The Reformed Deacon
The Reformed Deacon is an interview and discussion podcast created by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church Committee on Diaconal Ministries. The Reformed Deacon exists to strengthen and encourage the brotherhood of reformed deacons in their God-given role of serving the local church. We hope you'll find this podcast to be helpful to you as you serve the Lord in your church. For more information about the OPC Committee on Diaconal Ministries, go to our website: OPCCDM.org. Contact us: mail@thereformeddeacon.org.
The Reformed Deacon
Finding the Next Deacon
In this episode, Revs. Chris Cashen and Bill Shishko consider how churches might identify men called to the office of deacon, drawing from 1 Timothy 3:8-13. Many congregations and church plants either lack deacons entirely or may not have enough to meet their needs. How can a church discern and recognize those whom God may be calling to this vital role? Join seasoned pastors Bill and Chris as they offer thoughtful guidance on following the Holy Spirit's leading in identifying future deacons.
Referenced in this episode:
1 Timothy 3:8-13
Acts 6
A Training Program for Deacons
About the guest:
Rev. Bill Shishko bio
You can find all of our episodes at thereformeddeacon.org. Make sure to follow us on your favorite podcast player, so you don't miss an episode. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for giveaways and more information. Find other resources on OPCCDM.org. Make sure to send us some feedback on your podcast player or ask a diaconal question by going to OPCCDM.org.
Cultivate deaconal mindedness in everybody in the church, not just a deacon ought to be an exemplar of what all Christians are as servants, and so that should be cultivated overall, and then of course you'll see men that kind of rise in that as men that are particularly deacquaintly minded.
David Nakhla:Welcome to the Reformed Deacon, a casual conversation with topics specifically designed to help local Reformed Deacons. There are nearly a thousand deacons in the OPC alone, so let's take this opportunity to learn from and encourage one another. We're so glad you could join us. Let's jump into our next episode.
Chris Cashen:Welcome to another episode of the Reformed Deacon Podcast. My name is Chris Cashin and I serve as pastor at Trinity Reformed OPC in Lanham, Maryland. I also serve on the OPC's Committee on Diaconal Ministries, and today with me is Reverend Bill Shishko. Bill really needs no introduction. He is currently serving as pastor of the Haven located in Commack, Long Island, that's New York. He was pastor at Franklin Square. Bill, for how many years were you at Franklin Square?
Bill Shishko:Oh, 35 and a half years,
Chris Cashen:And then you were regional home missionary for some time. How long were you serving in that post?
Bill Shishko:I served there. I started in 2016. My heart's in the pastorate, chris. I guess there are some men better wired to be regional home missionaries than I am, but my brethren that I was working with, I think, realized that I just love pastoring people. I just love pastoring people and they urged me to, as an RHM, to get a work going, by God's grace, in the eastern part of Long Island, suffolk County, where there are over a million and a half people. You've got free Reformed churches. That's it, and so this is—so I feel like I'm a man on the mission field and a pastor at the same time, and I'm happy to be doing it.
Chris Cashen:Praise God, that's wonderful work. I'm glad you're there. You have a wife, margaret, and six children and 10 grandchildren.
Bill Shishko:Wow. But since that was done, we've got 11. We had one born about a month ago Praise.
Chris Cashen:God Wonderful. Well, bill, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for taking the time to be with us today. Today, pastor Bill and I will be discussing your next deacon, or looking for your next deacon. We're trying to answer the question of how a church might go about identifying men called to the office of deacon. This is a significant topic because we have many churches in the OPC that don't have any deacons, or, at least from a human perspective, not enough deacons, and so we also have church plants who are looking for men who would be raised up to serve in this ordained office. So the question is how does a church go about, or a church plant go about, identifying men that may be called to serve in the office of deacon? We're going to begin today by just opening up a short passage of scripture to see how it might help us think through this topic. Again, from time to time, we want to take an in-depth look at Bible passages and theological topics like this one, to strengthen a deacon's understanding of the purpose for his office or in his office as he works in his office, and so we're inviting Pastor Bill here to open up this topic for us and guide us in it.
