The Offices of Pastor and Deacon

March 7, 1992

- we're talking about the local church and last week we began
studying church leadership

- one of the things we stressed was that "leadership" and
"government" are not synonymous terms
- in many areas, the terms are synonymous and as a result
some folks have built strong opinions on the subject that
are then carried into the church
- I'm concerned with those who automatically view the "word
leadership" or the "concept of leadership" in a negative
light.

- we're saying that we must clear or minds of any "non-
biblical baggage" and come to this study with an open
mind, sincerely desiring what God's Word has to say

- in order to understand church leadership, we must
understand two offices-- pastor and deacon
- last week we began studying the office of pastor
- my goal today is to finish up on the pastor and also
cover the material on deacons

- INPUT - We said last week that there were four "sources" in
the Scripture for information on the pastoral office.
What are they?

- the terms used to describe the man and his office
- the qualifications given for the pastoral office
- verses that tell us the pastor's responsibility to the
church
- verses that tell us the church's responsibility to the
pastor

- we studied the first one last week, let's look at the other
three

II. Qualifications

- we studied the qualifications a few months ago when we
studied the pastoral epistles so I'm going to say
anything else about them here.
- my purpose in putting them in the notes is so that if
you pull these out of the file, you'll tell yourself to
go back and also study the pastoral epistles notes.

III. A Pastor's Responsibility To The Church

- we've hinted at some of these things as they've come up
in the passages. Let's study some of them in more
detail.

A. Take heed - Acts 20:28

INPUT - who is the pastor to heed?

1) himself
2) those in the flock

- INPUT - if there was something in your life
that was not pleasing to God and it somehow
came to my attention (or one of the other
pastors), what would you want us to do?
(perhaps better worded - what would God want
us to do?)

B. Feed - Acts 20:28

- dev. - how Bible college/seminary education works
- develop impact on "home Bible studies"

- hit issue of - no excuse for not being prepared

C. Warn - Acts 20:31

- INPUT - in this context - what does the warning
especially have to do with?

D. Pray - Acts 6:4

E. Provide leadership

cf. uses of "rule"

Titus 1:5 - "set in order"

IV. A Church's Responsibility To The Pastor

A. Obey - Heb. 13:7, 17, 24

INPUT - how can we develop this characteristic in the
lives of our children?

B. Honor - I Tim. 5:17

cf. Doc Smith - coat

C. Meet needs - I Tim. 5:18, I Cor. 9:4-14

D. Don't accept accusations without witnesses - I Tim.
5:19

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Deacons

Intro - the Nt recognizes two offices for local churches. We
been talking about one (the pastor/ teacher/ elder/ bishop/
minister)

- now we're going to study deacons

- let's take a minute and look at a couple of passages that
show that there in fact, two and only two offices

- Phil. 1:1, I Tim. 3:1-13

- we mentioned four sources of biblical information for the
pastor, we'll look at three sources for deacons

1) the actual meaning of the term
2) the biblical duties of deacons
3) the rewards of his faithful service

I. The Meaning of the Word Deacon

INPUT - when folks in the world think of a deacon--what
kinds of concepts would they think of?

- often times in our deacons retreats, we go through a
study which lists every biblical use of the word
"diakonos" and it's derivitives
- in that study, we look for three things in the passage:
- does this refer to the function of a deacon or the
office of a deacon?
- does this refer to a physical or a spiritual
ministry?
- does this indicate that the deacon is involved in
a service or a decision-making capacity?

- when you study the passages that way, you find that the
best definition of the biblical word "deacon" is
servant

cf. Matt. 20:26, John 2:5, Matt. 22:13

- now you might say--but those passages didn't speak
specifically about the office of deacon

- that’s exactly the point
- when God wanted a word that described a deacon--he
chose the word "servant" - WHY? - because that’s what
deacons (and their families do)

- cf - why do we call a mechanic a mechanic?

II. The Biblical Duties of Deacons

- read Acts 6:1-7

A. Help meet physical needs of those in the congregation
- Acts 6:3-"whom we may appoint over this business"

B. Free up the pastor - Acts 6:4 - "but we will give
ourselves continually to prayer and ministry of the
Word."

C. Be examples - Acts 6:3 - "men of honest report, full
of the Holy Spirit and wisdom"

D. Provide counsel to the pastor

- I mentioned earlier that as we study the various
usages of the word "deacon," you'll never find an
example of deacons involved in decision making as
part of their office

- a natural question that flows out of that is:
- "Isn't it true that our deacons are involved in
decision making?" (cf. the deacons and pastors
are recommending..."

- it is true, but not because that is part of the
office of deacon

- it has more to do with our form of church
government
- it would be impossible (or at least
inappropriate) to begin the decision-making
process for every decision at the floor of the
church
1) the time involved (cf. the length of the
average deacons meeting)

2) it's good to "bounce" ideas off a smaller
group to look for flaws

- what's the most natural group to fill that role?

- as a congregation, we choose the 18 men who are
most spiritually qualified to serve in that
office
- they must be spiritual men
- they must be leading their families well
- they must be serving and ministering

- they are the most natural group to provide
counsel to the pastors before issues are brought
to the floor of the church

- it doesn't mean that everything that the
pastors/deacons recommend is automatically
right-but it does mean that 22 of the men that
the church elected as godly men have thought the
issue over and are making the recommendation
after careful thought and study

E. Not:

1) not a representative of each "group"

2) not a member of a "board" that supervises the
pastors

3) not setting the agenda that the pastors follow