Deacons: Exemplary Servants

Acts 6:3 – “Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.”

Church family, when you see the word deacon, what comes to mind? Maybe you think of the political power center in a church; this is the “board” that tells the pastor what to do and makes decisions behind closed doors that no one really knows about. Or maybe you think of a faithful maintenance dude who takes care of practical needs around the church building and he’s a really nice guy and he’s faithful, but mainly he does these tasks because no one else in the church wants to do them. Or maybe you have an incredible appreciation for deacons because of your own experience, like I do.

Mr. Voges was a deacon in the church I grew up in. He always had time for me (even during my awkward stages!). He was always gentle and kind with his words. He was genuinely interested in my spiritual growth. He always had a word of wisdom that he could share with me. He had that ever-present twinkle in his eye that let me know he always knew more about what I was going through than I would share with him. He was incredibly wise, but not somber. He was light-hearted and a pleasure to be around. It seems like he never aged. He looked the same when I was in 6th grade as when I was in 12th grade. To be honest, I never actually knew what he did as a deacon besides hand out bulletins on Sunday morning. But I knew who he was as a deacon. And I wanted to be like that.

GCT, here's a question for us as we consider this all-important topic of Biblical deacons in our church: can you identify those who are serving as deacons in our church? I can almost guarantee you, the people that come to your mind as deacons do so more because of WHO they are than because of WHAT they do in our church body.

When a practical issue arose in the early church that needed to be addressed immediately, the Apostles told the multitude of disciples to choose men that would then be appointed to care for the need. Notice, the Apostles did not choose these men. The church did (Acts 6:5). They had such a reputation within the church that every single one of them was an obvious choice. These men had a reputation for being “full of the Spirit” and for being “full of wisdom”. The Seven (Acts 21:8) were technically not deacons (as the word diakoneō was not used for them), but the Apostles were setting a precedent in the early church for how practical needs in the church were to be met, and what characteristics should be true of those believers called to meet those needs.

This Sunday we are going to explore what the Bible says regarding deacons in His church. We will see how Scripture answers questions like:

• Can women be deacons?
• Are deacons just Junior Varsity elders?
• How much authority are deacons actually supposed to have?
• Does the Bible give us an option NOT to have deacons in our church?
• What is at stake if we don’t implement deacons Biblically and faithfully?

Looking forward to worshipping together with you as we explore this all-important subject!