I have Converted!

The new blog is bigger and better than ever. Considering the last one sucked, that does not say much!

What Is a Deacon Anyway?

In trying to better understand my role as a deacon at our church, I have been studying about what a deacon is, what a deacon does, and what a deacon should be doing in our current cultural context. I have to say I have been surprised in my finding in the text of Scripture. Here are some general thoughts to start with....

I have been asking people as of late what their understanding is, of the office of a deacon? To no surprise they answer something like "To take care of the widows and poor people in the church" "To help lead the church" "To pass the offering plates." These few answers sum up what I believe is most peoples understanding is of the office. I guess if I were to be honest, I thought the same thing myself up until recently.

Let's look at Acts 6 for a closer look at the earliest form of the office.

1In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word."

The question I kept asking myself from this passage is "Why were these men selected?" I also kept answering it in the context of the widows, but upon further study it becomes clear that these men were not selected just to feed widows, these men were selected to take pressure off of the Elders so they could better devote themselves to the Word and Prayer. Yes, the immediate context of what was taking the Elders away from the Word and Prayer was the feeding of the widows. It is important though to realize that these men were not created with the purpose of waiting on tables. These men were selected to give more time for the Elders to be in the Word. I believe this is a very important distinction, because it lays out cross-culturally what the deacons are to be doing in each generation and in each culture.

One reason I wrestled so much with the issue is due to our lack of "widows" in the modern day US church. The original church did not have medicine like we have. Men were working far more than women. If and when the man died, the women had nothing to support them (especially if they had no family. (I Timothy 5:16 If any woman who is a believer has widows in her family, she should help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.). These widows were not remarrying like our widows do in our culture. With all of that said, it is easy to see why widows were such a focus to the early church. Now as i look at our churches, we don't have the same issue (as much). The office cannot be centered around the widows. There is clearly more to the office.