Pastor Dale rejects 1980s growth strategies, prioritizing faithful preaching and relying on the FBI for evangelism. He announces a June 2nd meeting to vote on three male deacon candidates, citing 1 Corinthians 14:35 to restrict questioning to men under biblical federal headship. Distinguishing elders' "ministry of the word" from deacons' "ministry of mercy," he argues deacons manage relational conflicts and serve widows, with wives participating in private acts without violating teaching prohibitions. Ultimately, this office equips saints for ministry, freeing elders to focus on prayer and the Word to multiply disciples. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Unapologetic Church Growth Strategy00:01:52
Amen.
Well, you may have noticed there's not a whole lot of room today.
Praise God, that's great that we're continuing to grow.
I do believe in church growth strategy.
I just don't believe in the church growth strategy movements of the 1990s and 80s.
The idea that you would appeal to the reprobate who, according to Scripture in Romans chapter 3 and multiple other passages, hates God.
The church is not for goats.
First and foremost, the church is for God.
Secondly, it's for God's people, for sheep.
But that is in that there's still a church growth strategy of sorts.
It's twofold.
Here it is.
Number one, the Bible says, My sheep hear my voice, speaking of Christ.
So preach God's word, preach it faithfully, preach it unapologetically, and you will ordinarily, not in every case, sometimes churches shrink because of faithfulness, but ordinarily, in many cases, the church will grow.
It'll grow by God's people, not the reprobate, but by God's people, the sheep hearing the voice of Christ, ringing true, ringing clear, and being drawn to that.
And the second way it'll grow, Is the FBI.
That is a church growth strategy.
I just assume 15 people here this morning that you are undercover FBI agents.
And that's a wonderful ministry as well because that one's evangelistic, right?
It doesn't require the pastor to compromise.
You preach God's truth clearly, faithfully, unapologetically, and Christians will come, right?
The sheep will come.
The FBI will also come because they can't stand the truth of God.
And so they'll sit there, but then they'll hear the word of God preached and they might get saved.
So if you are an FBI undercover agent, Welcome.
We're glad you're here.
And hopefully, by the preaching of God's word, you will get saved today.
So, that's our church growth strategy preaching Christ unapologetically from his word to where Christians are drawn, and so are the FBI, and hopefully, they become Christians.
Sunday Evening Potluck Is Church00:05:53
All right.
So, that being said, we are taking a break.
Connor, I keep wanting to call him Uncle Connor.
To our kids, we always refer to him as Uncle Connor.
But Elder Connor preached a wonderful sermon last Lord's Day, finishing out our series through the book of Ezra.
With Ezra chapter 10.
And so now we're going to take a brief pause before jumping into the Gospel of Matthew.
And so it'll probably be three weeks at minimum, and perhaps maybe as far as five or six weeks.
The task set before us for this next few weeks is to teach on church polity, to teach on the ecclesiastical offices within the church, to teach on elders and deacons and then church members.
And what we're going to do is begin actually with the diaconate, beginning with deacons.
And the primary reason for this is just a practical, it's not really a theological reason, but practically, we're going to be having a members' meeting, Lord willing, on June 2nd.
So that's two weeks.
It's a Sunday, June 2nd, two weeks from today.
And so we'll have church in the morning at 10 a.m., just like we normally do.
But that evening, instead of having our typical potluck where anyone and everyone is invited, whether you're a member, a covenant member of the church or not, we are actually going to have a members' meeting.
So it'll only be open to those who are.
Members of the church.
Again, that's two weeks from today.
It'll be right here at Dale's, not in the morning.
We'll have our typical morning service, but in the evening, June 2nd, 5 p.m.
And we're going to skip the potluck.
But I remembered last week I said there'll be no potluck that day.
I should have known better.
There's always a potluck, somehow, some way.
And so there actually will be a potluck, but it'll be for lunch.
So we'll do our potluck lunch that we typically do on the first Sunday of every month, because it will be the first Sunday of that month.
June 2nd, morning service at 10 a.m., potluck lunch immediately following that.
But then no potluck in the evening and no worship in the public square at the courthouse in Georgetown like we typically would do on the first Sunday of the month.
Instead, we'll come here, Dale's Essenhaus, 5 p.m., June 2nd, members only.
And one of the things that we're going to be doing is we're going to be examining and also voting in regards to three deacon candidates, three men that Connor and I put forward as potential deacons.
And before taking a vote, we're going to allow the members of the church to examine.
So Connor and I will be with those three men, and we'll be sitting together and then allowing all the male members of the church.
To ask questions.
And if you're wondering why only the male members, well, this is why.
I'm not of the position that in every single setting only the men should speak.
If it's a Tuesday afternoon and you're doing a Bible study in your home and one of the women has a question or something like that, I don't apply 1 Timothy 2 or 1 Corinthians 14 to that context.
But the reason why I would apply it on Sunday evening is not, despite popular opinion, it's not because of my just.
Raging commitment to misogyny, but it's because 1 Corinthians 14 35 says it is shameful for a woman to speak in church, and because this is a members' meeting on the Lord's day, and it's still the Christian Sabbath, because right now we're in the summer months, so the sun doesn't go down to like 12 30 a.m.
You know, so the sun is up, and it is the Lord's day, and it is church.
I know we typically think, well, church is in the morning, and then we do this, you know, this potluck kind of thing, but it is actually church.
And so, a Sunday evening service on the Christian Sabbath, the Lord's Day, that is a part of the ecclesia, the gathered assembly.
And so, I do believe that 1 Corinthians 2, verses 9 15, or that's 1 Timothy 2, 9 15, and 1 Corinthians 14 do apply.
And so, if you are a woman, I've already had a couple single women reach out and say, How would we, if we had a question, and we were able to talk through that and say, Well, is there another man in the church that you feel comfortable running your questions through him in the same way that he would represent his wife and children?
He's going to be asking questions not just on his behalf, it's representative government.
This is not a crazy idea, by the way.
This is like our whole country until 15 minutes ago when all of a sudden it became a raw democracy, which really means just, you know, according to polls, 20% of people are going to vote however Taylor Swift does.
So that's really rough, by the way.
But before that, what we actually had was not just a raw democracy.
None of the founders said anything positive about a raw democracy, and neither does anything in the Bible, right?
