New Testament Deacon

Luke Shiras — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:24:17 +0000

A short essay on Alexander Strauch’s The New Testament Deacon: The Church’s Minister of Mercy When I began reading this book, I had now idea what a Deacon was supposed to be and therefore had no idea there was a question about it. Having read the book, I see why Alexander Strauch calls them “Ministers of Mercy” and also why there is a question as to their roles and responsibilities. Scripture does not come right out and say; “Deacons are this and they do that”. But Strauch makes a strong argument for the roles of deacons as “Ministers of Mercy”. Unfortunately, I think he (and many others) may be coming to the wrong conclusion. First, I have to admit that while my head is quite large, my brain is rather small, so I might (just this once) be wrong about my own conclusions. Strauch makes the connection between the Deacons mentioned in 1 Timothy 3:8-13 and the Seven described in Acts 6:3. This does not seem to me to be supported by scripture but rather, inferred from the relationship between the Greek words diakonia, diakoneō, and diakonos. Since I haven’t studied Greek, I can’t confidently validate this conclusion, so I [...]

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New Testament Deacon