Deacons
Podcast Transcript: 1/22/24
We’re still on the topic of church leadership. Today we’ll discuss an often-misunderstood role within the church, which is the role of deacon. What are the qualifications of a deacon and what part do they play in the life of the local church? How are we to understand deacons in relation to elders? Are deacons co-leaders together with the pastors? We’ll address that. Today, we’ll also tackle the issue of gender roles as they relate to leadership in the church. You might have noticed last week that I did not use gender neutral language in our discussion about elders. We didn’t have time to address that last week, but we will get to it in this episode. Let’s get started.
Just after Paul lists the qualifications of an elder for his protégé Timothy, he also gives the qualifications for a deacon in 1 Timothy 3:8-13. It says, “Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. [Women must likewise] be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.”
Ok, here we have similar language with the qualifications of an elder. Deacons must also practice good judgement and be able to practice self-control. A deacon must hold to the clear teaching of Scripture, to the doctrines of the faith once for all delivered to the saints. They must not be greedy. Here we have a charge to test the individual first, which is something you don’t see in the elder qualifications (that could be because the candidate for elder should not be a “recent convert” – but we don’t see that as a qualification for a deacon. So, if you have a deacon candidate who might be a recent convert, a period of testing would be very important).
I’m going to hold off on discussion about verse 11 here till the end, because this will be part of our discussion about gender roles as they relate to leadership in the church.
If you have a male candidate, this is to be a one-woman-man, again mirroring the qualifications of an elder. This brother should exude faithfulness to his wife. If this brother has a family, you should look for someone who manages his household well. If a brother has a disordered household, that’s not someone you want to appoint as a deacon.
One thing you do not notice about these qualifications: A requirement to be able to teach. Because that’s not the role of a deacon. Deacons might be able to teach and might do a fair amount of teaching in the church, but this is not specific to their role. Let’s get into the role of a deacon. What does a deacon do.
For this we’ll go to Acts 6:1-7.
Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
The 7 mentioned in this passage, although they’re not called deacons, it’s generally recognized that these were the prototype. This is where the office originated. From the context we can learn a lot, actually, about the role of a deacon. Notice that the apostle’s main concern was that the preaching of the word would suffer if they were being constantly distracted by issues related to the management of ministry in the church. So, these brothers were appointed to manage this ministry. If you take this together with the meaning of the word deacon (diakonos), which means servant, you see that the primary role of a deacon is to serve in the various ministries of the church. Deacons serve, by managing, administering various works and ministries connected with the church. So, for example, if the church has a ministry to elderly shut-ins in the local church, which many churches do, the deacon fellowship will generally take that on. And much of a deacon’s role is designed for freeing up the elders to accomplish their primary task of leading and teaching.
When there are deacons serving in the local church, doing what deacons are supposed to do, we can expect the result to be what we see in verse 7 here in Acts, chapter 6, “the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly…”
Deacons are a major asset to the life and ministry of the church.
Now, let’s address the question, do deacons lead? Are deacons co-leaders with the elders of the church? Scripture’s answer to that is “no.” Though deacons are respected and a special asset to the church, they are not elders, nor are they to function in that role. The reason we even have to address this is because, in many Baptist churches, small congregations became accustomed to appointing one pastor (or elder), alongside a board of deacons. And in order to keep continuity and a more-or-less functional leadership structure, the board of deacons would become a de facto leadership board and start to function as such. Rather than a plurality of elders leading the church, you would have a single pastor that, in many cases, would be answerable to the deacon/de facto leadership board. Scripturally, this is a disordered situation. That isn’t the way these roles were meant to function. With this arrangement, you end up with, in many cases, an unqualified leadership board made up of deacons and a hen-pecked pastor or in a worst-case scenario, a pastor that is actually stripped of his leadership role and is just the guy who preaches on Sunday.
We want to make extra sure that we use biblical language and that roles in the church fit their function. We want to, as much as possible, follow a biblical organization of leadership and government in the church. Elders ought to be leading. Deacons ought to be serving: managing and administrating various ministries in the church. These are two separate, unambiguous roles in the church.
With that said, our new recommended bylaws for The River do state that deacons are recognized as spiritual servants of the church. When deacons are established, their role will be limited to much of what I’ve stated here, managing and administrating various ministries of the church.
Ok, let me call your attention back to verse 11 in our 1 Timothy 3 passage. I believe this verse is critical to understanding those gender roles in the church that I told you we’d address. There are 2 different ways that one might read this. The wooden translation, the direct language of the text reads this way: “Likewise a woman (or wife) must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober minded, faithful in all things.” There are translations that will add the English possessive word “their” to the text, forcing it to read, “their wives,” which would then be read to mean the wives of deacons. Although I acknowledge this verse could mean the wives of deacons, I don’t believe it does. So as not to spend too much time on this, I’m just going to quote from 9-Marks’ Matt Smethurst’s book on Deacons (Smethurst believes it is biblical to have women serve as deacons, which is the view I also hold). “Scripture nowhere forbids women deacons” he writes as a heading to one of the sections. He writes, “In short, there is no ‘1 Timothy 2:12 equivalent’ for deacons, since theirs is not an office of spiritual authority and is therefore naturally open to qualified women. Why forbid what the Bible doesn’t.” This basically puts to words my conviction that we should never go beyond what Scripture says. There’s other evidence as well supporting women as qualified deacons. One of the more notable in Scripture is Paul’s mention of Phoebe in Romans 16:1-2, where she is called a deacon, a diakonos of the church. Evidence front-and-center, I’m firmly in the camp that would support women as deacons in the local church.
So, if you’re considering a female candidate for deacon, you ought to be looking for a women who is dignified, she practices good judgement, she’s fair and honest. She’s not slanderous. If you catch even a hint of willingness to gossip, that’s not a woman you want to appoint as a deacon. She’s to be faithful in all things. She’s to be an example to others in all things.
Before we finish with this topic, I want to bring you back to that Scripture reference I mentioned earlier, 1 Timothy 2:12. Paul says, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man…” This is in the context of the local church. What Paul has in view here is authority. Let’s talk gender roles. Why would the role of elder be limited to men in the local church, surly there are many intelligent women in the church able to teach. It has to do with authority. The local church is a family of faith. This is God’s household. In a household, there are unambiguous gender roles, where a husband is head of the family, even as Christ is head over the church. This is God’s design, the way he created things to work best and reflect his glory. This is why the role of leadership, headship, in the local church is reserved for men.
The role of deacon is not a role of authority, and is therefore not limited to men.
Alright then. There you have it. Christ is head of the church, elders lead the church, deacons serve the ministry of the church, so how are these kept accountable? Well, tune in next week and we’ll talk about the role of the congregation in our discussion about leadership.