Chris Cashen:Today, we're going to be taking a look at 1 Timothy, chapter 3, but most of our discussion is going to be focused on a practical application of this passage as it relates to finding the next deacon. So let me take a moment and read that. For us that's 1 Timothy 3. I'll begin at verse 8, and I'm going to be using the English Standard Version this morning. Let's give attention to the Word of God. 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. Their wives, likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well, for those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also for great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. Amen. Well, bill, would you pray for us?
Bill Shishko:Our God. We are so grateful for this privilege to not only open your word, but discuss it and see it applied to the very real situations that churches face, and so we pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and we pray, above all, that you will glorify the great deacon, the Lord Jesus, amen.
Chris Cashen:Amen. Thank you Well, bill. I'd like to begin our conversation with one big qualification. As we think through this passage and our desire to have more deacons, it's possible that we may consider this to be merely about a choice made by the congregation. So is the selection of a man to the office of deacon merely a matter of creating a list of qualifications and then checking off boxes to determine if a man is called? In other words, is this process similar to that process of an election to a secular governmental office and, if not, how does it differ?
Bill Shishko:Well, my response would be, to use the Apostle Paul's language, in the Greek me genoito. God forbid that we begin to think about this process like the election to a secular governmental office. Please, given the way things go in the secular elections, let's not think that. How does it differ? We're talking about 180-degree difference. Number one if we're talking about a call to a minister or a ruling elder or a deacon, special offices in the church we're talking about a call that really does two things. Number one, it begins with the Lord equipping a man for that particular work minister, ruling elder or deacon and then, number two, the Holy Spirit working within a congregation to recognize those things as things that line up with what the Word of God says about a minister or an elder or a deacon. So again, that's 180 degrees different from any secular views of election to governmental office.
Chris Cashen:Very good. I'm glad we cleared that up, so to speak. And so we're talking about spiritual things today. We're seeking the working of the Holy Spirit and seeking that working within a man and trying to identify that, that working within a man and trying to identify that. So, bill, as we continue and as we've opened up, or beginning to open up, this passage in 1 Timothy, it's interesting that Paul begins describing the qualifications for a man, for a deacon, using very general, almost what some people might consider to be secular attributes for good people and we know there are no good people. He says this deacons, likewise, must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. Why do you think Paul begins with these descriptors and not faith in Christ? Do you think he might have been considering Luke's record in Acts, which the apostles there began very similarly, in Acts, chapter 6, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and wisdom.
Bill Shishko:That's a great question, chris. I have to admit I didn't think of it. But when you realize that Luke accompanied the apostle Paul and Luke wrote Acts under the inspiration of God, I think that's. I don't know the answer to the question, but I think it's a very good question and I think you'd have to do more work than I've done on the dating of the two books and so on. The fact of the matter is they're both texts given under the inspiration of God.
Bill Shishko:The fact that Scripture interprets Scripture means we use the material in Acts 6. And I do assume, chris, not everybody does, they should, but not everybody assumes that Acts 6 is the beginning of the diaconate. I'd really urge your listeners, if they're on the fence about that, to really think carefully. The origin of the diaconate I'd really urge your listeners, if they're on the fence about that, to really think carefully. The origin of the diaconate in Acts 6 is actually, in a sense, very similar to the origin of those that would be elders serving Moses that you read about in Exodus 19. The church had grown, you needed more officers and so on. And it's clear in Acts 6, luke is writing about deacons. He uses the word there over and over again. And if you don't see Acts 6 as the inception of the diaconate, then you're really kind of hanging our text 1 Timothy 3, on a sky hook. So that's just kind of a preamble to all of that.
Bill Shishko:Why doesn't he assume faith is something like it is assumed? I mean, even in 1 Timothy, you know, it does say full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. In Acts Paul speaks about those who are in a good faith. So it's not a faith, it's just assumed it was the mark of a saint. But why are these things highlighted? I think we can talk about them a little bit later when we talk about the specific work of the diaconate.
Bill Shishko:But it's really important for your listeners to realize that in the first century and especially in the second century, we were living in a time in which people were in a moral wilderness. The Stoic philosophy and Epicurean philosophy, the remnants of it, were there. But people were very jaded about philosophy and moral codes and they were kind of lost. Jaded about philosophy and moral codes and they were kind of lost. And all that we know from reading about the New Testament but also the early church, is that the church it was a moral representation in an immoral culture or, more specifically, it represented the Holy Christ in, at best, a morally confused culture. So why are these things here? I mean, in the first place they represent Christ, and then we can deal with this a little bit later. The specific things that are given here really do bear in many ways on that holiness and righteousness being displayed before others in a proper way.
