Deacons, pt 2

"For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." - Mark 10:45

In the last post, we looked at the word Deacon, and thought about what it means to be a "one-woman man." Today, I want to think about another, somewhat peripheral topic, but one that is necessary for each church to think through and decide on.

How long should Deacons serve?

There was a church where the deacons did not exemplify the servant leadership that is described in Acts 6. Instead, the deacons operated like a committee with the same authority as the pastor, able to decide the direction of the church, hire and fire pastors, and set the goals and objectives for the church. While this might functionally be ok if the Deacons are seeking what is good for the church, it also has the potential to go very poorly because 1) Biblically, they are not given this authority by God, and 2) they are not actually serving the church according to Acts 6 and so there is a ministry gap that will lead to a lack of health and unity in the church. Pastors are given shepherding and oversight responsibilities, Deacons are appointed by the church in order to take the lead in problem solving and preserving the unity in the church in regards to non-doctrinal issues (Acts 6:1-7).

If you grew up in Baptist circles, you have probably heard stories about deacons who didn't like what a pastor was doing, so they brought a recommendation to the church and put it to vote at the next business meeting, where people who hadn't been to the church in years showed up and voted because they heard somethign from the deacons about what the pastor was doing.

Unfortunately, these stories are true. This really does happen.

It is never good for a church when this happens. So how can a church set themselves up so that this will not happen to them? The clearest way is to make sure that you nominate deacons and screen deacons so that only those who line up with the qualification in 1 Timothy 3 are ordained to serve. But having a rotation of Deacons (maybe three years on and one year off before being re-elected) might be a way to help. This way there is a built in mechanism in case an issue arises with a Deacon. There is no mention of a timeline for how long Deacons served in the NT, however, so this is a matter of wisdom, not of requirement.

This has another added benefit. It clearly defines what the Deacon is agreeing to when they serve the church. When a term is indefinite, it can be intimidating, or easy to think of reasons why one might not be able to fulfill that role. But putting a timetable on it helps to alleviate those concerns.

This also helps people practice the pattern of withdrawal and rest. Jesus came to serve, but He also took time to withdraw and pray (Luke 5:16), and He taught His disciples to do the same (Mark 6:31). Serving people takes time and work, especially when that is your role. And so building in a time of rest can be helpful to roles of service.

Everyone is supposed to imitate Christ and serve / minister to each other. You don’t need a title to be able to serve. But God gives Deacons to churches in order to make sure that ministries can be focused on and flow out of the congregation while the ministry of the word remains central.