How to Separate Deacon Work from Elder Work
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The Evil One loves to divide, and he often divides most effectively along the lines of authority: husband and wife, parent and child, boss and employee. This is true in the church as well. Whether between the pastors and the congregation or within the church’s leadership, division causes Christ’s church to suffer.
One way this division creeps into the church is when issues arise that don’t clearly fall to either the elders or the deacons.
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The Committee-Free, Task-Specific Deacon
British politician Joseph Chamberlain once quipped, “On every committee of thirteen persons there are twelve who go to the meetings having given no thought to the subject and ready to receive instructions. One goes with his mind made up to give those instructions. I make it my business to be that one.”
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A Deacon on a Deacon’s Reward
By John Ingold
From January 2005 to January 2008, I was blessed to serve as “deacon of bookstall” at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC.
Blessed to serve is a phrase that rolls off the tongue readily enough, though often with less consideration than it deserves. I must have used the phrase dozens of times while I was a deacon, but it was not until after my term that I actively counted the many ways God had rewarded my service.
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Moving from a Deacon-Led to an Elder-Led Church
By Phil Newton
In one of my early pastorates, two deacons did something unusual: they actually shepherded the congregation. Apart from those two men, the church had a typical mid-twentieth-century Baptist polity: eight deacons served as a board of directors, and the congregation as a whole voted on virtually every decision affecting church life at monthly business meetings. The deacons generally focused on property, finances, and occasional squabbles.
ELDERS BY ANY OTHER NAME?
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Do We Need To Use the Titles “Elder” and “Deacon”?
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Do we need to use the titles “elder” and “deacon”? While the titles “elder” and “deacon” are not essential to the church’s ministry, there are several good reasons why churches should use these biblical titles.
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The Biblical Qualifications and Responsibilities of Deacons
Who should be a deacon? What does the Bible say deacons should do?
THE TWO BIBLICAL OFFICES: ELDERS AND DEACONS
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Deacons: Shock-Absorbers and Servants
By Jamie Dunlop
The position was designed to alleviate tension in the church, but the office of deacon sure seems to provoke remarkable controversy. Elders butt heads with deacons over decision-making authority. Deacons are accused of being “turfy.” Staff treat deacons as irrelevant. And so on.
Is there a way to alleviate these unfortunate realities in your church? Yes. What’s needed is a positive, theological definition of what it means to be a deacon.
WHAT IS A DEACON?
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A Pastors' and Theologians' Forum on Selecting Elders
A Pastors’ and Theologians’ Forum:
What lessons have you learned the hard way in selecting elders?
Answers from
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An Elders' Forum
We asked all the non-staff elders of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, "Thinking back to when you first became an elder, what initial lesson(s) most stand out in equipping you to elder well?" Here are their answers.
Randy Alles (Officer, U.S. Marine Corps)
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Should you use the 1689 London Confession in your church?
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Although the 1689 London Confession (also known as the Second London Confession [SLC] to distinguish it from the 1644, or First, London Baptist Confession) is a wonderful statement of Calvinistic Baptist faith, it should not be used as a local church’s statement of faith. Three factors lead to this conclusion
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
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