Chris Cashen:That's helpful. You've turned us back to Christ, away from thinking the possibility that these were just secular attributes, but these are attributes we find in Jesus Christ. Very good, jesus Christ, very good. Well, bill Deacon Dave is tired.
Chris Cashen:He's a solo deacon in a smaller OPC church in actually small town USA. He needs help and this past year Dave has had many opportunities to show the mercy of Christ to particular members of the congregation. He's grateful, but he'd really appreciate some help to do that work. So while the pastor and the session have been of great help to him, he could use another godly man focused on mercy ministry. So Deacon Dave is wondering how am I to help the congregation identify a man who may be called to the diaconate? David is very familiar with 1 Timothy 3, but not quite sure how to use this verse that we've been talking about this 1 Timothy 8. Deacons must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. As we're looking for men to fill this office, how would you advise Dave to help the church evaluate those attributes among those who might be considered?
Bill Shishko:That's a great question, chris. When you begin with, deacon Dan is tired. I'm sure many of your listeners are going to identify with that, because the work of the deacon can get very, very tiring. Well, again, let me back up a little bit. When there's a need for church offices, period in church life, that's kind of like a dietary deficiency in the body. I mean, we could say all that we want about carbs, but we need to have good carbs and your body will cry out for them. So when that comes and there's that dietary deficiency, the way you begin to meet that is by the ministering of the Word of God, by opening up the scriptures, and this is really important, especially for younger churches, where people don't they're not familiar with what it is to call out an elder or a deacon or a minister, and a pastor really needs to spend the time teaching on what this means. So I would say two-pronged thing. When you need officers on what this means, so I would say two-pronged thing when you need officers Luke 10 and verse two pray that the Lord of the harvest send forth laborers into the harvest field, and that should be the mark of every prayer meeting that we have, the only thing we do, but certainly Jesus didn't give us a lot of specific things to pray for, so that's one of them. And then the second thing, so important is have a minister needs to teach and preach on these passages, these terms, these qualifications that you've mentioned.
Bill Shishko:Each one is pregnant with significance in itself, dignified, for example, gravity that a man has to have. Why is that there? What does it mean? How does it look? Does it mean a man never smiles? I mean that kind of thing. You're opening that up, not double-tongued. That's so important for the diaconate, because deacons are. They're making promises to people. As you well know, chris, in your work you want to help and if you tell someone we're going to do this again, the first situation in Act 6, your widows. They didn't have big bank accounts, they needed food literally every day, and so a man of his word. And as you open up those things, that then sensitizes the congregation to what you look for in a man.
Bill Shishko:Remember a call. A call is God is at work, god is forming a man. If you need laborers for the harvest, you've got to believe that he is in the process of forming or will give men who have those qualifications process or forming, or will give men who have those qualifications. I think, without being legalistic about this, the apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy 3, speaking of the elders, but he also carries over to verse 8, elders and deacons must have these qualifications. And frankly, my skin crawls when you hear men say well, you know, it would be a good thing if they had these qualifications, but it's not necessary. Excuse me, jesus said you must. He uses the same word, the Greek word day. You must be born again. Men must have these qualifications. Since we must teach them and open them up and be realistic about what they mean, then at the same time, a minister needs to be explaining to a congregation what it means that those members are looking for men that have these qualifications. So I can't overstate that, chris.
Chris Cashen:So good counsel, bill. We're looking to the pastor to preach on this, to teach on this. Do you think that Deacon, dan or Dave either one we can use them both today. Do you think they have a role in helping the congregation understand what these various attributes and characteristics are, or are we going to leave it to the ministers?
Bill Shishko:Oh, absolutely. You assume that Deacon Dan or Deacon Dave or whatever is a godly man, is a model of a deacon and without drawing attention to himself. People should see those things in that man. And apropos of that, again I say this I can't overstate this. I can't overstate the importance of Matthew 20 and verse 28.