The people said, crucify him.
Raw democracy.
The people said, we want a king.
Raw democracy.
Every single time it's negative.
Representative federal headship.
Federal headship at a national level, at state levels, in counties, in cities, and households, families.
That is the pattern.
That is the pattern.
This atomistic, individualistic, it's just me and no one can set my destiny.
I am the master of my own destiny.
I'm an individual.
I have a future and hear me roar.
That is not biblical.
It's not Christian.
It's not even American.
That's just the divine feminine heresy, false doctrine, send you to hell.
Don't do that.
Don't do that.
So, again, women will have a voice.
They will have a voice as all of us have a voice.
I don't get to make every decision in the world, but I have people who are representing me, right?
Think of the centurion man.
He comes to Jesus.
He said, I'm a man who's in authority and under authority.
I get it.
I'm not a snowflake getting offended every five seconds.
No, I'm a man.
I understand how authority works, right?
I've got guys under me, but I've also got guys over me.
So, Jesus, you do the thing.
You're the real authority here.
You do your thing.
I get it.
Women's Voice In The Sanctuary00:03:10
Right?
Wouldn't it be amazing if we could have, you know, put on the big boy pants and have that kind of attitude as Christians?
Right?
Jesus marvels, by the way.
The response is, Jesus marvels at that man's faith.
It's like, he gets it.
He gets it.
Jesus esteems him.
So, if you are a single woman, if you're a married woman, then talk to your husband, right?
That's what he's there for.
Talk to your husband.
If you're a single woman, then find another man in the church that you trust.
And if there's not one that you feel like you're comfortable with, then talk to me or Carter.
And just ahead of time, here are some of the things I hope get addressed during this examination of the deacon candidates.
And then we'll say, okay, thanks for talking to us.
And we'll do our best to.
So none of this is meant to be oppressive or misogyny.
It's literally.
Here's the thing.
I know this bothers people.
But here's the thing.
I'm just trying to obey the Bible.
Right?
I just, I don't know.
I don't know what you want.
I don't know what you want.
But the Bible literally says, 1 Corinthians 14, it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
It's Sunday night church on the Lord's day, the Christian Sabbath.
You're going to obey the Bible or not.
Right, so if it bothers you, then find an unbiblical church, you'll be happy there.
But if you want to be not happy but you want to be holy, then I encourage you to love the word of God, see it first as right, and then as God grows you through sanctification, you will come to see that that which is right is also good.
It's good, okay?
So that's going to be our members' meeting, Lord willing, June 2nd, 5 p.m., right here, members only, and we're going to be dealing with uh deacons.
But we're also, all that being said, back to the FBI, you know, watch list, church growth strategy, evangelism thing, we're also going to be talking about a building because we do need more space.
We'd like to have more space.
And so Connor and I are going to present an option that we have right now in the province of God that could be great.
It could really be the Lord's hand.
Or, you know, like Star Wars style, it's a trap, you know.
So just because there's something on the horizon doesn't necessarily mean it's good, for the record.
But we think it might be.
And so we want to present that, talk through that a little bit, and see if God would be.
So kind that we might eventually be able to have a building that's one, bigger, two, better, primarily better in the sense of right now we have two spaces in our building, right?
And that is the sanctuary and then immediately outside, right?
There's no auxiliary space.
So it's, I'm in the sanctuary or my kid starts crying and we live in Texas.
So what that means is I have to go outside.
There's no auxiliary space.
So I'm in the rain, I'm in 110 degrees.
Or it's freezing.
It's never comfortable.
You can bet on that.
So, we would like to have a building that's bigger for more people, better, more accommodating, especially to mothers and fathers, but especially mothers.
And then, lastly, I think of security.
Just having something that we're not just renting, that we're beholden to someone else who, on a whim, I don't think Dale is going to do this.
No Auxiliary Space Outside00:03:56
He's treated us really well.
By the way, if you ever come and eat here and patron Dale's Essenhaus, which you should, Bless them and tell them thank you.
Say, I'm a member or I'm an attender of Covenant Bible Church.
Thank you for the ways that you've served us.
But it is possible that, you know, they could just one day change their mind.
And so it would be nice to have a little bit more security.
So something bigger, better, and more secure.
So that's another thing.
So, deacons, and we'll also talk about building June 2nd, 5 p.m. members' meeting.
Okay, here we go.
So, starting with deacons, because that's just on the docket, it's coming up in two weeks.
And it may take me two weeks to do this.
I'm going to do my best today.
Maybe we can do it in a week.
Maybe it takes two weeks.
We'll see.
All right, this is the text.
Let's go ahead and stand for the reading of God's word.
I'll read our text in its entirety.
When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say, This is the word of the Lord.
At which point, I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying, Thanks be to God.
Now, I recognize at the top of your notes, the text is 1 Timothy 3, verses 8 through 13.
We will get to all the meat of that because that's all the qualifications for a deacon.
But I'm going to pull an audible and we're going to actually read a different text.
We're going to read not a prescriptive text for the qualifications of deacons, but rather a descriptive text for the duties of deacons.
Because the qualifications are, like I just said, they're explicit and prescriptive.
Prescriptive meaning they're prescribed, they're commands, they're precepts.
It's exactly what God is saying.
A deacon must be blank, blank, blank, blank.
And so, what comes with that, that prescriptive language, is clarity.
It's very clear.
What's a little bit less clear in Scripture is not so much the qualifications of a deacon, but the duties of a deacon.
What does a deacon do?
I understand it must be this tall to ride the ride.
I get what a deacon must be in order to be qualified.
But once he's qualified and once he's ordained to the office, what does he do?
And I think that Acts chapter 6 is one of the best pictures that we get.
It's not prescriptive, saying a deacon must do this, only this, always this.
It's descriptive.
But the descriptive language of Acts chapter 6 of these seven men filled with the Holy Spirit who are appointed to the diaconate, it at least gets us in the ballpark.
It sets us on the right trajectory, the right direction for understanding not just what a deacon must be to be qualified, but what he must do.
So we're going to read that.
This is Acts chapter 6, verses 1 through 7.
The Bible says this Now in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, It is not right that we should give up preaching of the Word of God to serve tables.
Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.
But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.
And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenius and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch.
