This past Lord’s Day, we studied in our Sunday Morning Adult Bible Class and listened to sermons during our morning and evening worship services on the subject of “The Qualifications of Elders.” Now, this week, we deem it appropriate to highlight and direct our attention and thoughts as a congregation to the process of understanding God’s expectations for deacons and how to determine if we have any other male members of the body who are qualified and have the desire to serve as deacons of our congregation. We ask for your help in making proposed recommendations in a scriptural and objective manner with the goal in mind of potentially appointing qualified men who are willing and ready to serve. Speaking of serve or service, we recognize that the position of a deacon is a work or function meaning it is accompanied with a continuous action of service and devotion to God. It is not an “on again” and “off again” type of service and is not associated with a christian man who exhibits a casual or a haphazard kind of attitude when it comes to seeking and serving God. Gal 2:20, tells us, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” So then our christian walk should be an all day and all the time type of commitment. To further support these points about service, and to ensure we are in keeping with God’s word and His original intent, let’s again define the word “deacon” in the original form the New Testament was written in, which was Greek. Deacon or (Diakonos) means “to be a servant, attendant, minister, to serve, wait upon.” Being a deacon or doing the work of a deacon requires a tremendous amount of dedication, integrity, and humility in order to uphold the responsibilities outlined in God’s word and to place themselves under the oversight of the elders of the local congregation. Brother Robert Taylor, Jr, in his book, “The Elder And His Work,” Page 286, states “Deacons are servants. No authority over the congregation inheres in their work except as delegated by the elders in the execution of certain assigned tasks. It is right that deacons realize that elders are over all aspects of the work of the local congregation all the time. Deacons should be knowledgeable enough about the Bible to know that elders-not deacons per se, are over the physical aspects of the Lord’s work in the local congregation as well as being over the spiritual aspects. It is right for deacons to be diligent in the performance of all they do.”
Prayerfully and respectfully, we hope that there are men in our congregation right now who have been striving, as evident by the fruits of their labor or their life styles, to meet the biblical qualifications and who have the desire to serve as deacons here at Southeast. If after this search and assessment we do not find anyone who meets the qualifications, we hope that it will serve as a spark to encourage our brothers to nurture and develop these noble traits as outlined in 1 Tim 3:8-13. As we look out amongst our congregation in this process, the fruits of these characteristics to serve as deacons should be easily identifiable in the men who are exhibiting it. As we meet with them and question them about whether they possess and are demonstrating the necessary actions, they should answer us with the utmost level of honesty and integrity. In other words, their fruits should be clearly self-evident. If we have ever been a farmer, worked on a farm, or on a smaller scale grown a garden in our backyards, we know that when we plant a seed or tree we recognize or validate what type of plant or tree it is by what it produces. We do not plant cucumber and expect to get yellow squash and in comparison, we do not plant an apple tree and expect it to produce something totally different like pears. In Matthew 7:15-20, Jesus uses this same comparison with being able to recognize what a good tree produces and a bad tree produces in reference to pure, good teachers and bad, false teachers. He says in Matthew, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” In like manner, we should be able to clearly tell if a brother in Christ is ready to serve as a deacon by the fruits of his behavior.
Furthermore, in our discussion of bearing good fruits, Jesus expects spiritual growth from every member of his body, not just those members who are growing and maturing to become deacons and future elders in His church. In John 15, Jesus discusses individual christian growth when he talks about the connection between the vine and the branches. In this example, the vine is Christ and the branches are individual members. Now contemplate what He does to those members who do not grow and abide in Him and what He does to those members who grow and bear fruit. John 15:1-6, “I am the true vine and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. The question that we must ask ourselves is where are we in our commitment to Christ? Are we abiding in His word and are we a healthy branch on His vine? Let us first examine ourselves, and if necessary re-commit, before we consider other brothers for deacons.