Organizing Your Church: What the Bible Really Says About Deacons

So what’s right?

There are two things we need to answer.

First, what is the true Biblical plan for deacons, if we can even retrieve one.

Second, what’s the best way to organize the ministries of the church, consistent with the first point?

What deacons are really supposed to do

The organization of the early church is patterned, in part, on the Jewish synagogue. Both the synagogue and early churches were overseen by elders. Both judged disputes between their members outside the government’s court system (1 Cor 6:1-8).

However, the synagogues had no office called “deacon.”

CENI: A Better Way — The Acts of the Apostles

Let’s try the same thing with Acts. After all, Luke wrote Acts as something of a sequel to his Gospel. Let’s again purge from our minds the notion that Acts is all about baptism. It’s not. Let’s try to take a fresh look.

What’s in Acts?

* We can’t help but notice that the outline of Acts follows the command given the apostles at the beginning — go first to the Jews, and then Samaria, and then the Gentiles.

* The work of the Holy Spirit is unmistakeably prominent. Peter presents the coming of the Spirit as in fulfillment of prophecy regarding the Messianic age. And we see the Spirit pushing the Kingdom farther and farther out into the world. In fact, whether it’s an angel, the Spirit, or even God himself, all the big steps in Acts are initiated from heaven.

Buried Talents: How Do We Decide?

What is the rule in this case? Do we presume a rule or do we presume freedom? What does the Bible say?

(Gal. 3:25) Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

Why do we insist on replacing the law that Christ died to free us from with a new, equally strict law? Can you tell any difference between our debates over whether a man must resign as elder if his wife dies or if his only child (or one of his two children) dies or is divorced and the debates the Pharisees had as to whether it is right to heal on the Sabbath? I can’t. They thought they were honoring God by strictly construing His commands to be “safe.” They built fences around the law to be doubly safe. They are burning in hell. Let’s not follow their example.

Buried Talents: Deacons (Conclusions)

In conclusion:

1. In the only possible scriptural description of the role of a deacon, Acts 6:1-6, the apostles themselves described the deacons’ jobs, perhaps ironically, as “waiting on tables.” There is no justification for our expanding the role of the deacon any farther than specified in Acts 6, where it was simply the task of handling the benevolent program.

The Second Century church also saw the job of a deacon similarly. This is in accord with the views of such notable Restoration commentators as Robert Richardson,Tolbert Fanning, W. K. Pendleton, and E. G. Sewell. We must be silent where the Bible is silent.

2. The only possible example that we have of how deacons served is that the seven were appointed to a single task, very much as a committee.

Buried Talents: Arguments for and against female deacons

The scriptural argument normally centers on 1 Timothy 3:11.

11 In the same way, their wives are to be women worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything.

As indicated by italics in the KJV, “their” is not found in the Greek. Moreover, “women,” as translated in the NIV, is not in the Greek. Thus, a more literal translation would be-

11 In the same way, wives are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything.

The word translated “wives” in the NIV is gune. It can mean “women” or “wives” depending on the context, and it is perfectly ambiguous. The same word is translated “wife” in verse 12, but could be translated “woman” just as well (“husband of one wife” is better translated “one-woman man”).

Buried Talents: Deacons, Part 1

I refer the reader to the excellent book Deacons: Male and Female? by J. Stephen Sandifer. Sandifer explains in great detail the history of deacons in the synagogues, the early church, and throughout history. The research on which this section is based (but not the arguments made) is a very brief condensation of his work.

What does a deacon do?

What does a deacon do? There are only two sources of information: the word for deacon and Acts 6. “Deacon,” or diakonos, is an untranslated word when used of a church official. It actually means “servant” or “minister.” It does not mean minister in the sense of “preacher.” The same word was used by the ancients to refer to any servant, such as a waiter or busboy.

In Gentile religions, deacons were frequently appointed, and the term normally referred to the persons handling the organization’s funds or the persons responsible for distributions of food to the needy. The Gentile deacons were not rulers, but simply trusted men or women who conducted a congregation’s benevolent program.