These they set before the apostles and they prayed and laid their hands on them.
And then here's the result Seven guys appointed to the diaconate.
And what happens?
The word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.
And a great many, even of the priests, became obedient to the faith.
This is the word of the Lord.
All right, let's go ahead and be seated and we will dive right in.
I love that because, again, it's a descriptive text, so it doesn't have the level of perspicuity, the level of clarity as a prescriptive text, but I think there's a lot that can be accurately and faithfully gleaned from this passage.
That deacons, number one, here's the thing, we're going to get into this a little bit.
Female Deacons And Phoebe00:15:48
Can you have male and female deacons?
And, you know, short answer, because I don't want to just keep you on the edge of your seat and bated breath, you know, short answer is, spoiler alert here, no.
No, the Westminster says no, the 1689 says no, everyone says no until the 1960s.
Okay, so the answer is no, and not just because everybody says no, but most importantly because God says no.
The Bible says no.
And so we'll talk about that because people try to make a strong argument for, you know, within even conservative evangelicalism, which by the way is not that conservative, but within conservative evangelicalism, they'll say, whoa, yeah, yeah, elders should be male, biblically qualified men, but the diaconate can be both male and female because.
Well, after all, 1 Timothy chapter 3, when it begins to speak about deacons in verses 8 through 13, it gives a list for men, but then it gives a list for women.
And they'll put a lot of weight on that word that's translated wives and say, well, really, that word should be translated women.
And I think that that's a poor argument.
And then they'll begin to fluff up their position by saying, but Phoebe, Paul says that she was a deacon.
Yes, she was a servant of the church.
See, here's part of the problem.
Part of the problem with the word deacon, and I'm not saying that God knows what he's doing, but it's a good word.
But part of the apparent problem, perceivable problem, is that.
Transfer it for a moment to pastors, okay?
I could say, this man is a fantastic pastor in his home.
And that does not necessarily mean that he holds the ordained ecclesiastical office of pastor.
It doesn't mean he's a capital P pastor in the formal official sense, but he is being pastoral, right?
The word shepherd is another word for pastor, and it's a word that the New Testament uses, right?
So you could say, this person, and without even the qualifier, the prepositional phrase of in his home, you could just say, so and so.
A wonderful shepherd.
You know, I could be writing a letter to someone, so and so, who was a wonderful shepherd, and then hundreds of years later, somebody could read that and say, oh, so and so must have held the ecclesiastical formal office of pastor because Joel referred to him as a shepherd.
Well, no, not necessarily.
They could, but that language does not require that interpretation.
It allows for it, it allows for that interpretation, but it is not a necessary inference.
It does not demand.
That interpretation.
So when Paul says Phoebe is a servant of the church, that's the word deacon, just means servant.
Well, there is capital D, deacon, in the ecclesiastical, ordained, official, formal sense as an office of the church, just like there's a capital P, right?
A pastor for that ecclesiastical, ordained office of the church.
But there's also a sense of being a lowercase p or a lowercase s.
Hey, this guy, he's a fantastic shepherd.
Or this woman is a wonderful servant of the church.
So you can say that Phoebe is a servant of the church, and she was.
And what we can tell about Phoebe is that she, particularly, uniquely, was a massive benefactor of the Apostle Paul and his ministry.
She was rich.
She was well off.
Now, whether that be because she was a widow and her husband was wealthy and left that inheritance to her or whatever it might be, but she was well off and she had a church that was meeting in her home.
And one of the reasons why, it wasn't that the church was meeting in her home because she was the pastor of that church, not even close, or even that she was a deacon in the official church.
Ordained sense in that church.
No, it just means they're literally, the church is meeting and the place where they meet.
Dale, right?
Dale is not an ecclesiastical officer of Covenant Bible Church.
Did you know that?
Crazy, right?
But you meet at Dale's Essenhaus.
Right?
This is not hard.
It's hard if your brain has been melted by feminism.
Then, sure, it's hard.
But it's not hard if you can just slow down and think like every single person has thought for thousands of years since the beginning of humankind up until about 15 minutes ago.
It's not that hard.
We meet at Dale's Essenhaus.
And by the way, it's not just a random name.
It really is a guy named Dale.
And he owns this place.
But not only is he not the pastor of the church or a deacon of the church, he's not even a member of the church.
And so we could say, hey, we're grateful for Dale.
Like I just told you like 10 minutes ago, I said, hey, you should patron the restaurant and say, if you see him, if you meet him, Dale, thanks for, I'm a part of Covenant Bible Church.
Thanks for being so kind and generous to us and letting us meet here.
And none of that says that Dale formally holds ecclesiastical office in the church.
Same with Phoebe.
They're meeting in her home.
Why?
Why in her home?
Well, because she holds an office of authority.
No, because she's rich and her home is large.
That's it.
It really is that simple.
She's got a big house.
Now, the people don't have as big of a house.
It makes sense to meet there at Phoebe's home.
And she is a servant of the church, uniquely so in her energy, her devotion, her faithfulness, and in her charity, her generosity.
That in some sense, she was one of the major donors, benefactors for the entirety of all the Apostle Paul's missionary evangelistic trips and missions.
So, thank God, as Paul says in scripture, inspired by the Holy Spirit, thank God for Phoebe.
Wonderful woman, godly woman, might have a spot closer to the throne of God in heaven than I do, and yet still not an ecclesiastical officer of the church.
Both of those things can be true.
We honor this woman, she's not a pastor, and she's not a deacon in the formal ordained sense.
Does that make sense?
Okay, so that's the Phoebe thing.
Well, what do you do with this whole word?
Well, it doesn't mean wives in 1 Timothy 3, verse 8 through 13.
It means women.
Well, this is what you do.
Here's one argument.
One argument is it absolutely does mean wives.
The wives of male deacons.
It's not a list.
If you're a man aspiring to the office of deacon, your qualifications are this.
Now, if you're a woman aspiring to the office of deacon, you have a separate list of qualifications that look like this.
It's not that.
I'll tell you here's a few reasons.
Here's one reason why it is not two separate lists for male deacons and then women deacons, female deacons.
But rather, it is a list for male deacons and then a list of qualifications for those male deacons' wives.
It's that, the latter, the male deacons' wives, not two lists for one kind of deacon, namely a deacon who's a man, and then another kind of deacon, a deacon who is a woman.
