Frankly Answered Questions - FAQs

Did I understand that your church has women deacons?

Q: Sorry to bother you with questions, but my wife and I have a question for you. Did I understand that the church has women deacons? If so, do they serve only other women? I examined the constitution and by-laws...can you explain the basis for this? Scriptural references?

A: Yes, the church does have women deacons (or deaconesses, if you prefer). No, they do not serve only other women. Here is a list of some of the deacon responsibilities:

Benevolence Requests
Financial Counseling
Flowers, Cards
Food Bank
Hospital Visitation
Meals to the Sick and Needy
Moving

This gives you an idea of what the deacons do. As you can see the duties are focused on service, not leadership or teaching.

We believe that there are two Biblical offices in the local church: elders and deacons. In our church the deacons are servants to the Body who minister to physical needs of the church. They are NOT church leaders (some baptist churches call their church leaders "deacons"). Deacons are also NOT teachers. The leaders/teachers in our church are called "elders." Based on 1 Timothy 2:12, we limit the office of elder to men. One of the elders supervises the deacon ministry.

Concerning women serving as deacons:

1. The office of deacon is a servant office, not a ruling or teaching office (like eldership). This is seen in the origin of deacons in Acts 6:1-6 and in the meaning of the Greek word diakonos, which originally meant "a person who waits on tables."

2. Since it is a servant office, there is nothing to preclude women from serving as deacons, since the command in 1 Timothy 2 prohibits women teaching or leading men, not serving men. Indeed in Romans 16:1 Phoebe (a woman) is called "a deacon of the church in Cenchrea."

3. Although I recognize that there are different interpretations of this, I believe that 1 Timothy 3:11 lists qualifications for deaconesses, not qualifications for deacons' wives. The Greek is literally, "the women are to be worthy of respect...". The Greek says nothing about "wives" The word is "women." Some translations have "wives," but that is an interpretation made by the translators, not the original wording.

4. In the Christian document called the Syrian Didascalia (from the late 3rd century) deaconesses are specifically mentioned as an office of the church. The functions of women deacons are summarized as: "assisting at the baptism of women, going into the houses of the heathen where there are believing women, and to visit those who are sick, and to minister to them in the area of their need, and to bathe those who have begun to recover from sickness."

I think on this issue, as on all issues, we need to bind where the Scriptures bind and loose where the Scriptures loose, that is, be as closed or as open as the Scriptures are. Main points: (1) There is nothing in the nature of the office of deacon that precludes women from serving. And (2) there is evidence from the Scriptures and early church history that women actually did serve as deacons. Therefore, our church allows women to serve in the office of deacon.

Food for thought: Acts 9:36-42 -- The activities mentioned and the high respect for Dorcas are most unusual. Was Dorcas a deaconess?

I definitely don't mind questions and if we can't defend our positions from Scripture, then we shouldn't be holding them in the first place.

Joy in Christ to you and your family,

Dennis