Expert: Rev. Stuart Woodward - 8/29/2006

Question
In today Baptist Church,what should the role of Deacon be?

Thanks

Answer
Hello Wayne,
Thank you for your question. I minister in England and I know the situation is a little different here to the USA but I shall answer as best I can from my knowledge of scripture and my experience.
The Bible is tantalisingly vague about the role of a Deacon. It is mentioned as a kind of leadership role alongside that of an Elder. An Elder is to 'oversee' the life of the Church but how does the role of a Deacon differ?
Acts 6 tells us of the choosing of the Seven to administer charitable aid to widows but they are never actually called Deacons. They were to free up the Apostles to concentrate on teaching, prayer etc. The title Deacon simply means 'servant'.
Over the last hundred years in this country a situation developed where few Baptist Churches had Elders and Deacons functioned as the Leadership to work alongside a called Minister. Sometimes they saw their role as keeping the Minister under control. For the last few years this situation has been changing and many new forms of church structure are springing up.
Where I am, the Church has appointed two Elders to work alongside myself and an Associate Minister in the spiritual oversight of the Church. We Ministers are seen as lead Elders. We have then divided the Church into key Ministry Teams (Admin and Finance, Evangelism, World Mission, Social Action, Teaching and Training, Public Worship,Children & Youth, Pastoral Care and Buildings Management. We have then appointed people to head up these teams. These are the people we call 'Deacons' and they, together with the Elders form an overall Leadership Team.
The structure we have developed is working very well and enabling considerable growth by English standards. To work it needs leaders to trust each other and it needs communications between teams to be kept clear and good.
We feel this fits the biblical picture of the Deacon - a servant enabling an aspect of Church life to happen.
I hope these comments are of some help to you and wish you God's blessing. If you need a more USA based response I suggest you try one of the other 'experts'.
Stuart Woodward