The reason why it's not that is because the Bible does not promulgate affirmative action.
Think about that for a moment.
What affirmative action?
How did it get there?
The Bible does not promulgate or uphold or endorse affirmative action.
Affirmative action is wicked.
It is not just.
It's one of the negative consequences that came out of the civil rights movement.
It is not just.
And the Bible does not promulgate those things which are not just.
Think about that.
If this is translated as women, and it's not, the first argument is no, the word just, it literally means wives.
It's a bad argument.
That's the first argument against it.
The first counter is no, the word is wives.
There's a reason why everybody has translated it that way until again, very recently, due to feminism.
Oh, well, it doesn't actually mean wives, it just means.
So, the first counter argument to female deacons is that the word is wives, not women.
Secondly, to shore up that argument and make it even stronger, if it is women, then you have two lists, and they're differing lists.
And notice this one list is shorter than the other.
One list is more robust, it sets a more thorough, and you can easily argue a higher bar, namely the list for.
Deacons, men, male deacons.
If you read the wives part as, oh no, no, this is just not the wives of those male deacons, but rather this is a separate list for female deacons, then you would have to conclude this.
The bar is yay high if you're a man to be a deacon, but to hold the same ecclesiastical office with the same degree of rights and authority if you happen to apply and you're a woman, lower bar.
So you must be this qualified to hold the office if you're a man.
But you only have to be this qualified to hold the office if you're a woman.
That's literally affirmative action.
No, no, if you're a deacon, you're a deacon.
And you have to meet the qualifications of a deacon.
There are not two separate lists for the same office.
Now, there are two separate lists in this chapter, 1 Timothy chapter 3, for two different offices.
So, elder has one list, and it is a higher bar than the list for deacons.
But to subdivide the deacons and say, oh, but there are actually two sub lists within the deacon category one for male deacons and then a lower bar for female deacons.
Then you're saying that in the mind of God, He actually prescribed that the same office could actually hold to separate, two different standards based off of someone's gender, and the bar would be lower for women because God expects less from them.
That's actually the more chauvinistic argument.
That's actually the more chauvinistic argument.
Instead, the more life giving, affirming, esteeming, and honoring argument for women is to say no, There's just one standard for deacons.
And part of it is that they would be men, but the diaconate, there's a uniqueness to this ecclesiastical office which differs.
It's distinct from an elder.
And one of the distinctions is that the diaconate will involve his ministry to the church, his ministry to the church will involve necessarily, by way of implication, his wife joining him in that ministry in the way that a pastor, his ministry as an elder to the church, will not.
Let me flesh that out for just a moment.
As a minister of the word, right?
So I'll make it as concise as possible.
Elder, what is an elder?
Not just how do you qualify, right?
The qualifications, again, are prescriptive, they're very clear.
We'll get into them.
But in terms of the duties, what is an elder?
An elder is a man who has been tasked to the ministry of the word.
A deacon is a biblically qualified man who has been tasked to a ministry of mercy.
I'll say that again.
This is a generalization, but it is generally true.
There's more specifications underneath, but the 30,000 foot view is this Elder, ministry of the word.
Deacon, ministry of mercy.
My wife, who is incredibly godly by the grace of God, she does not partner with me in my ministry in the ecclesiastical formal sense as an elder very much.
She partners with me in my overarching Christian ministry because my overall life ministry involves more than just my formal ministry to the church.
It involves a lion's share of our ministry, my wife and I together, is to these four little kids and a fifth one on the way.
And so we're doing a lot of ministry there, and I cannot do it without my wife helping me in that ministry.
But as it pertains to the church, from time to time my wife will join me.
Maybe it's marriage counseling or premarital counseling or something like that.
And sometimes my wife will join me, and sometimes she won't.
And usually the reason she doesn't is never because she doesn't want to.
She enjoys providing godly counsel for others, she loves the women of the church.
But sometimes I go and do counseling, most of the time.
I go and do counseling, and my wife's not there.
Why?
Because she has kids.
And the predominant portion, the lion's share of her ministry is in our home.
And a lot of my ministry is also at home, but also in the formal sense with the church.
And here's the ministry because I hold, by God's grace, the office of elder.
The majority of my ministry in the church, my formal ministry, is what I'm doing right now.
Namely, preaching.
The overarching general ministry of an elder is a ministry of the Word.
And the word is to be taught by biblically qualified men.
And so, the nature this is what I'm getting into.
Not just here are the duties and their specifications, but think about in an overarching sense what is the nature of a pastor's ministry versus the nature of a deacon's ministry?
The nature of a pastor's ministry, an elder and pastor, these terms are synonymous, by the way.
If you haven't figured that out, I probably should have said it up front, but I'm saying it now.
Let the record state pastor, bishop, elder, these are synonymous terms, shepherd, It's the office of elder, the ecclesiastical office of elder.
There are only three offices, ecclesiastical offices that exist in the church elder, deacon, member.
And member is an office.
And it comes with certain rights, privileges, and duties, responsibilities, just like deacon and just like elder.
Back to elder, okay?
So an elder, pastor, the nature, the overarching nature of his ministry is a ministry of the word.
And the word we see in Scripture, not just in 1 Timothy 2 or 1 Timothy 3 or Titus 1 or 1 Corinthians 14 or this and that and that and this again and again and again.
Not only do we see from Scripture that the ministry of the Word, the public preaching and teaching of the Word, is to be done by biblically qualified men, it is uniquely a male office.
Not only is that in Scripture, but in practice, in a practical sense, if it is to be done by men, then my wife is not going to be practically joining me in this ministry on a regular basis.
What would it look like for my wife to join me in tandem?
With the office and the duties of an elder, which are primarily a ministry of the word.
Well, it would look like me calling her up right now, tag teaming her.
All right, I did the first half of the sermon, you get the second.
Sound familiar?
Churches do this, by the way, all the time.
The evangelical church, all the time.
Go and look at your average SBC church.
God help them.
Go and look at their website.
And you will see Pastor So and So, a man, his picture, his name, and Co pastor so and so, his wife.
It's not pastor so and so and his wife, it's two pastors, and they're both on the payroll, both paid by the church, both holding office in the church, both having the title in the church, and that is unbiblical.
