The Deacon

By Deacon Dale Phillips

The scent of sawdust and a hammer’s heft in my grasp have always been my familiar friends. These basic tools taught me deep lessons about service, patience, and the value of hands-on work long before I knelt for the bishop to ordain me as a deacon. Back then, I didn’t know how well these experiences would set me up to understand Christ the Servant and live out the diaconal calling.

The Workshop as Sacred Space

Working with your hands has a spiritual quality to it. Building a bookshelf, fixing a neighbor’s fence, or showing a kid how to hold a screwdriver all link us to the basic act of creating. The Bible depicts God as a craftsman, shaping Adam from earth’s clay and giving life to his creation. Even Jesus was called a tekton – a worker, a builder, someone who turned raw materials into useful things.

As deacons, we have a duty to serve where the sacred meets the everyday, bringing Christ into life’s regular moments. The workshop, garage, or job site turns into a place to encounter more than just wood, metal, or stone; it becomes a spot to meet the living God, who invites us to join his continuous work of creating and restoring.

When I teach confirmation candidates about the dignity of work, I often take them to my workshop. At first, they’re puzzled. “Why are we learning about faith while making birdhouses?” But this confusion changes to understanding as they feel the joy of creating something pretty and useful themselves.

They start to see that in God’s world, there’s no divide between the sacred and the everyday. Any honest work, when given to Christ, becomes a prayer.

Learning Patience Through Process

Hands-on work teaches virtue in a powerful way – particularly patience and humility. If you rush when cutting, you’ll ruin good wood. A weld done too quickly creates weak spots that show up when things get tough. These lessons apply to serving as a deacon where you might feel tempted to speed through church duties or not pay enough attention to the real needs of the people you’re helping. Doing this can harm the very service you’re meant to give.

I recall spending a whole Saturday helping an older church member fix her front porch steps. A job we thought would take two hours ended up lasting eight when we found rotten supports and deeper structural problems. At first, I felt frustrated, but then I realized: this was where Jesus wanted me to be. The extra time gave us a chance to talk about her husband who had passed away, her worries about living by herself, and how thankful she was for a Church community that cared enough to send someone to help.

The job itself took a back seat to the connection it created. This forms the core of diaconal service: showing up for others when they need it and spending the time to complete the task, whether that task involves fixing a porch or hearing out a troubled soul. Hands-on work shows us that quick fixes often lead to bigger issues down the road, and that taking time to do things right is itself an act of love.

The Community of Labor

Working with my hands has brought an unexpected benefit: it builds community. Construction sites, workshops, and volunteer events bring guys together from all sorts of backgrounds, ages, and life situations. You’ll see a lawyer teaming up with an electrician, or a retired teacher sharing tools with a young dad just starting out. During these times, the fake barriers that often keep us apart melt away as we all enjoy the simple pleasure of good honest work.

This reflects the diaconal call to connect different worlds, to be men who move between varied spheres. When I’m asked to help families facing tough times, my work with other men gives me trust and shared experiences. The dad who is now jobless knows I get how important it is to support your family through manual labor. The teen unsure about their future sees that learning a craft or trade isn’t shameful – it’s a way to find meaning and pride in oneself.

Tools as Symbols of Service

Each tool in my workshop has a tale to tell and offers a lesson for diaconal life. The level reminds me that truth is crucial; that we need to help others build their lives on firm foundations in line with Gospel values. The measuring tape highlights the need to prepare and pay attention to details in liturgical service. The square shows the importance of integrity by making sure that what we create in ministry will last over time.

Above all else, well-kept tools serve as a reminder that we too need to stay sharp and prepared to serve. A dull saw struggles to make clean cuts much like a deacon who ignores his spiritual life, ongoing growth, and bond with Christ will find his ministry lacks effectiveness and brings frustration. Regular prayer, study, and participation in the sacraments act as the “sharpening” that keeps us ready to provide whatever service God calls us to do.

Mentorship and Formation

Working with my hands has given me a chance to teach others, and it’s been one of the best parts of the job. I’ve taught my sons, grandsons, and young guys from church who need to learn useful skills and have good men to look up to. When I’m teaching them, we often end up talking about more than just the task at hand. It’s a natural way for life lessons to come up while we’re working together.

Not long ago, I taught a group of teenage

boys how to make simple wooden crosses for our parish’s outdoor Stations of the Cross. One young man grew frustrated with his apparent lack of skill. His cross looked crooked, his cuts were uneven, and he wanted to give up. “It doesn’t need to be perfect,” I said to him showing my own first try at woodworking from many years back. “What’s important is that you’re putting your heart into it, that you’re trying to create something to help others.”

That talk sparked in-depth chats about how God stays patient with our flaws, how He uses our clumsy tries to achieve his goals, and why it’s key to keep going in both crafting and following Jesus. The young guy completed his cross – not perfect, but from the heart – and now it stands in our prayer garden. It shows that God works through hands that are willing, no matter how skilled they are.

The Incarnational Dimension

Using our hands to work creates a physical link to the Incarnation – the fact that God decided to become human, to take on a body and fully join our physical world. Jesus didn’t stay a pure spirit; He accepted the constraints and opportunities of having a human body. He felt the heft of tools, the pride in completing a task well, and the soreness of muscles after a long day’s work.

This physical aspect plays a crucial role in diaconal service. We don’t act as bodiless spirits giving out spiritual guidance, but as men who grasp the whole range of human life. When we help the jobless, we can talk with the confidence of those who understand the value and need for work. When we give our blessing to workers’ tools and gear, we do it knowing their significance – not just for money, but for the soul.

Building the Kingdom

In the end, using our hands serves as a symbol of our role in constructing God’s Kingdom. Every act of service, whether swinging a hammer or performing baptism, has an impact on the massive restoration work that God is carrying out in the world. Our calling is to be soul artisans helping to fix what sin has damaged, to rebuild what hopelessness has destroyed, to bring beauty into places that were once broken.

The joy you feel when you finish a tough project is like the deep satisfaction of effective ministry. When a family makes up, when a young person finds their way, when an older church member feels appreciated and looked after – these are the “completed projects” of a deacon’s life, acts of grace done through willing hands led by a servant’s heart.

As I tidy up my tools at the workday’s end, I think about the new jobs, hurdles, make the sign of the cross to bless, and reach out to comfort those who grieve. In Christ the Servant, we don’t split the holy from the everyday, or the tasks in the workshop from the duties in the church. All honest work done with love takes part in the ongoing creation and salvation of the world. TD