Bill Shishko:Jesus didn't come literally to be deaconed to, he came to deacon, he came. The word means a waiter on table. In fact, when we would teach pastoral theology in Franklin Square one of the evenings, we'd take the men to a wonderful Italian restaurant, king Umberto's, and the waiters were excellent and I would say, okay, watch these waiters, and what do you learn about what it is to wait on tables? And I would even tell the waiters most of them weren't believers, but they were good waiters you're being an example to us but what it meant? There was an individual concern for people, they listened. Those waiters never wrote anything down, and we usually don't.
Bill Shishko:You visit someone, you make a mental note of what's needed, they bring it, they're prompt, they ask questions and so on. Anyway, but look for the diaconal-mindedness in which, above all else, you look for a man who loves to serve others. He just loves to do that and talk about counterculture and the early church, especially in its officers. But the early church, in its overall life and its officers, it was countercultural. Well, what is our culture? Our culture is utterly the opposite of service. It's, by and large, a very, very self-centered culture. Deacons are just the opposite. They're other-centered people. They're first of all centered on Christ, the great deacon. But I just, if you want a framework for what you're looking for in deacons, that's the gold-gilded frame of diaconal-mindedness that fleshes out Matthew 20, 2028 in the lives of Christian men.
Chris Cashen:Yes, deacon Dan is an example and in that example he's showing forth this heart of service. Very good.
Bill Shishko:But let me just add one other thing, Chris, because this is one of my great interests. If you believe that Acts 6 is the inception of the diaconate and, as I've said, I think we should well our understanding of Acts 6, where you've got the church in Jerusalem, that wasn't just a local church. Our standards speak about the scriptures holding out a Presbyterian church. Our standards speak about the scriptures holding out a presbytery in a church, and so it was. I don't know if it's a modern language, which would be a church with a lot of campuses, but we call it a presbytery. Well, those deacons were part of the presbytery, and when I hear or read, Deacon Dan is tired, we're not independent. Hopefully there are some men within a presbytery who can help Deacon Dan, either volunteering to come in or speaking with him, encouraging him or whatever, but please, let's not think like independent churches. Let's think as Presbyterians in our view of deacons.
Chris Cashen:Very good, good reminder. Well, paul turns now to faith. They he's referring again to qualifications for deacons they must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. That's verse 9. Again, paul seems to follow Luke's record in Acts, where he writes Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and wisdom. So, bill, we know that the Scripture references different levels of faith. Matthew 17, jesus states because of your little faith. He's speaking to the deacons now who were excuse me, the disciples now who are unable to remove a wicked demon from a little boy because of your little faith. In other places in scripture we have reference to little faith, or needing to be built up and established in faith, or the, the father, the disciples, who say to the lord increase our faith. And so deacon deacon um dave is now, or deacon don dan is now wondering how much faith is needed, and he comes to you and he asks you that question, pastor how much faith are we looking for here?
Bill Shishko:You got a whole diaconate here. You got Dan, you got Dave, you got Don. So that's good. Again, chris, that's a great question and I'm not really sure how to answer part of that. How much faith is needed? I don't know.
Bill Shishko:Jesus commended the faith of a mustard seed, but I would say this you want a man who really is optimistic about the promises of God. Now that gets us into a whole other area. I mean, I'm a post-millennialist and I'm not embarrassed about it, and when somebody told me that they're pessimistic amillennialists, I tell them that they're guilty of emotional heterodoxy. But apart from all that, we're meant to believe the promises of God. And does a man communicate, full of faith and of the Holy Spirit? And faith is part of the fruit of the Spirit? But does a man really communicate? I don't know. A buoyancy, an optimism, a joy about a belief in exactly what God says in his word. And, of course, one of the reasons you need that deacons are ministering to people in affliction. To people in affliction. You go to a widow who's just lost a husband and she's not sure how things are going to go for her. Well, if you have a deacon who doesn't have, again, just a deep commitment to the promises of God and also an optimism that God will do what he says. I'm not going to be a very good deacon, so I think that would be part of my answer.
Bill Shishko:The other thing is, I think we need to keep in mind that when it's holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience and gaining a great boldness in the faith which is an interesting thing why do you say to the deacons that they do their work well? They obtain great boldness in the faith. Well, part of that is you're doing your work as a deacon. You see this in a real sense with Philip, who was a deacon and yet at the same time he ministered the gospel. Deacons are ministering the gospel to people and when you do, you get boldness.