That is unbiblical.
See, the way that a wife would join her husband if he's an elder, and the nature of an elder's ministry, predominantly being a ministry of the word, public preaching and teaching, for a wife to join him in that necessarily almost, almost.
Almost guaranteed, will require her to step into a realm that the Bible strictly forbids her to go.
It will require her to function as a pastor, which she's not called to be.
It will require her to join her husband in public preaching and teaching, exercising authority and teaching even over men, which is strictly prohibited by the scripture.
Qualifications For A Deacon's Wife00:10:33
Now, that being established, back to today's topic deacons.
When it comes to the role of a deacon, not the qualifications, but speaking of his duties.
The overarching general nature of his ministry, the ministry of an elder is a ministry of the word, but the ministry of a deacon is a ministry of mercy.
The deacon, he may teach, both the Westminster, well, the 1689 for sure, Westminster, not so much on this one.
They usually, I mean, it's 99% the same, but this is one example where they would differ.
But the 1689 would say that a deacon may preach on the Lord's day, but an elder must.
Ordinarily, the regular steady diet of a church's preaching should be coming from elders.
But it is permissible for a deacon to preach.
But that is not the overarching general nature of his ministry.
It may, it is permissible to include some public preaching and teaching, but that's not going to be the primary makeup.
The primary makeup of the duty, the role, the nature of a deacon's ministry will not be.
Ministry of the word, but rather a ministry of mercy.
And most of that mercy ministry will be carried out not publicly behind a pulpit on the Lord's day, but privately Monday through Saturday.
It'll be going to the poor, to the downtrodden, to the lonely, to the sick, to the hurting.
And guess what that can, without crossing any bounds, without breaking any prohibitions, guess who that can include?
His wife.
So, why?
Here's the point.
Why does 1 Timothy 3 give a list of qualifications for pastors, male pastors, and then give no qualifications for the wives of a pastor?
Because that's the feminist argument, right?
I'm just setting you up.
Some of you already know this, but some of you may not.
The feminist argument, the egalitarian, which is just that's feminism, the feminist argument for female deacons is this.
They'll say, well, there's no qualifications for the wife of an elder, but then there's qualifications for the wife of a deacon.
Well, that makes it sound like if elder is a higher office, A higher ecclesiastical office in the church, then it makes it sound like, you know, the wife of a deacon, which is actually a lower office, there's all of a sudden more expectations for the wife of a lower office and the wife of a higher office.
That can't make sense.
So it must not mean wife of a deacon, it must simply mean women deacons.
No.
No, the reason why qualifications for the wife of an elder are not mentioned is not because elder is a lower office than deacon, it's because a wife of an elder will not join him in his ministry.
To the same degree that the wife of a deacon will.
The nature of the ministry of the diaconate, being not a ministry of the word primarily, but a ministry of mercy primarily, will necessarily involve his feminine wife with all her nurturing inclinations.
It will necessarily draw her into his ministry with him in the way that a public preaching ministry for an elder will not draw his wife in with him.
That's why.
So, the reason why there are qualifications.
For the wives of deacons listed, and there are not qualifications for the wives of elders listed, is not because the diaconate is a higher office than elder.
No, elder is higher than diaconate.
And it is also not because the wives actually is supposed to be read women, female deacons, because that would mean that if you're a male deacon, you must be this tall to ride the ride.
Gotta be pretty legit.
But if you're a woman applying for the office, we make exceptions.
The bar is lower because, you know what, women have been oppressed and we've got to get them into the ecclesiastical workforce.
Don't read it like that.
Don't be a feminist.
Okay.
So that's a little bit about feminism, deacon, the overarching nature of the ministry of a deacon, ministry of mercy, all these kinds of things.
There's two qualifications that I want us to focus on today.
And then we'll get a little bit more into the weeds of the duties.
And I, yeah, if it's too much, we'll just have to do a part two.
But I think I maybe can do it.
I'm feeling a little bit hopeful because I've been talking super duper fast.
All right, so these are the qualifications, looking at the qualifications for a male deacon.
Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain.
They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience and let them also be tested first.
Then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.
Then it gets into the qualifications for the wife of a deacon.
We'll stop there.
That's verse 11.
So we're just looking at verses 8, 9, and 10 right now.
Of all those qualifications, at least the general essence of each of these qualifications is listed as well for the qualifications of an elder.
Two exceptions, and really only two.
A deacon needs to be a good husband.
He needs to be a good dad.
He's got to manage his household well.
He can't be a drunkard.
But those are mentioned as well for elders.
So this isn't novel.
By this point, and I know we're going backwards again for a practical reason because we're going to be voting on deacons in two weeks.
Otherwise, I would have started with elders.
But if you're reading the text in order, then you've read the qualifications for elders first and versus elders.
1 Timothy 3, verses 1 through 7, and now you're getting to deacons.
And if we were reading the text, starting with verse 1 of 1 Timothy 3, we would have read all the qualifications for elders.
And then by the time we get to verses 8, 9, and 10, the qualifications for deacons, we would notice that it's kind of a repeat for the most part, with again, two primary exceptions.
And I believe the two exceptions are this number one, not double tongued.
And number two, holds the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
Say it again.
For the most part, the qualifications for a deacon are a recap of the same qualifications for an elder.
It's character.
Primarily dealing with character, personal character, and the manifestation of that godly personal character, which will play out ordinarily, primarily in the home.
Good dad, good husband, good family.
That's for elders.
Same thing for deacons.
Very much the same.
But where the qualifications for a deacon begin to Take a little bit of a detour from the qualifications of an elder, are again in two primary regards.
Number one, there's nothing with the elder qualifications that highlights that he must not be double tongued.
Now, hear me.
Does that mean that if you're a pastor, now if you're a deacon, you need to be a stand up guy, but if you're a pastor, feel free to lie?
Of course not.
Of course not.
So, none of that is meant to imply a pastor can be double tongued because Paul didn't say it.
No, no, neither of these for the elder or for the deacon are exhaustive.
Did you know that in Galatians chapter 5 for this matter, while we're on the topic, that the nine fruit of the Spirit is also not an exhaustive list?
It is not to say that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control.
It is not to say these are the only fruit of the Spirit and there can never be any others.
