Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 1
The speaker insists that *diakonos* is “nearly always… an ordinary Greek word” meaning servant, and only rarely a church office; how would treating “deacon” primarily as a *servant identity* (not a title) reshape the way your congregation views status, recognition, and “important roles”?
Another way to ask: If we saw “deacon” mostly as being a servant instead of a title, how would that change how our church thinks about status, praise, and “important” jobs?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
Treating “deacon” first as a servant identity would lower the focus on status and raise the focus on shared responsibility, so “important roles” become whatever genuinely helps the body and frees elders to shepherd.
- The speaker says *diakonos* “simply meant a servant… who assists… helps,” and is “nearly always… used in this sense of a servant,” not an office.
- He stresses, “that’s what a deacon is. That’s what really all of us are,” and even “the apostles used this term… about themselves.”
- He warns ordaining deacons must not communicate: “Oh good… it’s going to be all on their shoulders. It would just be impossible.”
- He thanks the congregation for functioning without deacons because “lots of people have been carrying loads… sometimes… just taken it on themselves.”
- He describes the church as needing everyone to be “diakonous… servants,” like a city where “the congregation as a whole… are like the city employees.”