International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) |Volume VI, Issue X, October 2022|ISSN 2454-6186

Deacon’s Manual

Youssry Guirguis, PhD
Asia-Pacific International University, Thailand

I. INTRODUCTION

Definition Of Deacon
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
Helen Keller
The question is often asked, what is a deacon? Another is, what can a deacon do? The word “deacon” describes an officer in a local church. It is derived from a Greek word meaning “servant” or “minister.” The Bible employs the word “deacon” about thirty times. Each time the word occurs, it means a servant. The word, in general, denotes service or ministry (Mark 10:43–45 [Jesus]; Acts 1:17, 25 [apostles]; Rom 11:13 [Paul]), and was applied to local Christian leaders, possibly as an official title (Phil 1:1; 1 Tim 3:8, 12–13). In Romans 13:4 the word is applied to secular rulers. Hence, the term “deacon” is used for the office itself or for the collective body of deacons and deaconesses. As with many other biblical words used today in a technical sense, the words “deacon” and “deaconess” began as popular, nontechnical terms. Both in secular first-century Greek culture and in the NT they described a variety of services.
The biblical role of the deacon has been the subject of a long and a continued discussion. We should look, not at what history or denominations have said, but rather at what the Bible says about the word “deacon,” its function and qualifications, and the selection of deacons in the local NT church.4
The Origin of the Word
The word “deacon,” when related to the Bible, is best defined as “servant or waiter” “steward,” or “messenger.” The word is an “Anglicized form of the Greek word diaconos, meaning a “runner,” “messenger,” or “servant.” In at least two instances, the word indicated a baker and a cook. In religious usage, the word described various attendants in pagan temples. Ancient documents show “deacons” presiding at the dedication of a statue to the Greek god Hermes. Egyptian deities, such as Sarapis and Sarapion, and the demotic text mention a deacon that suggests a hierarchy. Also, Serapis and Isis, Egyptian deities, were served by a college of “deacons” presided over by a priest.
Its plural form is a deaconess, and the Greek is “δίακονος,” (diakonos) and its cognates occurs many times in NT, as do its synonyms [ὑπηρέτης, huperetes], and [δου̂λος, doulos], with their respective cognates. It may be said in general that the terms denote the service or ministration of the bondservant (doulos), underling (huperetes), or helper (diakonos), in all shades and gradations of meaning both literal and metaphorical. The imagery of waiting at the table indicates that the office of the deacon is rooted in service, which is rendered to another. Service is an ideal throughout the Gospels. For instance, the teachings of Jesus (Mark 9:35; Matt 20:26; 23:11; John 12:26) serve as a model for servanthood.