day no. 15,501: five areas of influence and governance

"Following John Stott, I would like to point out the candidate for church office must display a solid character in five main areas. First, in relation to himself, he must be mature and self-controlled in the areas of alcohol, money, temper, and tongue. With regard to his relation to his family, he must be faithful to his wife and an effective and loving leader of his kids. With regard to his relation to others generally, he must be hospitable and gentle. With regard to his relation to outsiders, he must be highly esteemed. And last, with regard to his relation to the faith, he must have a strong hold on it, and gifted in teaching it." -- Douglas Wilson, Deacons and the Women

Any candidate for the offices of elder or deacon must have FIVE areas of governance under control in order to qualify for consideration. He must be in good and godly relation:

1. TO HIMSELF
2. TO HIS FAMILY
3. TO OTHERS GENERALLY
4. TO OUTSIDERS
5. TO THE FAITH

God has given men governance and they must exercise it over themselves, over their wives and children, over those to whom they are given responsibility, in front of those whom they have no responsibility and under God. If a man is not a good citizen of each of these spheres, he cannot be given leadership in the sphere of church governance.

day no. 14,007: a subtle, undeniable difference

An Elder is a man whose opinion cannot be quickly or easily dismissed. A deacon is a person whose service cannot be quickly or easily denied.

day no. 13,995: serving the church

Not fully baked out, but these are my initial thoughts.

 

Our biggest difficulty in addressing this topic is our tendency to turn it into an anachronism. What I mean by that is this: we can't read our modern understanding about who deacons are and what they do back into texts like 1 Timothy 3. I'll give you an example. We have all seen churches in the Baptist model that employ a deacon board. Granted, we know this model is unbiblical as a church should be led by a plurality of Elders, but nevertheless, this is the most common context we even have for who and what deacons are and do. Consider the following dialogue

 

PERSON: "Does Scripture allow a woman to serve in that capacity?"

ME: "No."

 

PERSON: "But doesn't the Bible say Phoebe was a deaconess and the verses in 1 Tim 3 point out that women were called to serve in that capacity!"

ME: "You are correct, it does appear Paul mentions women serving as deacons in 1 Tim 3 and in Romans 16 when he refers to Phoebe."

 

PERSON: "So why do you say that women can't be deacons you hypocrite, chauvinist jerkwad!"

ME: "Because deacons should not be the leadership of a church, but if they are serving in that capacity, then the clear principles from 1 Tim 2 (mentioned just prior to the qualifications of who can actually lead and be employed in serving the church in 1 Tim 3) would apply. Women are not to have authority over men. So if your definition and job description of a deacon is an individual in a position that has authority over men, then No, women are not Scripturally permitted to occupy the office you are describing. The conflict is between what deacons originally were and what we now presume them to be. So, yes, women can serve the church by carrying out any instructions and general service prescribed by the Elders of the church, but no, they cannot be the ones issuing instructions."

 

A woman's primary service and focus should be on her own household which is why it makes no mention of her being a one-husband woman and specifically states that the men must be one-woman men. So this would make your pool reduced to single women with the spiritual gift of celibacy who are committed to a life of chastity or an older widow who no longer has a husband to serve due to his death or children to serve due to them being adults.

 

We do a disservice to the office of deacon both by elevating it to a place of leadership it was never intended and by reducing it to a cute way for people to serve the church by giving them an official title. This is why it is Biblically both non-authoritative and yet so highly restrictive. Not just anyone can be a deacon, they are vetted as seriously as Elders, not because they rule the church as Elders do, but because they are committed to serve the church extensively. They are more akin to church staff than mobilized lay people in some regards. You vet your church staff more exhaustively than you do your bass player in the band, while understanding both require some level of examination. But Elders are examined and tested most stringently because they occupy the highest role of the church, leading it, shepherding it, teaching it, protecting it, serving it, etc… Deacons help the Elders serve the church by doing what the Elders need them to do, not a separate authoritative body operating independently.

 

http://www.canonwired.com/ask-doug/female-deacons/

 

http://www.gty.org/resources/positions/P12/answering-the-key-questions-about-deacons