Duties and Qualifications of Deacons October 29, 2012
What exactly do deacons do? Acts 6:1-7 gives us ourfullest introduction to the ministry of deacons. In this passage, certain needywidows in the Jerusalemchurch were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. The churchresponded by installing qualified men specifically to oversee this ministry andmake sure every member received proper care. These men became, I believe,prototypes for the office of deacon in the New Testament church. This passagesuggests that deacons have three main functions:
First, deacons’ primary duty is to attend to thepractical needs of the church, for example, caring for shut-ins, monitoringfinancial and physical needs, and ministering in times of bereavement. Whilethe elders share this responsibility with the deacons, elders attend primarilyto the congregation’s spiritual needs and deacons primarily to physical needs.
Second, deacons help unify the church. When we stepback a bit from the details of the story in Acts 6, we notice a bigger purposefor why the church installed deacons: to deal with a dispute in the body.Physical neglect was producing spiritual disunity. The apostles’ solution wasto appoint deacons to restore unity in the church. Thus, deacons ought to bepeople who make peace and heal breaches, not those who complain the loudest orjar the church with their actions or attitudes. Deacons are the church’s “shockabsorbers,” the “connective tissue” in the body of Christ.
Finally, deacons seek to alleviate some of theresponsibilities of the elders so that the elders may devote themselves to theword and prayer. Again, this is because the elders’ first priority is theministry of the word; deacons’ first priority is the ministry of the saints.
So who can serve as a deacon? Anyone—man or woman—whofulfills these duties and meets the qualifications listed in Acts 6:1-4 and 1Timothy 3:8-13. Our elders believe the Scriptures open the office of deacon towomen, called “deaconesses.” Phoebe is a biblical example (Rom 16:1 cf. RSV). 1Timothy 3:11 (cf. NASB, RSV) lists specific qualifications for deaconesses.Furthermore, opening the deaconate to women is no violation of biblical genderroles, for if you reexamine the three functions of deacons listed above, you’llsee that 1) this office has no vested authority and 2) its duties lend themselvesto women, at least in many cases.