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American Church offices & the Bible - IainH - 05-17-2019
I served two consecutive terms as a deacon in our church. We did do some of the Biblical duties such as taking time to serve the elderly, assist with communion and organize church activities. I had no problem doing these things. One enterprising deacon before my time had stumbled across the notion of a deacon shepherd. What this amounted to was to be given a list of names of church members that we were supposed to "shep". I searched for this definition in the Bible and could not find it. So, instead of creating a stink and causing disunity, I took my list and underlined the old people and did what I could for them. Conversating and praying. The rest didn't fall under the purview of a deacon so, I didn't try to shep them. Most of the time the "crumblies" enjoyed the attention and appreciated the prayers but, when it came to spiritual things, it was the preacher and no one else. From what I gather our church was one of the more biblically sound when it came to deaconry, in spite of the shepherding nonsense. I call it nonsense because shepherding is a calling and not a job to be assigned.
Tangent Alert!!
As far as I know the only denomination that ranks elders above preachers are the Presbyterians. In the Church of Scotland, the General Assembly of Prebysters "elders" is the ruling body and active ministers cannot take part. In the 1970's their annual grand "hoohah" was televised so little old ladies like my Grandmother could watch and take notes so they could complain.
Personally, I believe the decline of morality in the UK and Protestant Europe is due to the extinction of a generation of little old ladies, whose wool clad, cane carrying presence scurrying around admonishing people of the consequences of their ungodly ways, maintained the moral order. Their authority when wielded could stop a hardcore criminal dead in their tracks. Their presence kept Western Civilization in the post war era afloat. They have since died out and Europe teeters on the brink of oblivion.
Meanwhile, here at home, Boomers are the new grandparents and they're "hip". America is doomed.
RE: American Church offices & the Bible - Ed Hurst - 05-17-2019
The authority of those old ladies is buried deep in the Celtic culture; it's a different thing from the influence of women in the Germanic tribal culture. Prior to the arrival of Christian religion in the Isles, they would have been witches; again, the image is different from the German mythology.
But backing up even farther, the only problem is that Celtic men had no tradition in shepherding people that way. Part of the problem you cite with shepherding is the common Protestant confusion between deacons and elders. American evangelical tradition conflates the two, whereas the Presbyterians understood the difference. While an Old Testament covenant shepherding elder role was inherited, in the New Testament they arose organically as the ones everyone followed anyway. At any rate, Presbyterians got the message about elders running the church, but they still never got that involved in guiding the members of the community up close and personal. So the women jumped in and that's how it developed historically, as I understand it.
RE: American Church offices & the Bible - IainH - 05-22-2019
(05-17-2019, 11:56 AM)Ed Hurst Wrote: The authority of those old ladies is buried deep in the Celtic culture; it's a different thing from the influence of women in the Germanic tribal culture. Prior to the arrival of Christian religion in the Isles, they would have been witches; again, the image is different from the German mythology.
But backing up even farther, the only problem is that Celtic men had no tradition in shepherding people that way. Part of the problem you cite with shepherding is the common Protestant confusion between deacons and elders. American evangelical tradition conflates the two, whereas the Presbyterians understood the difference. While an Old Testament covenant shepherding elder role was inherited, in the New Testament they arose organically as the ones everyone followed anyway. At any rate, Presbyterians got the message about elders running the church, but they still never got that involved in guiding the members of the community up close and personal. So the women jumped in and that's how it developed historically, as I understand it.
Brother, you do not know Scotland. Don't be offended, the English don't know them either.
RE: American Church offices & the Bible - Ed Hurst - 05-22-2019
Well, I guess what I did learn is some Scotts history, but I agree I don't know much about Scotland today.