Bill Shishko:But I say all that to say this you really want deacons who do understand the faith well. That's the other side of it. There's faith that is subjective he's a faithful man Faith that is objective he calls the faith. I mean, I think putting up the shield of faith is what's in view there. It's the faith. And that would bear, chris, on the training of deacons. I'm not pushing my deacon's manual, but we took this seriously when we trained. And when we train our deacons we take them through the Westminster Confession of Faith and then we refer to the larger and shorter catechism and we basically that becomes a prism through which we look at the work of the diaconate. So it's both ends. You want a man who, again, he believes the promises and you kind of want to hitch yourself to that train and at the same time he understands the faith and how it bears on his work.
Chris Cashen:That's excellent. Well, deacon Dan is now wondering, because you've answered in that way for elders, paul indicates that a man must not be a recent convert. A man must not be a recent convert. And so Dan is wondering, based upon what you just said, maybe he should just add that, as a qualification for deacons, wouldn't it be wise to add some length of time that a man has walked in faith before he can be put up for election to the office of deacon? How would you guide and counsel Dan at this point?
Bill Shishko:Well, again, that's a good question and there's a lot of aspects to it. I think the reason for that specific qualification given to the elder is, let's face it, there's a lot of prominence that's given to a man who teaches, and it says in Proverbs as the refining pot to silver so is praise to the man. You have a man who teaches and preaches, and if he's at all gifted he's going to get praise, and that becomes probably one of his most severe tests as a man of prominence. Not so with deacons, in the work of a deacon as a servant, and there ought to be a humility connected with it. So I think that's why that specific qualification is not given there, but why let him first be tested? And again, I can't overstate that, because what a deacon is?
Bill Shishko:People are dependent upon what a deacon does.
Bill Shishko:If he makes a promise that a team is going to come to help people with a rebuilding project, or it's a widow who perhaps can't afford a heating oil and it's getting cold outside, you've got to have a deacon who is not double-tongued, doesn't speak with a forked tongue, which is probably the main idea there and so he is somebody who—this is one of the first things I look for If he says he's going to do something, he does it.
Bill Shishko:Part of that, I think. While there's not a requirement that the deacon have a good testimony with those without doesn't mean you can't do what we do, and it would come to ruling elders or even ministers. We always got permission from the particular candidate to go to his employer and get a testimonial of his abilities, and while that's not required in the text, I think that could be done. You ask is this man prompt in his work? Does he do his work? Is he honest in his work? I mean, we really, again, we're talking about somebody who represents Christ and so, while we don't want artificially high standards, we do want realistic standards. So I think that's probably the way that I would answer Deacon Dan or Don or Dave or whatever he is Go to the text and do what it says.
Chris Cashen:That's helpful. You did mention testing and Paul tells us let them also be tested first. He writes pretty broadly here what kind of testing is envisioned and who might do that.
Bill Shishko:Yeah, that's great. Maybe going back to your original point, let's say Deacon Dan sees somebody in there. He works with men in the church and Deacon Dan sees, so-and-so, maybe, a new brother in the church. He's recently professed his faith in Christ but he's really on fire for the Lord. Now there's meteors in the Christian life. There's those that burn quickly. They burn brightly but they don't last.
Bill Shishko:But you see, a man of service, I think, to communicate with the elders and say I'm wondering if over time we might watch and consider brother so-and-so for the diaconate. So you get the elders involved in their work of rule, because rule means the elders are expected to see that these requirements in 1 Timothy 3 are met, even before a man is put before the congregation. So you've got deacons, deacon Dan and other deacons and the elders looking at this. Then give the man some things to do, coach him, help him, but see how he does with things and you can find out rather soon is the man dependable? Is the man respected in what he does?
Bill Shishko:Do people say I really appreciate the way Brother So-and-So handled this issue? Or the way he came to our home and spoke with us? We knew he wasn't a church officer but we felt like we were dealing with a deacon. You look for things like this and again remember the Holy Spirit is at work in what we call the general office of the believer. When you hear things like that and they line up with what the Word of God says, you pay attention to that. Don't jump too quickly because you want training time, but look for those and give those opportunities. And if a man constantly fumbles the ball, don't make a mistake and put him before the congregation too soon.