No, there are times where in the apostolic writings inspired by the Holy Spirit, they're giving a list of certain qualities, certain characteristics, and they are true, but it is not necessarily meant to be an exhaustive list.
Humility, we can say that humility is a fruit.
It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, although it is not specifically mentioned in Galatians 5 in this list of nine fruit of the Spirit listed out by the Apostle Paul.
But certainly, the one who is filled with the Holy Spirit will and should exude in his life certain degrees of humility as he's being sanctified and formed more into the image of Christ.
So, neither of these are exhaustive lists the qualifications for an elder or the qualifications for a deacon.
So, if it doesn't say an elder must not be double tongued, it doesn't mean, oh, well, then it's okay for an elder to be double tongued.
He can say one thing to one party and then something that directly contradicts that to the other party.
He can lie.
He can practice hypocrisy.
No, of course not.
But it does still bear the question.
Although it is not permissible by way of implication, we should assume it's not permissible for a pastor, an elder, to be double tongued.
But we should at least beg the question not is it okay for an elder to be double tongued, but we should instead ask this question why does Paul feel that it is necessary to explicitly mention the not double tongued characteristic in the deacon list?
And I would simply, humbly suggest to you one overarching reason.
Because again, back to the nature of the diaconate's ministry.
What kind of ministry is this?
Why are there qualifications for his wife but not an elder?
Because he's doing a ministry of mercy Monday through Saturday most of the time, privately, where his wife is going to necessarily join him in that, whereas the elder is doing a ministry of the word publicly on the Lord's day, where his wife is not going to join him in that.
Well, same kind of idea with the double tongued qualifier.
The nature of the ministry of a deacon not being a public ministry as the highest office in the ecclesiastical setting, an elder, the public ministry of the word, instead being a ministry of mercy and being the second highest office within the ecclesiastical setting, the local church.
Because he's this, there's elders up here.
Think of it like this elders here, members here, deacons are right here in between.
So why does Jesus think that it's important?
Because this is inspired by God, Jesus is God, you get it.
It's a pretty straight line there.
Why does Jesus think?
That it's important for deacons not to be double tongued because they're in between.
And they are regularly going to be posed, presented with a temptation to say one thing to the members and then go back and say another thing to the elders, and vice versa.
Fathers Passing Down Leadership00:03:57
The deacon, think of mom in a family, in a home.
The husband is the head of his wife, he's the head of the household.
But then the husband, in his role to provide and protect, Ordinarily, she is going to spend a decent amount of time out of the home, working out of the home in order to make provision for the home.
Whereas the primary ministry of the wife, the mother, is going to be in the home.
She is going to be managing the home on a day to day basis, in terms of just feet on the ground, in terms of hours in the day.
She is going to be spending a lot more time with the kids than her husband.
And the husband may make certain decisions, especially as the kids get older.
So, not just your two and three year old little pitter patter feet, the toddler phase, but when your kids start getting older, and you've got teenagers in the home, and they have some opinions.
Some of those are strong opinions.
And dad's got some opinions too, but dad's actually in charge.
It's his home, and he's seeking to be faithful as best he can by the Spirit of God and by grace.
And he says, Now, ask for me in my house X, Y, Z.
And he says that in a loving way, not domineering.
But in a loving way with his wife, hey, you're going to be managing the home.
I'm going to be gone 40, 50, 60 hours a week.
This is the decision I've made for me and my house and for our children.
I believe it's right.
I'm not doing this to destroy any.
I'm not the destroyer of fun.
I'm not trying to.
I want good for our family.
I believe that this is good.
I've made the decision, but there are going to be multiple times throughout the week where I'm going to be gone and you're going to be the one I need, I'm counting on to help me enforce this decision.
And if it's not obeyed by the children, then let me know.
When I come home, I'll deal with it.
Now, what are the children tempted to do?
Especially older boys, sons, girls, too, but especially older sons.
If dad's gone, and as much as you can, dads, take sons with you, those older sons.
Take them to work with you as much as you can.
I recognize that not everybody can.
I understand there are different vocations, and we have a goal in mind.
Yeah, we're all working.
It would be nice, right?
It would be nice that we're all self employed.
We all own our own business.
We're also all part time farmers, and we all live in the Shire.
That's the goal, right?
So that's the goal.
Let's keep working.
But being a little bit reasonable here and saying that may be the goal, but we're not all quite there yet.
And some of you guys, you know, bring your son to work day is not 365 days a year.
I get that.
Like, it's just the nature of your job.
You're not able to always bring your son.
As much as you can, though, do it.
As much as you can, include your older sons, dads, in the work and seek to pass it down to them.
Teach them that trait and bring them into productivity, working for the household with you.
But when you can't, And ordinarily, for many of us, in the nature of our work, you won't be able to all the time.
And in those moments when you can't, and your son is at home with mom, and you, Father, have made a decision that you know your 14 year old, 15 year old, 16 year old son doesn't really, he just doesn't quite have the same point of view that you do.
What is he going to be tempted to do with mom when you're gone?
He's going to be tempted to rebel against her, see her in his sin.
In his sin, he's going to be tempted to see her as the weak link in the chain.
Dad's gone.
Here's my opportunity.
This is my moment to get my opinion across, to do things my way.
And then what would mom's temptation be?
Who loves her son, doesn't want to lose her son.
I don't want to be too hard on him and push him away.
Which, by the way, just moms, if you're ever worried, am I too hard on my kids?
Large Churches Are Not Wrong00:14:33
The answer is no.
Like almost always, no.
The answer is no.
But the mom might be tempted to give her word to her husband, the head of the house, to dad, but then go back on her word with dad, with her son, when dad's not there.
Right?
Dad, kids, mom.
Same thing in a church, right?
I'm just giving that as an example so you can visualize.
I'm trying to illustrate here.
Same thing in a church.
Dad, mom, kids, elders, deacons, members.
And not only that, so there's a temptation to be double tongued.
Saying one thing to these two parties, elders being one party, members being another.
But then here's another scenario.
There's also for the deacon a unique temptation to be double tongued within two parties that are both made up of members, even with elders not being involved.
And that's precisely what we read in Acts chapter 6.
Two groups, two parties at odds with one another.
And it's not elders against members, it's members against members.
Who are they?
The Hellenistic Jews and the Hebraic Jews.
