The Diaconate in the Diocese of New Jersey: Discernment Kit: Reflection Questions for Inquirers

Self-Awareness

1. What do you consider your strengths and weaknesses to be and how would they affect your work as a deacon?
2. What work have you done in diaconal ministry that has been particularly satisfying to you?
3. If you are ordained deacon in the future, how will you function differently?
4. If you are not ordained deacon, will your ministry change? If so, how?

Leadership Skills

1. Have you ever attempted to develop leadership skills in others? What personal characteristics are needed in order to succeed in this?
2. Are you satisfied with your ability to deal with conflict?

The Spiritual Journey

1. What are the recurring questions you encounter as you continue on your faith journey?
2. How do you experience the Holy?
3. How would you describe your faith to a non-believer? to a friend?

Knowledge of the Episcopal Church and its Tradition

1. What servant ministries do you see as needing further development in the Episcopal Church?
2. Are there ways in which the deacon?s role in the church should change in the future?
3. Why would you be able to carry out your diaconal ministry more effectively as an ordained deacon than as a lay person?

Discerning a Call to a Specific Order

1. Do you feel a call to preside, gather, and nurture?
2. Are you comfortable with, and would you seek out, serious pastoral relationships with others, one on one? (If the answer is 'yes' the call is probably to the priesthood.) 
3. Do you feel fulfilled carrying out a specific aspect of servant ministry - such as visiting hospital patients, visiting in prisons, helping in food pantries or homeless shelters? (If the answer is 'yes', without a leadership or empowering component, the call is probably to lay ministry.) 
4. Why choose service and not sacrament?
5. Why do you want to lead and not simply engage in direct action?