Chris Cashen:Very good. And you know, paul ends this particular portion of testing. Let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. Now we know Paul can't be speaking of being sinless as he writes in Romans 7, he speaks of his own sin. He continues to do that which he doesn't want to do, knows that he should not do. So what does this mean? Proving themselves blameless? What should Deacon Dan be looking for? You?
Bill Shishko:know, let me just back up for a moment, chris, and that's a great question. When I teach congregations about calling out ministers or elders but it would apply to deacons as well it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. What does that mean? Well, now you know, as the Holy Spirit opens up the word of God, but I've always found Acts 16 in verse 2 to be very helpful. Always found Acts 16 and verse 2 to be very helpful. Timothy, who of course would become a minister, was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium, not just one local church. But what kind of testimonials do you get? But anyway, that's the other area. Yeah, that's again that's a great question.
Bill Shishko:Your standard answer about proving themselves blameless, which is also true of the elder, is they're not open to a charge. Frankly, that comes to me with a resounding thud. I don't want an officer about whom you could say well, he's not so bad that we have got to the point we have to charge him yet. That doesn't quite ring right to me. I think, interestingly enough, that Isaiah 50 in verse 4 sheds light on this and people immediately say well, what does this have to do with the diacon, or even with the eldership. It's a prophecy of Christ, and the Lord himself speaks here. Jesus, prophetically, the Lord has given me the tongue of those who are taught that I might know how to sustain with a word him who is weary, which is largely the pastoral ministry. Then he says, morning by morning, he awakens, he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord, god, has opened my ear and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward. Now, what does this have to do with blameless? Well, the key word for obedience in the Scripture, well, the key word for obedience in the Scripture, both Old and the New Testaments, is hear, hear, o Israel. If someone doesn't hear, you then bring it to the elders, oruked about his or her sin. But what does this have to do with this?
Bill Shishko:Blameless, in my opinion, is above all else. This is a person who listens. He not only listens to the Word of God preached, but when you counsel him he takes that seriously. When you ask him to do something, he does it seriously. When you correct him, he listens to that and makes corrections. And that, I think, is again you don't want someone you can bring a charge against. I get that. But I think proving himself blameless biblically is. This is a man who's submissive he's reverently submissive to what the word of God says and he listens.
Chris Cashen:Well, that drilled down right to where we needed to be. Thank you. Let's do talk about marriage a little bit. The apostle here finishes describing these qualifications by mentioning wives and children. Their wives must likewise be dignified, not slanderous, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children, their households, well. Now, why does Paul bring families into this evaluation? Isn't it enough? If a man's faithful, what do wives and children have to do with being merciful and serving the church?
Bill Shishko:Yeah, yeah again. A great question that really ought to provoke our thought. Why is this here? Well, a rather simple answer is that the church is a family. If we are to regard older women as mothers and older men as fathers, and we are to regard the younger ones as daughters or sisters or brothers, that language is embedded in all of Scripture. In fact, I don't think we really do as much justice to this as we should.
Bill Shishko:One of the things that I love the church that we have at the Haven. The facility was purchased from a brethren group and they were thrown to say they spoke to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. Well, we got to be doing that too. So I mean, that's kind of the basic reason. The church is the family. It's called the household of God. The Bible uses the language of the church that's in your house, then what that means is in the way an elder, or even a deacon for that matter, the way an elder or a deacon deals with his wife and with his children. It ought to be a microcosm of the way he deals with the church.
Chris Cashen:Yes, yeah, very good, you know, bill. There are some who take this passage to mean that a man must be married and must have children. So Deacon Dan has a man in mind. He's getting close. The problem is he's single. Getting close, the problem is he's single. And because Paul writes this way of wives and children, dan is about to cross this guy off of the list. How might you advise Dan at this point?
