Must Ministry Leaders be Deacons or Elders?

Tom, outside the oversight of the eldership, I see no other requirement in Scripture.

With that said, I believe it's up to the local church.

 

Scripture defines the qualifications of a deacon but doesn’t really define the role of a deacon.

All we have to work with is the idea of a deacon as a servant.

And it's obvious the ‘deacon board’ has left a bad taste in the mouths of many in the pastorate towards deacons in general.
Many current churches function without the position of deacon.

And so instead they end up with ministry leaders.

It’s my opinion that the role of a “ministry leader” is the same as that of a deacon.

And so we've stumbled into a more biblically-based church design almost by accident.

Rob

 

For us, it is a no because some of our ministry leaders (Ladies Ministry , children's ministry and at times, some others) are women. We don't see women as deacons or elders in the Scripture.

 

Seeing as how our little church has neither deacons nor elders the answer is no.

 

Yours and mine both !

 

Im a deacon and my answer to you is NO we should not have any leadership other than taking care of the flock. I will lay it out for you as our church does it. Deacons do work in the ministry but our main focus is the spiritual welfare of our families. I have 21 families assigned to me as there deacon which we use the alphabet, I have Q's and R's (last name starts with that letter) We have 10 deacons and they all have there letters. As a new member joins the church if they are in the Q's and R's then I am there deacon, that is my ministry. A deacon that is serving the church especially in a large church has to have his priorities in place and my priorties are my families that are assigned to me. I right now serve on the Youth, Recreation, and Hospitatlity Committees as well as a member of the Choir and a Youth Sunday School Teacher but I just came on as a Deacon and as such our yr starts in Sep. and as of September I am dropping the Recreation and Hospitality committees so that I have more time to focus on being a Deacon first and then the Youth of our Church which suites me very well. I will continue in the Choir but it will take a back seat to my other priorities and the Choir director knows how I feel on this. Anyone can serve on Committees and in Ministries but not everyone can serve as a Deacon and a Deacon should focus on the work of the deacon which is to help the pastor to minister to the flock. With a large church the members should make up your committees and work in your ministries and a deacon can participate but should not have any leadership role what so ever, we as deacons can and should give our thoughts when asked but we have our work and should not rob someone else of there gift that God want for those people to do. This of course is my feelings on this and Im sure people will disagree and thats OK, I do all that I do to bring glory and honor to Jesus, not to me or anybody else for that matter.:jesus:

 

Deacons are not leaders they are servants.

 

We’re all servants.

A servant someone who has been given charge to perform a task.

Joseph was a lowly servant/slave in the house of Potiphar.
As a slave he was overseer in charge of Potaphar’s whole household.
Under Joseph everything prospered.

In prison, Joseph was given responsibility over all other prisoners.
He was given authority and under him things prospered.
Joseph didn’t do all the work, as a leader he delegated tasks.

Pastors do this, so do those under him.

In 1 Timothy 3 we generally don’t transliterate the word for elder (or pastor/overseer) in the passage (“episkopos”)
but we do transliterate the word for deacon (diakinos).

Is there a word or phrase which would be less historically burdened that we could substitute for “diakinous” other than deacon?
I believe “ministry leader” fits.

A ‘ministry leader’ is given the responsibility to oversee or administrate a ministry in a limited setting (sort of like what we see in Acts 6).
The person is overseen by elders.

In today’s churches the general requirements for ministry leaders are obvious
and they just happen to be similar to those set out for deacons in 1 Timothy 3.

• Well respected
• Displays integrity
• Not a drunkard
• Honest, not money hungry

I personally struggle with the limitations we put on women in leadership positions.
To totally eliminate women from leadership would effectively make them non-persons in the church.

• They can sing in church but not talk.
• They can care for girls but not so much for boys.
• And they are to dress in baggy clothes so they’re not noticed to much.

That’s not the way the early church viewed women.
Paul recognized women performed vital roles, even giving additional guidelines in their selection (1 Timothy 3:11).
They played a big role in the development of the early church.
(Try highlighting all the times women were mentioned in the book of Acts.)

It’s obvious that women can (and do) hold positions of leadership, even in churches that deny that they should be leaders.
They can become ministry leaders with their own realm of duties deligated to them by the elders.

Rob

 

Many translations do use the English word bishop (a cognate of "episkopos"), just like they use the English word deacon (a cognate of "diakonos").

 

Where does that place the BGEA and Wycliffe Bible Translators?