They're at each other's throats.
There is a stark, serious conflict between these two parties over what?
The Hellenists are saying that their widows, allegedly, we don't even know if it's true from the text.
It doesn't specify explicitly whether or not this objectively was the case, but what we do know is they at least thought it was the case.
It may have been, it may not have been.
That doesn't matter.
What matters is that there's one group in the church, namely the Hellenists, who are saying our widows are being overlooked in the daily distribution.
Our widows aren't getting their needs met on a daily basis the way that the Hebraic Jews are.
And that's not fair.
And then what do the elders decide?
And recognize these are apostles, Peter's among them.
These are apostles in the church of Jerusalem, but they're holding a dual office, which does not exist today, by the way.
But for them, it did.
They're apostles of Christ, but also functioning as elders of a local church.
Which local church?
The church at Jerusalem.
The church at Jerusalem, which, by the way, this is the first century back when they were faithful.
They didn't do mega church, all their churches were in homes.
Now, the church in Jerusalem was at least 3,000 people.
How do you know that?
Because Peter preached.
At Pentecost, and 3,000 were added to the faith that day in Jerusalem.
This is a large church.
Large churches are okay.
Large churches are not inherently wrong.
They can be wrong and often are wrong, but not inherently so.
If you have a large church, but you happen to have 12 elders, and those 12 elders have godly character like Peter, James, and John, and those 12 elders then see the need to appoint and raise up seven deacons, And you have strong pillars of families, heads of households throughout the membership of the church, you could technically have a 3,000 member church and it'd be perfectly biblical and perfectly faithful.
It's not inherently wrong.
Now, ordinarily, though, it's going to be hard to pull off, right?
Because not every elder is like Peter, James, and John.
In fact, very few, arguably none.
So, I'm not saying, hey, every church should be 3,000 people, but I am saying inherently it's not evil, it's not wrong.
So, all this being said, You got the deacons, and what are the elders doing?
The elders hear the problem first.
The problem comes to them.
Hellenists, our widows are being passed up.
And then the Hebraic Jews say, uh uh.
And that's usually how arguments go in the church.
It's usually a strong counter argument of uh uh.
And that's going on.
And the 12 elders, what do they say?
They say, well, you know what?
We're going to spend a lot of time on this.
No, they say, you know what?
We're not going to spend any time on this.
Great biblical answer.
Good response.
Godly leadership.
We're just not going to spend any time on this.
Not because it doesn't matter, and not because no one's going to spend time on it, but we're not going to spend time on it because we are going to devote ourselves to the preaching of the word and prayer.
And so instead, what we're going to do is appoint seven men to the office of deacon.
And this is really, from what we can tell from all of Scripture, this is the origin of the diaconate.
The elders at Jerusalem recognized with a large growing church, they recognized.
That there was a need for another kind of ministry that did have authority.
It was an officially ordained ecclesiastical office, but it wasn't an elder.
And here we have the origin of the diaconate, a ministry of mercy.
And what's its purpose?
Here's the deal this is what we're getting at.
What is its chief purpose?
Again, 30,000 foot view.
Its chief purpose is to free the elders of any and all distractions so that they can focus primarily on the word.
So, from this text, which again, remember this, it's descriptive, not prescriptive.
So, from this text on deacons, because especially Baptists, they don't always understand hermeneutical categories and prescriptive and descriptive, these kinds of things, what have Baptists done with deacons because of Acts chapter 6?
You got the good old classic deacon food drive, brother.
The deacon food drive.
You walk in that foyer of the church, and there will be a box, and there will be canned beans and corn in that box, so help me.
And basically, every Southern Baptist church in the world, and has been for decades.
Now, is it wrong to have the deacon food drive?
No.
But is that the overall essence of the diaconate?
No.
See, the role of a deacon, this is what I'm getting at.
The role of a deacon is not waiting on widows and orphans.
The role of the deacons in the first century at this exact moment, in this exact place, namely the church in Jerusalem, was to wait on widows and orphans.
Because that happened to be what was distracting those elders there from their primary duty of preaching the word.
So, what is a deacon's job?
Feeding widows?
No, not exhaustively.
That could be part of their job.
That would fall underneath their purview.
But what's the overarching?
That could be one of the things listed in all the bullet points.
But what's the headline?
If we were to sum it up in one general phrase, what does a deacon do?
It's a ministry of mercy.
For what purpose?
To glorify God, to bless the membership of the church, and to free up the elders.
So that the elders can predominantly, doesn't mean they can't ever do anything else, but that the The primary portion of an elder's work and ministry would be in the realm of preaching.
That he's ministering the word, preaching the word.
And when other things that are not preaching the word oriented come up in the life of the church, as they always do, that's perfectly normal, there would be another team, not just one, but another team of biblically qualified men with also biblically qualified wives, not to hold the office themselves.
It's not Deacon Sally.
But it is Deacon Sam with his godly wife, Sally, and there's a massive distinction between those two scenarios, and that they would be ready and eager and qualified and willing the moment that some issue comes up.
Hey, Pastor, I got this.
Let me take it off your plate.
You preach.
That's the role, the duty of a deacon.
What was distracting the elders there?
Food.
Widows.
Now, another thing to say, real quick.
That deacons are not, because I want to elevate the office.
Here's a deacon in America, in evangelicalism in America, is basically this.
If you're a member of a church, you should volunteer and serve.
And you know what?
We've got a spot for you on our parking team.
If you're a deacon of a church, you're the lead parking attendant.
And that's all it is.
What's the difference between a deacon and a member?
A member is on the parking team.
A deacon, he's the lead parking team, right?
He's the lead parking attendant.
And that's that, literally, if you ask the average Christian, And I'm talking even in fairly decent churches.
I'm going to teach on elders, but I probably won't have to teach as much on elders as I would do on deacons.
The diaconate is the most neglected office by far in evangelical churches and in reformed churches.
And I'm talking good reformed churches, otherwise, in many other capacities, they still, I think, are dead wrong when it comes to the office of a deacon.
They literally see the deacon as a lead volunteer, and that's it.
The deacon's ministry is strictly practical.
It's never theological or spiritual or anything else.
It's only practical.
And it's basically just, he's the team lead.