Bill Shishko:Sounds like I've got the whole board of deans speaking about this. Well, here again, chris, the word of God is so. It's both expanding and it's liberating at the same time. The phrase there is a one-wife husband. It doesn't mandate that the person be married. Now I realize, in a polygamous culture, which the first century was and many of our foreign mission fields are, which the first century was and many of our foreign mission fields are, you do have men who have more than one wife and that would exclude them, surely, from the eldership or the diaconate or the ministry. But the term is a one-wife husband and more principally, and I think even going back to what Jesus says on the Sermon on the Mount, the guy's not supposed to be a playboy, is what it comes down to. And yes, if he's married he's got to be faithful to his wife and certainly he shouldn't have more than one wife. So that's where, again, I think the text is speaking he's not to be a playboy, and you can understand that no man can serve. I wouldn't want a man to serve as a minister, as an elder or as a deacon. If the man's a playboy, I mean you recoil at the thought Now with respect to the deacons and even with respect to the elders. And we've got to be careful here.
Bill Shishko:Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7, paul says in 1 Corinthians 7.32 that the unmarried person is concerned for the Lord, how he may serve the Lord.
Bill Shishko:What strikes me as being contradictory, if the text doesn't mandate that a person must be married, but then to exclude a man if he's single, when Paul says there are definite benefits to that and, quite frankly, if a deacon or a minister or an elder is single, he is freer to serve the Lord. I mean one thinks of the late John R Stott in England who was a single man and the man was able to do, by his own admission, many things that he could not have done had he been married. So let's be careful here not to say not really to go beyond what the Word of God is really saying and to remember that there are other texts that illuminate this. And, as many people have pointed out, paul was an apostle, he was a minister, and remember that ministers take up both ruling elder and deacon in his work. But that's for another day and Paul was single. So let's be careful with that way of dealing with the text of Scripture.
Chris Cashen:Good advice. I think Dan's placing that man's name back on the list, Excellent. Well, Bill, you've been faithfully serving many years in the OPC, certainly Franklin Square and Regional Home Missionary now at the Haven. What other advice might you give to deacons practical? You haven't done your work. I hope this has been practical and I'll do three points, as you'd expect, for a preacher.
Bill Shishko:I urge churches to really study Acts, chapter 6. And what is it saying in there? I don't want to do the work for you, but the milieu is apostles. Now I would still.
Bill Shishko:Well, ministers aren't apostles, but that replaced now, as the church is being built by ministers and elders. They were overworked and, particularly including in diacritical ministry, they were doing work of mercy. They didn't say it's wrong that we leave the word of God to serve tables, but they basically said it's not the best. And so that's the context in which deacons were called out. Yes, ministry of mercy, but more fundamentally it was to help the elders than the ministers at the time, to free them for their work. That will revolutionize a church's view of how it works with the deacons. Deacons should meet with the session periodically, at least a couple times a year, maybe four times a year, and let deacons ask the question how can we help? And then, so elders don't micromanage deacons, and that could be a problem.
Bill Shishko:The language is specific in Act 6, whom we may appoint over this business. Deacons are given under the authority of a session. They're given authority in their sphere and that needs to be respected. And, of course, the qualifications in Act 6, which are really fleshed out in 1 Timothy 3. So that's the one thing. Really, study Acts 6. It's fascinating.
Bill Shishko:Number two cultivate diaconal mindedness in everybody in the church, not just a deacon ought to be an exemplar of what all Christians are as servants, and so that should be cultivated overall. And then of course you'll see men that kind of rise in that, as men that are particularly deaconally minded. And then the last is remind the church when it calls out officers, whether it be a minister or an elder or a deacon, they're the voice of Christ, not determining that a man needs to be an officer any more than the voice of Christ. And the church determined the canon of Scripture. It recognized the canon of Scripture, recognized what Christ is doing in the congregation and, I think, systematic teaching about that, step by step, so that when a man is called out to be a deacon there's a wonderful source of rejoicing. The Lord Jesus has spoken clearly through his church and with revel and so on. So those would be my wrapping up practical suggestions.
Chris Cashen:Bill, that's excellent. I really appreciate this. Recognizing the voice of Christ, recognizing what Christ is doing as he's raising up men, that's extremely helpful. Well, thank you, Bill, for taking the time to help us walk through qualifications and certainly the practical aspects of seeking to find that next deacon who will be engaged in that spiritual work of mercy ministry in the church Deacons. We hope that this episode was helpful and will be a great encouragement to you as you labor for the Lord in your various churches.
David Nakhla:Thanks for joining us. Go to our website, thereformdeaconorg. There you will find all our episodes, program notes and other helpful resources, and please make plans to join us again next month for another episode of the Reform Deacon Podcast. We'll see you next time.