Why Female Deacons?

“Women likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things.”

If you haven’t yet, I would stop now and go read the other helpful essay just titled “Why Deacons?”

We are strongly complementarian.

What this means is that we believe that men and women are, though entirely equal in value and worth and earthly dominion (Gen 1:26-28), different and meant to play different roles, particularly in the home (Eph 5:23-24) and the church.

Despite the fact that we see women throughout the Bible playing prominent spiritual roles, such as serving as prophetesses, judges, and even city representatives in the Old Testament (Ex 15:20-21, 2 Kin 22:14, 2 Chron 34:22, Is 8:3, Judg 4-5, 2 Sam 20:16-22), and prophesying and praying in and out of the church assembly in the New Testament (Lk 2:36-38, Ac 21:9, 2:17, 1 Cor 11:5), we never see them filling the highest spiritual roles in either testament, that of priest and elder/pastor/overseer respectively.

The office of spiritual authority is reserved for men, and this reality is not a result of sin but grounded in creation itself (1 Tim 2:11-14).

Since we believe that the office of Deacon is not a role of spiritual authority, but rather simply of a leading servant, we believe women are capable of holding that office. (If your church’s deacons are operating with spiritual leadership authority, as many do, we would argue against appointing women to that office)


Let me give 4 further arguments for why we believe women can hold the office of deacon:

1. Paul seems to reference women in this role in 1 Timothy 3:11.

• After giving qualifications for elders, Paul says, “likewise” and then gives qualifications for deacons, and then says, “likewise” again before verse 11, a grammatical indicator that begins another category of this official office.
• The Greek word that begins verse 11 can be translated either “wives” or “women,” and there is no “their” there in the Greek which you’d expect if wives were in view. Additionally, Paul already used the “likewise, women” formula in 2:9.
• If what is meant here were “wives,” it would be quite odd that the deacon’s wives have qualifications while such qualifications are absent from the elder’s wives, though it be the higher office.
• The qualifications given in verse 11 parallel the qualifications in verses 8-10, and appear to be qualifications for actually doing ministry, not just being married to someone who does.

2. Pheobe was most likely in the office of Deacon.

• Paul references men and women that serve along him several places, but this is the only time he uses this formulaic description, “Deacon of the Church at,” along with a specific church. He calls them servants of Christ, or of the gospel, or in the Lord, but here he describes Pheobe with a specific church despite her expansive service. It is most likely that she was serving in an official capacity.
• Paul uses the masculine ending of the word for Deacon, which would have been exceedingly odd if referring to a female servant, but normal if referring to the office.

3. The early church had female Deacons.

• The earliest Christians understood these texts and the apostles intent to include female deacons.
• We know this from many examples, such as Pliny in the 1st or 2nd century, Clement of Alexandria and Origen in the 2nd century, and the Didascalia in the 3rd century. 
• It seems the church only began moving away from women in the office when the office became more of a priest-in-waiting type role that carried some spiritual authority along with it.

4. The need for female Deacons is clear.

• We clearly see that women are needed to be leading servants in various categories in the church where they are particularly gifted, such as to women, children, for hospitality, etc.
• There are only two offices in the local church in the Bible, elder and deacon. Most modern churches are okay with having a woman lead their children’s ministry or their women’s ministry, but they will call them “Women’s minister” or even “Children’s pastor,” often blurring the lines between her role and the role of the pastors. We believe giving King’s women the proper biblical title upholds our complementarian and biblical value of male spiritual authority by drawing the line sharply and clearly between Deacon and Elder, we believe it is practically helpful in setting up proper boundaries between men and women, and we believe it properly honors the women that are already serving in these roles.