DEACONS
Paul and
Peter listed and described specific “functions” for elders/overseers… God’s people in “every tribe and language and people and nation”
(Rev. 5:9) and at any period in history need oversight, teaching, admonishing,
and prayer. However, the specific “functions” for the deacons are never
spelled out in detail – except the one that is inherent in their title – to
“serve” (diakoneo). The generic “function”
must be fleshed out in various ways from place to place at different points in
time and history…as they assist the elders/overseers in carrying out their
shepherding responsibilities.
Gene Getz
Elders and Leaders, Moody, 2003, p.
103, 102.
Deacons, too,
fill a New Testament office, one rooted in Acts 6. While any absolute
distinction between (deacons and elders) is difficult, the concern
of the deacons are the practical details of church life: administration,
maintenance, and the care of church members with physical needs.
Mark Dever
Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Crossway,
2000, p. 217.
Deacons…serve
to care for the physical and financial needs of the church, and they do so in a
way that heals divisions, brings unity under the Word, and supports the
leadership of the elders. Without this practical service of the deacons, the
elders will not be freed to devote themselves to praying and serving the Word
to the people. Elders need deacons to serve practically, and deacons need
elders to lead spiritually.
Mark Dever and Paul
Alexander
The
Importance of Elders, taken from The Deliberate Church, © 2005, Crossway Books,
a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, p. 132, www.crosswaybooks.org.
One of the
quickest ways for a pastor to raise needless questions about his integrity, to
become burdened with things unnecessary, and to be tempted to treat members
with partiality is to become involved in the church’s finances. Though the
elders are ultimately responsible, the day-to-day affairs are best left to the
deacons.
Practical Wisdom for Pastors, Crossway, 2001,
p. 108.
Here are just
a few of the tasks [the deacons] can handle for the church:
1.
Collect,
account for and distribute the offerings.
2.
Maintain
the physical properties of the church – buildings, grounds, vehicles, etc.
3.
Care
for the widows, orphans and other needy members of the body.
4.
Pay
the church bills.
5.
Supervise
the benevolence program of the church.
6.
Determine
the salaries and benefit programs for the church staff.
7.
Purchase
and supervise the church’s insurance policies.
8.
Create
and maintain church budgets.
9.
Provide
care for those members who have physical and financial needs.
10. Supervise building programs.
11. Usher and otherwise assist at the
services.
12. Assist the elders in the distribution
of the Lord’s Supper.
13. Provide transportation for those
members who are not mobile.
Curtis Thomas
Life in the Body of Christ, Founders Press, 2006, p. 164-165,
www.founderspress.org. Used by Permission.
William
Olney and Joseph Passmore…were deacons for many years
at London’s Metropolitan Tabernacle during the pastorate of Charles Haddon
Spurgeon. Their busy stewardship of service involved the administration of
almshouses, orphanages, relief missions, training schools, retirement homes,
tract societies, and colportages.
George Grant
The
High Calling of Service, Tabletalk, May 2008, p. 68, Used by Permission.
The
special purpose of the deacon is found in Acts 6:1–7; they assist the elders in
the ministry to the poor and widows (mercy ministry) so the elders can devote
themselves to the ministry of prayer and the Word. As the name implies in the
Greek, the deacons’ primary function is that of service. They perform their
duties under the oversight of the elders.
Howard Q. Davis Jr.
We
Don’t Need Supermen, Tabletalk, July 2008, p. 65. Used by Permission.
What may we
observe about deacons in Acts 6:1-7?
1. Their work was practical in nature.
2. Their name also denotes the practical nature of their work. They are
servants. But practical work is spiritual work when done for Christ and the
kingdom.
3. Their objective was to relieve the elders (originally the apostles) for the
ministry of the Word, prayer, and oversight of the church.
4. They were to be accountable to the Elders (“whom we may put in charge”).
5. Their work was assigned and was not related to decision-making for the
church as a whole.
6. Some deacons were also gifted in other areas of ministry and were at liberty
to use their gifts. Stephen and Phillip, for instance, were deacons who also
had other gifting. As deacons, however, they functioned in a practical way.
Deacons are not limited to practical service, but must be engaged in practical
service to be deacons.
Jim Elliff
The
Function of Deacons, Christian Communicators Worldwide,
www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.