I just do not see the scriptures stating that Deacons are involved in the spiritual aspect of the local assembly, more to its physical needs and up keeping!
-
Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!
Female Deacons? Yes or No
- Thread starter Mikey
- Start date
My church allows for both females and males to serve as Deacons, but they are not tasked with the spiritual aspects of the local assembly, but more to its physical needs and up keeping.
Kentuckymama
Member
The man is the deacon and the wife may serve with him but without "title". The wives of deacons will help a lady to ready herself for baptism, but that is pretty much the bulk of their service. The wife is a support to the deacon and is ready to support Him (male) as any wife should (help mate).
Which seems to fit with the Biblical description.
Just want to point out that "spiritual" and "physical" are not necessarily two different things. When you take care of physical needs, you take care of spiritual needs. And when you take care of spiritual needs, it often affects the physical.
Where are you finding such a rigid dichotomy of assignment to the physical versus spiritual?
Even Tom Ascol's Grace Baptist Cape Coral, headquarters of the Founders faction of Calvinists in the SBC, does not deny the spiritual ministry of deacons:
Grace Baptist • church leadership • deacons
"the deacons serve in the areas of meeting the needs of the church whether they be spiritual, physical, financial, or other."
And from The Sword and Trowel, May 1866:
"the term elder is applied both to bishops and deacons....distinct officers were recognized by the Church, but they were lovingly blended together. There was no contention about a name as expressive of an authority, which it would have been sacrilege for others to invade."
We do not see the Deacons as being the one appointed to serve in spiritual leadership roles of the Church...
You need to follow your convictions, but also be open minded and prayerfully consider the issues and the scripture.Interesting responses but, I lean toward the no side.
Speaking for myself, I was generally against women serving as deacons, ministers, and pastors for a long time because certain passages in the scriptures seemed to speak against it. Also, the fact that I had not had any good examples of women in those roles played a much larger factor in my opinion than I realized. Yet the more I studied the scriptures, I noticed that women were serving in many different roles in the New Testament church, including speaking and teaching positions, so I had to go back and carefully review the passages that seemed to prohibit such a thing.
But beware of holding scriptural opinions because they are popular or simply because you have no experience with such a thing. Let the Spirit guide your study and be faithful!
Correct, in fact, we never see female deacons being appointed. Deaconess seems to be something gained by being the wife of a deacon, which explains why the qualifications of a deacon are exclusive to men and emphasize his marriage to a godly woman.
Mikey
Active Member
Would you believe that all deacons must be married? And what authority/role does a deaconess have? Is just a title given the wife with nothing attached?
I don't think they have any authority or men, as Paul made clear. And I didn't make the rules, Paul did. He wanted married monogamous deacons and elders.
Also, beware of the cultural accommodation theory many are pushing. They use it to justify female pastors and even homosexual marriage. It could be used for anything when you think about it. It's just an attempt to inject secular liberal politics into the Church.
Mikey
Active Member
So I assume that you believe that Elders, which includes Pastors, and Deacons must be married Men. if this is true, how is a single man supposed to serve? Paul, who was single himself, states in 1 Corinthians: "I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am".
SBC Founder W.B. Johnson (its first president 1845-1851):
Founders Ministries • Polity • William B. Johnson • The Gospel Developed (1846)
Founders Ministries • Polity • William B. Johnson • The Gospel Developed (1846)
It's not me, it's Paul. Don't bring me into it, my opinion means nothing. This is revelation, not opinion.
And there is nothing wrong with being single and serving in the Church. That's a straw man. Everyone should serve, whether elected to something or not. But there seems to be wisdom in appointing men who have successful marriages. I can see the wisdom in this, and I can see the concern of appointing a Pastor that's never been married.
There's also the value of wives, that many are missing. Paul is effectively saying, a good wife is essential to a good leader. She's the source of many checks and balances which an unmarried Pastor does not have.
I think a Pastor who loses a spouse can continue to serve as Pastor, as he's been through a successful marriage, and proven himself, and is already in that position. But a man who is not married would be a very risky choice according to God's wisdom.
I'm just taking the Scriptures at face value, and refraining from offering my personal feelings, and trying to impose my cultural thinking. Scripture needs to judge culture, not the other way around.
No, it's you and your interpretation (opinion) of what Paul wrote, just as we are discussing the interpretation (opinion) of those who disagree with you. I haven't seen anyone here dismissing Paul's writings.
In these discussions, I see genuine, honest, and humble interpreters attempting to take certain scriptures at face value, yet ignoring others. For instance, the infamous passage where Paul writes, "The wives (or perhaps women) are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves...." (1 Corinthians 14:34), yet they do not demand that women should be silent in Sunday School or in worship -- only not to speak from the pulpit as a Bible teacher. At "face value," those churches are rejecting Paul's clear admonition.
By the same token, many churches that prohibit women from preaching seem to ignore 1 Corinthians 11:1-16, where Paul discussing whether or not women should have their heads covered while praying or preaching (aka prophesying) within the meetings of the church (verses.4-5). While this is a difficult passage referencing a cultural practice, requiring the reader to have some understanding of the culture of Corinth to interpret, there is no question that women are preaching (aka prophesying) in church meetings. I realize that some will make an artificial distinction between prophesying and preaching, so even if that is granted, we still have women speaking doctrine or spiritual knowledge in church in the presence of men. Therefore, we cannot take 1 Corinthians 14:34 "at face value" claiming that Paul demands that women be silent, we he has just three chapters before given a non-binding opinion (see 1 Corinthians 11:16) that women should wear head coverings while they speak in the meetings of the church.
I agree. But we also need to take into account the culture of the persons to whom Paul originally wrote. When we understand that culture better, we can more accurately interpret scripture and our judgment of our own culture.
Very true. However, the NT describes them having some different roles (Eph. 5, 1 Tim 3), and while some women in the NT are portrayed as having important spiritual roles (Philip's daughters, for one example), the initial deacons chosen (Acts 6) were all male, and I can't recall any NT women as holding that specific office.
Concerning the roles of deacons and elders, the only obvious difference in the 1 Tim 3 qualifications list is that elders (bishops) be "apt to teach." Another might be that bishop is singular in that passage while deacons are plural, though I believe that a NT church has liberty to appoint to each office as the Lord leads.