women deacons

You can do a search and find a lot of threads on this but the answer is NO.

 

Nope. Women should only minister to other women or girls, boys under approx. 12. A husband and wife team is fine with the husband as 'leader' and the wife as his helper.

 

I have to respectfully disagree with Diane here. Looking at the social setting of the NT, the women "usurping" authority issue was not the same as a woman simply teaching teenagers. I cannot find any biblical argument that prevents a woman from ministering/teaching. Pastoring, sure, but thats about it.

 

I think the issue lies in what a "deacon" is. Almost every church I've been in (current church excluded) has had deacons be an almost a leadership position. It has typically been 1 pastor, deacons helped make the big decisions and then bring those before the church and they approve or deny.

However, my current church has elders doing that. The deacons at this church are "deacons of hospitality" or something like that. Real, true service.

In that structure, elders are to be all male. I think women could be deacons because they have no real "leadership" nor "authority" nor teaching of men.

I would not like "Husband & Wife Teams" in SS because I've seen several women who had authority over their own husband and would typically be more of the leader in that setting than the husband (but I guess that's off the subject and based on the couple).

 

The BFM 2000:

VI. The Church

A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
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The SBC "official" position is neutral. The churches themselves determine whether to ordain women deacons.

I personally believe that the church should ordain female deacons. 1 Tim. 3:11, in my opinion, describes the requirements for a female deacon. It fits perfectly logically in the passage, for the author has not made any statements concerning the pastor's wife. Therefore, it would seem illogical for the author to suddenly require something of the wives of deacons while neglecting to require anything of the wives of pastors.

Additionally, Paul wrote in Romans 16:1 to "commend Pheobe" whom he described as a deacon (from the Greek word used of deacons in 1 Tim 3)of the church.

As far as youth ministry goes, I'm all for female youth ministers. Adopting an arbitrary cutoff age for females teaching males is thoroughly lacking in biblical warrant.

 

I'm not sure where this not teaching boys under 12 comes from. Not the bible.
I think we need to stickto biblical standards only.

 

In our church, there are no "elders." The Board of Deacons has both men and women, and keeps a mix of both by a requirement in the by-laws. Deacons are elected, and serve a three-year term. They may be reelected. We assist the pastor in visiting, passing on accepting candidates for baptism and membership, approve events, provide for the administration of the food cupboard. Technically, we "employ" the pastors, but of course defer to him as our leader on most things. The men serve communion, the women prepare it.

There is a board of Trustees, male and female, that is also elected. They handle the business of the church, including care of the physical plant.

 

Are you confused about women deacons or women youth ministers?

I think that you should separate the two things.

I believe that women should not be deacons, but there are strong arguments for women deacons. The First Baptist Church (SBC/CBF) in our city has women deacons.

Now, the youth minister is I believe altogether different. I do not see anything wrong with a woman being a youth minister. Women teach youth at school. Mothers continue to have authority over young boys usually until they are 18 years old or graduate from college. A 13 year old boy certainly does not have any authority over women.

Chipsgirl, if you are being led to minister to youth, pray about it, talk to your pastor about it. There are many churches that have women youth ministers.

 

As mentioned above Pheobe was written about in Romans 16. Not only was she a "servant of the church" she delivered the letter to the Roman Church. Messengers such as this were not only charged with delivery but also in explaining what the writer(Paul) meant. This means that she was teaching men in an apostolic church.

Now we also have Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:34 stating that "women should remain silent" is he contradicting himself? Not at all. These are two different Churches in two different cities where the issues surrounding the church is completely different. Without going into too much detail the roles of women in these two cities were vastly different and the instructions echoed that.

I said that to say this. The roles of women are going to be different from church to church and city to city under the guidance of God. There are places that a woman youth minister, deaconess, etc would be a distraction to the ministry, not just in the church but in the city. Other places would welcome that and great ministry could be done. All churches should seek God in this question as to how they can fulfill ministry in their immediate mission area.

As to women in the Senior Pastorate position, absolutely not that's very bluntly(is that a word?) Biblical.

 

i believe the bible states that women can be over other women and children. Biblically, not opinion,it would be quite fine as far as age is concerned if you were to lead a youth group. You could run into arguments such as what if there are men youth workers under you; and if you are a paid staff does this mean you are in authority over men in the church. Remeber the Bible says everything is permissable but not always beneficial. It also depends on the church set up. But Biblically there is no problem with a woman being over children, I believe youth are children. Diane I'm intersted to know where you get that boys have to be under the approximate age of 12..I feel certain that God's Word does not approximate but gives specific instruction.

 

Let me address the deacon part. The greek word for deacon is servant. Certainly a woman can be a servant in the church or "deacon". The problem is that in most SBC churches the Deacon body has transitioned into a much more authoritative force in the church than it should. I believe that if the deacon body were still acting as just "servants" in the church and not the Board of Directors it would be fine. Unfortunately, in today's church they have become more authoritative than just servants.In this case it is not in the best intereest to let them serve in this area.

 

I know somebody will probably "zap" me for this but I still think the definitive passage on this (KJV) is 1 Timothy 3:8-13...with the qualifier being found in verse 12 which says "Let the DEACONS be the HUSBANDS of one wife,ruling their children and their own houses well."

Sorry ladies...but I don't think you'll make a very good husband(although some have probably tried...largely due to the "husbands" being too wimpy to fulfill their God-given responsibilities.)The deacon is supposed to be a MAN...and he is supposed to be a leader.The wives responsibilities are clearly addressed in verse 11.

God Bless You all!

Greg Sr.

 

Greg Sr., You got your ZAP, but it's an agreement from me!

 

The bible specifies deacons are men only, why would people want to disagree with God?

 

Why would your church ave women deacons if the bible defines them as men, and leaves no room for women to be deacons?