Deacons: Leading Servants
Acts 6:1-6 describes a dilemma in the early church. The size of the church was making it difficult to care for everyone. So the apostles had the church pick seven godly men to be the leading servants so that the elders could be free to devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. These "servants" are what we now call deacons.
The qualifications for a deacon are described in 1 Timothy 3:8-13.
One issue of debate among godly Bible scholars is whether or not the Bible permits women to be deacons. This is a gray area in Scripture. There does seem to be evidence of a female deacon in Romans 16:1. My opinion is that a church that defines the office of deacon in a biblical way, without giving it the authority of a pastor/elder, women should be able to serve in that office. Perhaps that should be further explored in a future post.
Grace and Peace,
Stephen
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