David Collinsworth is a man comfortable with life “in a fishbowl.” Having worked in local government for the past 32 years in various roles, he knows what it’s like to have his words and actions scrutinized by the public, so he wasn’t intimidated when he learned that life as a deacon would be similar.

“When you’re a deacon and an ordained minister, people look at how you conduct yourself, not only within the church itself, but in your community and other contexts. And for me, that was a box I could check, because that’s the life of a city administrator,” Collinsworth said.

He retired after serving for 13 years as city manager of the Town of Westerville, where he lives with his wife, Jane. Their three children, Rachel, Abbie and Andrew, are now in their twenties.

Prior to his work in Westerville, Collinsworth served as city manager for Tipp City for 10 years and as assistant city manager in Miamisburg for seven years. In total, Collinsworth has spent 32 years in public service, with many of those positions requiring 50 to 60 hours of work per week. He said he sees meeting the needs of the community as a common and essential element of both public service and the diaconate.

“There are a lot of similarities and overlaps,” he said. “In both fields, you live in a fishbowl and the people you serve have certain expectations of you in terms of how you should behave and how you should interact with them. From that perspective, I would say that life in public service helped prepare me a little bit. It’s a different field, but the same concept.”

Life in local government may recall the plots of TV shows and movies with crazy situations involving neighbors, and Collinsworth had his share of such situations. Of course, there are many legitimate problems in the day-to-day life of a city, and Collinsworth enjoyed the challenge of bringing about improvements.

“In this role, you are expected to be able to solve problems and improve the overall life of the community, whether it’s through developing parks, improving services or meeting the unique needs of people in the community,” he said. “That was something that gave me a lot of intrinsic value.”

“In the wonderful world of local government, as I like to call it, people come to you with problems, challenges and concerns and expect that you can help them solve them. I can see in the diaconate that through your personal relationship with the congregation and the believers, you build a similar kind of relationship, even though people’s needs are different.

“Your problems and needs are spiritual, personal in nature. It’s the same kind of interaction. I come to you because you have something that can help me with my problem, my need, my problem. That’s a parallel to the diaconate: being open and available to serve and help solve needs and problems.”

Although Collinsworth is retired from public service, he now works as a management consultant, providing executive recruitment and other services to local agencies in Ohio and the Midwest. This has given him some more flexibility and time to study and prepare for the office of deacon.

“There was never a time in my adult life when I didn’t feel close to God,” he said. “The diaconate was a steady, slow flow of grace in my life. It was a gift of faith where I felt God was asking me to do more. It was a natural progression for me.”