The Diaconate: A Primer on Deacons--(who are deacons and what do they do?)

Benjamin Merkle has some helpful teaching in his book, 40 Questions about Elders and Deacons that has served as the basis of some of my conclusions here below.

Description and roles of deacons

• Distinctions between elders and deacons: they are not given a ruling function over teaching and leading in the church like elders are (1 Tim. 3:4, 12; cf. 3:5 with deacon qualifications).
• Also note other differences with elder qualifications that allude to the fact that elders would face different situations in oversight that would require such characteristics, whereas deacons would not (eg. 3:3, 6 versus 10[i], and absence of teaching requirement of deacons).

• Notice also “overseer” in 3:2 means general oversight over spiritual well-being of congregation, and “deacon” means one who has a service-oriented ministry.

• Duties of deacons: they are given a place to provide leadership over the service-oriented functions of the church.

• The service-oriented functions are not clearly indicated in Scripture, but based on Acts 6 as a pattern that seems to be established in the NT church, deacons are appointed servants who do whatever is necessary to allow the elders to accomplish their God-given calling of shepherding and teaching the church.

• “In the servant role, deacons take care of those mundane and temporal matters of church life so that elders are freed to concentrate upon spiritual matters. Deacons provide much needed wisdom and energy to the ample physical needs in the church, often using such provision as opportunities to minister as well to the spiritual needs of others” ((Phil Newton, Elders in Congregational Life, p. 41).

• 1 Tim. 3 qualifications may also provide clues to their functions
• “[Deacons] seem to have had some responsibility in caring for the finances of the church, since they had to be people who were “not greedy for gain” (v. 8). They perhaps had some administrative responsibilities in other activities of the church as well, because they were to manage their children and their households well (v. 12). They may also have ministered to the physical needs of those in the church or community who needed help [Acts 6] (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 919).

• Duties deacons might be responsible for seem to include any item not related to teaching and ruling the church. Below are some possibilities:

• Facilities (property management and maintenance)
• Benevolence (administrating help for the needy)
• Finances (the day-to-day duties of collecting, counting, recording, assisting in church budget, etc.)
• Logistics (anything that keeps the machinery of the church organism running smoothly: ushering, etc.)

• Summary
• Deacon is a subordinate office to the elder office.
• Deacon is a distinct office in regard to its duties and qualifications from elders.
• Deacon is an important office. Both word ministry (elders) and practical ministry (deacons) are necessary. It is not one to the exclusion of another.                   

•  Conclusion
• Deacon description—if the precedent for deacons is Acts 6, then the job description of deacons is one appointed for caring for physical needs and doing whatever is necessary for the elders to be able to focus on their work of teaching and shepherding.

 


[i] Deacons are to be tested. Elders are to not be a novice (new convert) lest they may become puffed up with conceit. Perhaps this is demanded of elders because the office of holding oversight over the church would make a new convert more susceptible to pride, whereas a deacon who is serving the church in more behind-the-scenes functions may be less likely to fall into pride.