, Deacons work out in the
world among the poor, weak, sick and marginalized in life.  The Deacon brings the concerns of
the world to the church to help the church respond with ministry as means to spread the Gospel,
or Good News of Jesus Christ.  Liturgically, the deacon proclaims the Gospel to the congregation
as his/her ministry proclaims it in the world.  The Deacon sets the altar for communion and clears
the altar afterwards, much as a servant at a meal would do.  The Deacon offers the Dismissal to
lead the the congregation out into the world.  Based on local custom, Deacons also lead the
Prayers of the People and the General Confession.  At the Great Vigil of Easter Mass, the Deacon
carries the new Paschal Candle into the church, chanting "The Light of Christ" and censes the
new candle and then sings the "Exsultet", a hymn of praise for the Paschal Candle and the Risen
Lord
Outreach Ministry:     The World is a big place and it is full of problems from one end to the other.  A
common question is; "How can my little outreach efforts make a difference in such a broken world"?  Answer:  
God does not call us to solve the problems of the world.  He calls us to be faithful witnesses to the Gospel of
Jesus Christ and part of our witness to the Gospel is serving others.  In serving others we give them the
opportunity to see the Gospel in action, to be recipients of God's unconditional love.  We create a nexus, or a
place, where Christ's redemptive work of the cross can be brought to bear in personal and unique situations.  We
should always be aware that at those times we least expect it, someone may be watching us and learning and
being led by our actions, our words, or our quiet presence into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, a life
altering redemptive relationship where they may experience true love and true peace for the first times in their
lives.
Trinity Church
Pass Christian, MS
Trinity Church
Pass Christian, MS
Do you have a church, liturgy, ministry, or other question to pose?  Email
me by clicking this link!
           The Rev. Warren B. Mueller, deacon
Please remember to pray for Dr. Chris Feuillade, our full-time missionary
in Santiago De Chile, Chile S.A.  Click here to see information about his
ministry at Iglesia Del Salvador!
In a recent adult Sunday School class which is exploring the tenets of Anglican Faith the question came up
about God, and does He know all the future like He knows all the past, particularly if He is the unchanging
uncreated God who resides outside of time?   This is a most interesting question which has challenged the great
theologians down through the ages.  It is also a topic that has recently received an assist from science as new
research shapes thought in this area of inquiry.
Classical Physics gave us what is known as the Deterministic World.  That is, from events of the past we can
determine what the future will be.   For example, if I hit a baseball in a certain way, I can calculate, or determine
where it will fall.  Theologically, we expected God, living outside of time, to be the master at this exercise having
already calculated all these future outcomes for us.
But then along came Quantum Mechanics, which proposes that nothing in the future is nailed down by what
happened in the past.  A current event looks forward to an infinite number of future possibilities which have
different probabilities of occurring.  For instance when I get up in the morning there is a certain probability I will
make coffee (very high probability) or I won't (rather small probability).  Once I make a move either way, the
probability of that event goes to 100% and the probability of all the other events collapses to zero.  Theologically,
some have proposed that God is also looking at all those future probabilities and as soon as an event occurs He
then looks forward now to all the new future outcomes and their probabilities, ad infinitum.  Does God really work
this way?  Well, we don't know.  But having been created in His image, it has been proposed long ago that we
might come to know more about Him by knowing more about ourselves and the world we live in.
Please keep
Gloria Dei
Episcopal Church
in Cocoa, FL in
your prayers as
they discern a
path forward
with the global
Anglican
Communion.  
Their rector is Fr.
Paul Young.
In mid-April I attended a church conference in Orlando, hosted by the Diocese of Central Florida, on Church Planting
and Church Growth.   Bishop John Howe opened the conference with a story about his first encounter with church
planting when he was rector of Turo Church (formerly in the Diocese of Virginia).  To shorten his narrative, Turro
sent out 200 members to plant a new church and help with the bills!  Within a year, the new Plant was viable and
Turro had received enough new members to make up for those they sent out.  What an inspiring story of faith and
using the riches God had bestowed upon Turro.

There is another aspect to church growth to be mindful of.  It is the old "Mission vs Maintenance" paradigm.  In the
context of the Church, the word Mission inevitably brings up another “M” word called Maintenance.   As Alpha is
connected to Omega, so is Mission connected to Maintenance.   No doubt we have heard churches described as
being in “maintenance mode” or “mission mode” and perhaps didn’t really know what that meant.   It’s probably
easier to illustrate the difference than it is to define it.  Read this description of a church and decide whether it is
Mission or Maintenance mode:  “the Vestry fights about how to lower utility bills, the Altar Guild is upset because
someone bought a case of the wrong red wine, the Rector is ticked off at the painter who took too long to repaint
his office, the deacon wants to strangle the acolyte who doesn’t do the Gospel Procession just right, and the Music
Director is infuriated about music misspellings in the service bulletin”.   Or what about this church:  “the Deacon is
fretting because there may not be enough gift bags to distribute in the upcoming door to door canvas, the Rector is
a little frazzled trying to schedule three newcomer visits this week in addition to the newcomer party on Wednesday
night, the Vestry is concerned about someone getting stuck in the unpaved parking lot extension on a rainy day, the
Music director is struggling to add new religious music to the worship service so that new members will hear
something they might be familiar with and the Altar Guild is giddy with new volunteers.”
What is the big-picture difference here?????  Inward focus vs Outward focus.  Church growth consultants will charge
a lot of money to make it sound more complicated than that.  Sure, my description is simplistic, but it is also at no
charge.  It is also correct!  At Trinity we should pat ourselves on the back because we have managed to keep a
good sense of Mission in spite of the numerous things demanding inward focus.  Ok, stop patting now.  Pass  
Christian is changing, the coast is changing.  The opportunities for Mission are going to be greater than ever.  God is
blessing us with a lot of opportunities for Mission and resources to pursue it.  “Those who receive much, much will
be expected”.   We will have to do a lot of soul searching and reaching out to this community.  We help a lot of
people in this community already in small and large ways.   The greatest thing we could do is to be sure and invite
(and keep inviting) them to church.!
I just knew it was going to be one of those days!
The 32nd Annual Pass Christian Blessing of the Fleet-April 27, 2008
Pipes heading out            Getting ready                                 Wife (First Mate) Nan                 Blessing
Excursion boat                            Shrimper                                      Another Shrimper