Business Meeting – Part 2

Well, I was able to go to the business meeting this past Sunday. It was not as bad as I envisioned.

Here is a brief recap:

Lady #1 said, we need to be bible believing/following Christians and if the Bible says that women cannot be deacons than we should not encourage women to be deacons.

I said, 1 Timothy 3 is a misused, abused, misinterpreted, tough passage to deal with. The word “Deacon” is not an actual word, it is a transliteration from the Greek and the word itself actually means “servant.” Jesus was called a “deacon,” Paul called Phoebe (female – Romans 16:1), Timothy, and himself a “deacon.” The word in 1 Timothy 3 for “wives” is the same word for “women.” In Greek there is just the one word and the context helps us understand which it is talking about. So some think it is women and is allowing for women deacons. Which kind of makes sense, since a deacon is only a servant. Although I am not convinced that it should be translated as “women” in this particular case.

I also said, that I am not sure that we understand enough as the body to vote on this issue. I said that perhaps a better question would be – should we continue to refer to this leadership position as “deacon.”

Man #1 said, that he agreed with me and that we should change the title “deacon” to “elder.”

Man #2 said, they know we have a terminology issue but want to make these changes on step at a time.

Man #1 rebutted saying, that if we are not inline with scripture, we should change immediately, not in steps. But if that is the direction they were going to take then they needed to consider the next thing very soon afterwards.

Then there was a lot of discussion as to what to make the motion say. I think they said that they would not allow a women to be in a leadership position, which is currently the role of the pastor or the role of the “deacon.”

There was only one vocal couple that seemed a little upset over the whole ordeal. Other than that everyone seemed pretty much on board with the “change.” Now they just need to stop calling them “deacons,” sell their buildings, cut their losses, and be the Church in unity :).