Ranting to /dev/null

You should make a good deacon, Ryan.

What's the name of the church?

As a deacon would you primarily be involved in the works of mercy?

I've been growing to appreciate the WCF more lately, myself. I used to think it was overly academic, but that was when I only really knew it second-hand.

It's called Michiana Covenant Church. It's PCA. I suppose I'd be involved in the whole range of deaconal activities, though it's my understanding that those roles tend to be delegated rather consistently in most churches. Responsibility for the building and works of mercy would probably be most of it.

The decision of the congregation is a long way off: I'm not even eligible until December.

What is the WCF? I know it's a book, but what is it's purpose and how did it come to be?

The Westminster Confession of Faith. It was drafted by the English Parliament in the 1640s as a statement of faith for England's Protestant church in an attempt to unify various factions within British Protestantism.

For more information, check here or here. In brief, the Scottish Presbyterians were the de facto governing party in Scotland during a time when the English king, Charles I, was in big trouble. As such, the Scots gained influence in the national Parliament and this document was drafted under their supervision. It was never adopted by the Church of England, but has been adopted by the Church of Scotland and various other Presbyterian groups.

So what does it take to be a deacon in your Church? Young men in my church have the opportunity to become a deacon at age 12 if they are worthy. (I'm LDS by the way)

There isn't a specified minimum age, but I've not heard of anyone becoming a deacon in the PCA who wasn't at least in their mid-twenties. Most are older, and most are married. The basic requirements are to be a man (or in rare cases woman) of good standing in the congregation that the church believes would be well-suited to deaconal leadership ministry. As such, no one considered to be a child - generally using 18 as the cutoff - would even be considered. The specific processes by which one becomes a deacon vary from congregation to congregation but generally involve some training period, approval by the elders and election by the congregation.

Do you believe in priesthood authority?

I don't know. That sounds like terminology not used outside Mormon circles, as I've never heard it before.

The Catholics use it too, having priesthood authority means you have authority from God to act in His name. It's bestowed by someone with proper authority through the laying on of hands, which means no in answer to my question I guess.

From my understanding, Catholics tend to mean something slightly different than that. Most Christian denominations don't believe that there are any apostles left. The Catholics do assert that the pope is in some sense the heir of Peter, but this strikes me as being rather different than the Mormon perspective.

It also depends on exactly how far the authority in question extends. Even Protestants hold that only properly ordained ministers may administer the sacraments, just like Catholics, but Protestants don't believe that anyone in the church has the authority to set forth infallible dogma.