Nine Marks Ministries, has a new e-journal up. The topic is deacons. I read through the articles and thought everything was very helpful.
Here’s an interesting quote. But you’ll want to go read the whole thing. The articles are fairly short but cover a lot of ground.
According to the New Testament, a deacon is two things: a shock-absorber and a servant.
Deacons are shock-absorbers: the seven men chosen by the church in Jerusalem to care for widows, who seem to be precursors to deacons, were chosen to preserve unity at a time when botched administration was creating fissures in the church (see Acts 6:1-7).
And deacons are servants: their very name means servant, and their precursors in Acts 6 were chosen to handle the practical needs of the church. That way, the apostles could devote themselves to leading the church through prayer and the ministry of the Word….
Elders lead ministry, deacons facilitate ministry, the congregation does ministry. That, I believe, is the New Testament model, and that biblical clarity in deacons’ role and function is invaluable for promoting peace and unity in our congregations. [from the article by Jamie Dunlop, associate pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist]