My Thoughts on Deacons – Part 1

by | May 19, 2006 | Deacons, Ecclesiology

O.K. so I started posting this paper on deacons some time ago, but never finished it – just like a number of other unfulfilled blog promises I’ve made. This time I do intend to finish it out. Reading Andreas Kostenberger’s thoughts on women deacons stirred me to repost. So, without further ado – here’s do-overs on my thoughts regarding a biblical approach to deacon ministry. For two thousand years, the Church of Jesus Christ has wrestled with the subject of the purpose and nature behind the ministry of deacons, without much consensus. Within Baptist life, Charles Deweese notes that, “Deacons have been described in Baptist writings for well over 350 years,”[1] and once more, without an overall consensus as to function or form. Deacons have appeared to be involved in an unlimited number of ministries throughout church history. Deweese describes their ministry thus: The authority given to deacons was for positive and practical purposes – namely, to serve as church officers, to assist in limited administrative functions, to care for a church’s treasury, to make adequate provisions for the Lord’s table, to ensure that the minister’s needs were cared for, to minister to the sick, to stimulate responsible stewardship by encouraging voluntary contributions, and to be general servants of God, the church and the needy. . . . in America in the latter half of the eighteenth century, the role of deacons as caretakers of the temporal or secular affairs of the church began to assume a priority that it had never had before. The involvement of deacons in administrative, managerial, and business functions became more pronounced.[2] It has...

A Radical Sociology Devoid of Biblical Theology: Randall Terry Becomes Catholic

by | May 18, 2006 | Catholicism, Culture, General Theology

National Catholic Register Reading this article confirms what I had often thought about Randall Terry.  He is on the right side (though his methodology is often askew) of the abortion issue, but devoid of much in the way of biblical theology.  Not that I had delved deep into Terry’s background, but based upon his public appearances, he seemed a bit shallow when it came to Scripture.  So, no wonder that he would move into...