Deacons – Part 5

The Diaconal Ministry in Acts 6:1-6

Acts 6:1-6 provides the church with an originating account for the office of deacon.  Its description is invaluable to see several aspects of diaconal ministry, especially in the issues of roles between pastors and deacons (the Twelve and the Seven), pastors and congregation (Twelve and the multitude), and deacons and congregation (the Seven and the multitude).

The passage begins with the setting of an ever growing group of disciples and the emergence of a complaint arising from one segment of the burgeoning church, namely the Greek speaking Jews.[1]  The language barrier between the Hellenistic Jews and the Hebrew Jews seems to have been causing an oversight to occur in meeting the needs of the Greek speaking widows in the Christian community.  Luke expresses that the complaint was that an ongoing oversight was being felt by the Hellenistic widows and that the complaint was no mere contentless murmuring.[2]  The widows were being neglected in the daily “service,” which may indicate that there was more involved than the mere handing out of food. 

It is possible that the term used here (diakonia) refers to a very broad sense of service and might have included monetary as well as food assistance.[3]  This oversight may have been also related to the inability of the Twelve to be able to adequately administrate the daily service of the widows as well as their need to give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word (6:2, 4).  The church at this time may have numbered close to 20,000 people in Jerusalem, thus making the leadership and administrative needs enormous and obviously overwhelming.[4]  The verb used in verse two translated “having left” in regard to the Apostle’s ministry in preaching, may actually indicate that they had already been experiencing the stress of overseeing the daily service and the daily constraint of trying to give themselves to preaching and teaching.[5]

The ministry of the Word may have already been suffering due to the Apostles pressing demand of the urgent need of overseeing such a large group of people who had tremendous physical as well as spiritual needs.  The relationship between the Apostles and the congregation should not be overlooked at this juncture.  It was the Apostles who summoned the church together to discuss the matter of the widow’s need and it was the Apostles who suggested the plan to resolve the problem and stated the reasons behind why there was a need for a new group to assist them with this ministry.  It is of note that the congregation submitted themselves to the direction provided by the Apostles in setting forth the specifics of the plan and it is equally of note that the congregation affirmed the plan, having judged it to be a prudent means of alleviating the pressing situation.[6]  It was not the Apostles who chose the men who would serve, but it was the congregation who chose them.  The text does not give any indication as to how the congregation went about selecting the seven who were to serve.  Strauch notes:

When feeding massive numbers of people. . . our Lord quickly organized them into manageable groups “Ëof hundreds and of fifties’ for orderly distribution (Mark 6:40).  From its earliest days, the nation of Israel was organized into precisely defined, manageable groups for communication, war, service, and travel. . . So it is quite possible that the congregation in Jerusalem was already organized into similar manageable units.  Such organization would enable issues to be decided and information to be passed along quickly (Acts 12:12, 17:15:4, 6, 22; 21:17, 18).[7]

It is interesting that only seven were chosen.  This indicates that they were probably not the ones who physically did all of the hands on labor, but they were those who were chosen to oversee the entire affair of making sure the widows were cared for daily.  They were the administrators and organizers for what would have entailed the work of more than seven men.

The relationship between the Apostles and the Seven and the congregation is further defined as the Twelve instructed the congregation to choose the Seven and the Twelve would put them in charge of the administration of the widows’ care.  Thus, the Twelve gave instruction concerning the plan and were the overseers of the Seven, putting them in charge of the administration.  The congregation chose who they desired to serve in this capacity[8], and the Seven had “charge” of the ministry.

Having chosen the seven men, the congregation brought them before the Twelve and the Twelve laid their hands on them, in a symbolic manner indicating that these seven were being set aside for a specific task.  Of note is that the same term referred to above when the congregation affirmed the Apostles’ plan “in their judgment” is also used in verse six when the Seven were “put forward before (or in the judgment) of the Apostles . . .”  It appears that the congregation chose the seven and the Twelve approved of this decision as well.

The following chart provides a summary of Acts 6:1-6 and the respective roles played by the Apostles, the congregation and the Seven in the determination, selection and function of the Seven.

A good illustration is made here for the manner in which pastors, congregations and deacons should therefore work together in the selection and affirmation of deacons.  From this pattern in Acts, it seems wise that the principle of pastoral leadership in proposing a plan that could be affirmed by the congregation, which allowed the congregation to choose those who would serve them, and which allowed the pastors to affirm the congregation’s choice, brings the illustration of Acts 6:1-6 to modern application.  Such a plan also allows for total unity between the pastoral leadership and the congregation in who is chosen and how they will serve.

What must also be noted in application of Acts 6 is that the primary reason there was a need for deacons was not merely to handle the temporal and non-spiritual needs[9] of the congregation, but to assist those who had the God-given responsibility of preaching and teaching so they could give their greatest efforts to that which God had gifted and called them to do.  Thus, deacons should be those who assist the pastors in helping to care for the flock of God, handling and being in charge of those areas of the ministry which would keep pastors from giving their primary attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.[10]

Obviously, this view allows for a very broad range of activity and functions for those who serve as deacons.  Interestingly enough, Acts 6:1-6 is the only passage that discusses to any degree what the function of the deacons was to be, and here it is very broad:  to assist the pastors in order to allow them to maintain the priority of praying for the flock and overseeing the ministry of God’s Word to the flock.  In Jerusalem, as the record shows in Acts 6, the pressing need of the moment surrounded the support of the Hellenistic widows.  It is my view that benevolence ministry was not the primary focus for the formation of diaconal servants, but rather, helping those whose charge it was to pray and minister the word keep their priorities intact.[11]  It would behoove current deacon bodies, congregations and pastoral leadership to dialogue upon the pressing needs of an individual church and specifically determine how deacons might best work along side pastors in meeting those needs, along with a continual evaluation of existing and emerging needs.