We have volunteers for this, we have volunteers for that, and a deacon, he leads that particular volunteer team.
A deacon in most churches is going to be, we've got children's ministry, we've got 20 volunteers with the children's ministry, and our children director who leads that team of volunteers, there's your deacon.
All right?
If it's a bad church, there's your pastor, and it's a woman.
If it's a good church, there's your deacon and it's a woman.
Right?
That's an okay church.
If it's a good church, there's your deacon, and it's a man.
And if it's a great church, you say, no, no, no, deacons are more than this.
Deacons are more than this.
That's not, it's Acts 6 is descriptive, not prescriptive.
Now, even from the descriptive text of Acts 6, notice this they're not appointing seven men filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom to carry bowls of soup.
Think about that for a second.
Think of Ephesians 4.
That Christ, As head of the church, he appoints as gracious gifts to his church, which is his body, leaders and multiple capacities, multiple offices.
He gave in the first century to lay the foundation of the church.
That's Ephesians 2 20.
The foundation is Christ and the apostles and the prophets.
The apostles and prophets, with Christ being the cornerstone.
So, in the first leg of church building ministry that Christ is undergoing, he first in the first century gave the apostles and prophets and himself as a corner capstone to lay this foundation.
And then, evangelist, And pastor teachers or shepherd teachers, which is just pastors, two sides of one coin, pastors.
So, evangelists and pastors, to then on top of the foundation that's already been laid and inscripturated right here, prophets and apostles, on top of this foundation to then put up walls and put up electric and plumbing and everything else and roof.
And that's what's going on.
That's what's been going on for the last 2,000 years.
So, Christ gives leaders to his church as a gift to his church.
And what do these leaders do?
Ephesians 4 goes on and says, they equip the saints.
For the work of ministry.
So, who does the work of ministry?
If we're thinking of an executive office, and we shouldn't think of churches as businesses, but if we're thinking of an executive office, who is the executive office in the ecclesiastical realm, in a church?
It's not the elders, it's not the deacons, it's the members.
You are the executives.
You execute.
Who carries out?
When the rubber hits the road, who actually carries out the mission of the church?
Who gets it done?
You.
The membership of the church.
They're the ones who do the work of ministry.
Leaders in the church equip and train the saints to carry out the work of ministry.
So, who do we think, and I know I'm truncating it a little bit here, but just getting you the language, helping you to see, illustrate, painting a picture in your mind.
Who's carrying the soup to these widows, the Hellenists and the Hebraic Jews?
Well, Stephen and Philip, right?
Seven men filled with the Holy Spirit.
We need.
Holy Spirit filled soup carriers.
No, that's not what James and John and Peter and these 12 are thinking.
We got 3,000 people for that.
The church, the saints.
So then what are the seven deacons doing?
Well, deacons just do the food drive, they just carry the soup.
No, you know what they're doing?
Mediation.
They are bringing restoration, reconciliation, and resolution to conflict.
And not just conflict in one household, in one marriage, between one husband and one wife.
No, this is a 3,000 person church with two groups that make it up.
Each one of these groups likely being in the hundreds, if not a couple thousand each.
The church is threatening to split apart.
This is a big issue.
Right here, they are posed with the temptation and on the brink of splitting one of the first churches, the epicenter of the New Testament church.
Where all the apostles are serving as elders, and the whole thing is about to break apart.
And who do they need?
It's a big issue.
And it's not just what we need soup and we need it stacked.
No, no, no.
We need conflict management.
We need mediation.
We need relational reconciliation.
We need counseling.
We need teaching.
We need help.
We need help.
And who's going to do it?
Seven men filled with the Holy Spirit.
They're going to do it.
Stephen is not to be trifled with.
Stephen, that boy could preach.
He preached such a good sermon, it got him killed.
Philip is not to be trifled with.
Philip is not your lead parking attendant.
Philip is a godly man, a strong, courageous man.
He is a leader.
He's an evangelist, that Philip.
Multiplying Disciples Through Prayer00:02:29
And he's also a credo Baptist.
But the Ethiopian.
That's my view.
That one was a joke, slightly serious, slightly joke.
So, all that being said, Deacon is not.
We have so devalued the office of a deacon in the church in America today, especially evangelicals.
It means something.
So, why is our church, by God's grace, we'll see.
You're going to vote as a congregation, you're going to execute.
We're trusting you.
We'll see what God does through the agency of the priesthood of all believers, Spirit of God dwelling in you, baptized believers, you will vote.
Whether we ordain or whether we don't with these three men, but Lord willing, if they are approved by you and ordained, be the following Sunday on a Sunday morning, so that'd be June 9th, that we would ordain them, Connor and I laying hands on them and ordaining them for the office of the diaconate through prayer.
Then why are we doing all this?
What is that going to result in?
Here's my prayer, and I want it to be your prayer as well.
Pray this, please, with me.
My prayer, and hopefully your prayer, would be that it would all result in this.
Acts chapter 6.
Close my Bible too soon.
Acts chapter 6, verse 7.
After they appointed these seven men, what was the result?
And the word of God continued to increase.
And the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.
And a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
That's my prayer.
I humbly ask you to join me.
And making it your prayer as well, that in pointing three men, be it that they are truly qualified, if that be the case, I believe they are, you must decide that as well.
But if they are qualified, if they are godly, and they are in God's sovereign will appointed to this office, and it all comes to pass, then my prayer is that the result would be that these three men would be able to serve you, to help you, to love you, to equip you in such a way that other men, namely Connor and myself, and Lord willing, one day Michael as well.
That we would be uniquely freed up to even more public preaching and teaching so that the word of God would increase and disciples would be multiplied.
That's the prayer.
Praying For Qualified Deacons00:00:48
Let's pray.
Dear God, we just pray that now.
We pray that if it be your will, that these men would be ordained to the office of deacon, that they would serve this church and congregation well, that we would honor them if they are appointed to that office, that we would not see deacon as merely lead parking attendant, but we would see it as a legitimate, valid ecclesiastical office in the church.
That we would honor them and that they would be equipped by your spirit, the spirit of wisdom, to serve well, and that the church would be blessed by their ministry of mercy in all the varying capacities, and that that would free up the elders to preach and teach the word even more, and that the word would increase and the disciples would be multiplied, all for your glory and the good of your people.