The church as an institution is always dependent on its mature and effective leadership committee, or a group of Elders. If there are no godly Christian men who are equipped to handle the Word of God and the saints with integrity and moral uprightness, the church would collapse immediately. In this passage, Paul not just defends his ministry, but also lays out marks of a true Christian leader called by God to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and to lead a life that brings glory to God alone.
Any church community’s institutional stability and solid spiritual growth is always dependent on its mature and effective leadership committee. If there are no godly Christian men who are equipped to handle the Word of God and the saints, the church would collapse immediately. In this passage, Paul describes what it means to be a Godly Christian leader called by God to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and to suffer for His name sake.
In our first sermon on Deacons, we learnt that they take care of material needs or administrative work in the church. There has been sufficient focus on men leaders and their character qualities. In this passage, we learn about female deacons serving in the church, and the kind of character qualities they need to exhibit.
There are many practical aspects of church ministry like finances, hospitality, venue set up, event organisation, church retreats etc. Teaching elders and ruling elders may not have the bandwidth to look into these matters as they’re primarily called to disciple people, to counsel, to encourage and pray with the congregation at every stage of life. So this is where the bible brings deacons into the picture to handle administrative tasks in order to make the elders’ work easier. In this passage we learn about deacons and what character qualities they ought to have.