We Are All Working Deacons

This morning, after reading several different scriptures, I felt led to Ephesians 4:11-16 NIV:

[11] "So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, [12] to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up [13] until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ."

[14] "Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. [15] Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. [16] From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."

Verse eleven is a famous verse in the church, for it speaks of the what is known as the five-fold ministry offices. We are probably most familiar with the pastor office, and surely have heard of the other four. My focus this morning is not on these ministries, but on their purposes. Paul is very clear that the whole reason for these ministries is to build up the Body of Christ, or edify it. These gifts are meant to equip us with that which we need to do the works of service to which we are all called.

In my opinion, that is the real point Paul is making, that we all, everyone in the Body of Christ, has works of service to which we are called. In other words we are called to active ministry, through which the Body of Christ reaches maturity. The Greek words here translated works of service (verse 12) are "Ergon Diakonia". We might see some resemblance to words we are familiar with Ergo(nomics) which relates to work, and Deacon. We could have translated these words accordingly "working deacons" and the sentence would read, "to equip the people as working deacons, so that the Body of Christ might be built up". That would likely change all our perspectives on our own call within the Body of Christ. We are not called to be pew-sitting observers, but actively involved in the ministry of the Church, the Body of Christ. This body participation, or body engagement is what brings unity and maturity to the Body of Christ. The church is not meant to have a few full-time ministers, and the rest just faithful members of the congregation, but rather it is meant to be full of deacons, all actively participating in the ministry of the church.

I like to think of this model as the Church of responsible people, for we are all responsible to do our part. It is when we are all doing our part and growing in maturity that we then have the ability within us to resist waves and winds of the lies and deceptions that the enemy will try to sow in our midst. We will all know the truth and be able to recognize that which isn't the truth, and speak the truth to one another in love. In doing so, we grow together and mature into the fullness of the Body of Christ, fitting for our head Jesus. I think this is so important to grasp, we are all called, everyone of us. In this we are all called to grow, to mature, to step into our place, and we must be responsible for ourselves in this regard. The five-fold ministry gifts are meant to equip us, but we must be willing and desiring to grow and mature.

There is a growing understanding of our calling in the church today, some call this missional living, missional lifestyle, etc. The Readers Digest version of the idea is that we are all called to a mission field, namely those who we interact with every day. Saying it another way, we are all called to be shepherds, not sheep. The five-fold ministry is really about converting the sheep into shepherds. We may not all have a large flock, but we all are supposed to have flocks, those that Lord has called us to love and interact with regularly. Thus we must all be equipped and maturing. We must all be more than familiar with the Word of God, His character, His heart, His kindness, His mercy and compassion. We are all called to represent Him to those around us, those we meet, those we live with and work with in our daily lives.

So, let us pray for the greater release of the five-fold ministries, and of the working deacons, into the works that will build up the Body of Christ. We need to grow in unity and maturity. We are all called, so let us step into our place and take responsibility for ourselves.