I spend most of my time over at http://www.mayberrychurch.com

I have linked your site there…

Blessings…

If you want to know more about a woman’s role in the church do a study on the women of the bible. Women had a huge role in the past. Mary gave birth to Jesus and a woman was the first to see him when he rose from the dead. Look at Martha, Leah, Lydia, and so many others. We are blessed with so many wonderful women to draw examples from too bad they don’t teach us about them, really teach us.

What happened at my church was then delving into my personal life, what hit me hard was the fact that it wasn’t kind and they lied to me. Not only was it none of their business but it isn’t what’s happening. All they had to do was ask. I told them without them asking the first time and set them straight the in second meeting.

Thank you for your prayers. It hit me rather hard today. I’m a bit worn from it all.

Milly - I thought of you and the situation you’ve hinted at as I was writing this. I’ll be praying for you as you work through this. I just think that the CofC has some fundamental issues to work through on how it approaches scripture. And until then we’re going to keep seeing issues such as authority, music, women, etc. have real(hurtful) impact on people’s lives.

Lynn - I think I know what you’re getting at. Sounds like you’re saying that even if this passage does not specifically authorize women as deacons it’s still ok to do so because it does not violate scripture as a whole. Is that it? Cause if not I’m not sure what you mean.

Dennis - Thanks for dropping by! I’ve been wondering about you since your personal site seems to be down. Hope everything is going ok. Yeah, the next thing I wanted to look at were the individual references to “deaconess” and see where that leads. Thanks for the heads up on a good place to start.

Do a word study on the term Servant here… It may help you.

1) Even if the text does NOT mean a formal order of women deaconesses, I can see no reason why having such an order in the church, if people do interpret it to mean such, would be anti-biblical.

2) I can see such order fulfilling a biblical mandate for women to serve and minister, which we all agree they are free to do and called to do as saints.

Or “also deaconesses.” The Greek word here is γυναῖκας (gunaika”) which literally means “women” or “wives.” It is possible that this refers to women who serve as deacons, “deaconesses.” The evidence is as follows: (1) The immediate context refers to deacons; (2) the author mentions nothing about wives in his section on elder qualifications (1 Tim 3:1-7); (3) it would seem strange to have requirements placed on deacons’ wives without corresponding requirements placed on elders’ wives; and (4) elsewhere in the NT, there seems to be room for seeing women in this role (cf. Rom 16:1 and the comments there). The translation “wives” – referring to the wives of the deacons – is probably to be preferred, though, for the following reasons: (1) It would be strange for the author to discuss women deacons right in the middle of the qualifications for male deacons; more naturally they would be addressed by themselves. (2) The author seems to indicate clearly in the next verse that women are not deacons: “Deacons must be husbands of one wife.” (3) Most of the qualifications given for deacons elsewhere do not appear here. Either the author has truncated the requirements for women deacons, or he is not actually referring to women deacons; the latter seems to be the more natural understanding. (4) The principle given in 1 Tim 2:12 appears to be an overarching principle for church life which seems implicitly to limit the role of deacon to men. Nevertheless, a decision in this matter is difficult, and our conclusions must be regarded as tentative.

Sigh. Yes, it would be nice to figure this one out.