Recently, our church appointed our first female deacon.  This appointment came after years of study and prayer among our church elders.  As far back as 2014, the Cornerstone Church of Christ leaders have seriously endeavored to more fully comprehend the scriptural role and doctrine of women in the church.

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In 2018, leadership invited the entire congregation to participate in casting a vision for the future of Cornerstone.  After more than a year of work and study, one of the goals stated in the vision for our church was, “We will involve both genders at the level of participation that we see in the New Testament.” In response, our eldership decided to follow what we believe to be the original goal of the first century church, a much more egalitarian view.  We consider this decision a return to conservative Christian values witnessed in the New Testament, in both Jesus’ life and Paul’s teachings.  We did not change our stance on women’s roles based on social pressure, personal desire, or popularity, as we knew it would not be popular within our church. The Cornerstone Eldership, as much as possible, strives to be disciplined in keeping personal desires and traditions out of our doctrine and let the Bible speak to us in context. With hundreds of hours of study and deep meditative prayer, we have come to a different understanding than what has been taught in the last few generations by the Church of Christ, an interpretation that better aligns with New Testament scripture. 

Many have based their doctrine of women deaconesses on 1 Timothy 2:12 & 3:12 as proof texts that indicate only men can be deacons; the following attempts to speak to both texts.

First, there seems to be a misunderstanding among some of what a deacon (diakoneō in the Greek) is. Some see it as being a leadership position. However, the word deacon literally means servant or minister.  An example of this translation appears in Matthew 4:11, “Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering (diakoneō) to him.” To say that a deacon is a leadership position in the church seems to be a misunderstanding of the word and how it is used in context (at least 30 times) throughout the New Testament. A simple Greek concordance will bear this true. The word is always used in the context of being in an obedient position of service. Additionally, deacons are never seen exercising authority over the church. The only people allowed to exercise authority in the church are the Elders of the church. When Paul tells Timothy not to allow women to exercise authority, or usurp authority over men, it does not conflict with women being deacons, as deacons hold no authority over the church. Paul’s statement is also in harmony with Christ’s teaching, whether it be men or women. Jesus says,

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant (diakonos), 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28 ESV).

Jesus’ requirement of all his followers, male and female, is not to exercise authority over each other, but to serve one another.  Deacons are servants; they are people operating inside a specific ministry with a focus on that ministry. For years we have assigned women to different areas of ministry that they have carried out faithfully, yet we have never recognized them as deacons. Our behaviors and our actions have been inconsistent and we want to do better. 

In 1 Timothy 2:12, Timothy is most likely in Ephesus when Paul writes to him. Artemis, the goddess of fertility, was an important part of the Ephesian culture (see Acts 19:21-41). Our current understanding suggests that mostly women served as priests in the worship of Artemis in Ephesus. They dominated in their earlier pagan worship and were attempting to dominate now in church worship as well.  We believe that Paul in 1 Timothy 2:12 is telling Timothy, “Don’t allow the women to dominate worship; don’t allow them to exercise any ‘special’ authority over others” and that they should remain “quiet”. That is, don’t let these women meddle in such a way as to disrupt the church. The Greek word for “quiet” here is hēsychia. It is the same word used in 2 Thessalonians 3:11-12 in which Paul tells the Thessalonians not to be “busybodies,” but to do their work quietly (hēsychia). We have never interpreted 2 Thessalonians 3:11-12 as saying, “members of the church can’t speak.” Rather, a more accurate interpretation of the scripture is that members of the church should not be busybodies, not disruptive people. They should be people who live quiet, peaceable lives.  To be consistent between hēsychia in 1 Timothy and in 2 Thessalonians would either mean, “we are to be people who live quiet, peaceable lives,” or “we are people who don’t speak.” We believe Paul in 1 Timothy 2:12 is simply saying to these specific women “don’t be disruptive, live quiet, peaceable lives.”  To interpret 1 Timothy 2:12 as saying, “Women must be completely silent” would be saying that all Christians are to be silent throughout their entire lives. We have been inconsistent in our interpretations. We believe these pagan “priestesses”, or domineering women, are Paul’s intended target, not all women for all time, and certainly he did not mean that Ephesian women or Thessalonians Christians should be completely mute.

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Many point to 1 Timothy 3:11 as “clear established proof” that only male deacons should be allowed. However, study of this verse and its context proves the opposite.  Eldership is a male leadership role, and deacons are made up of both males and females. Let us keep in mind that numbered verses are man-made divisions in the Bible. Taking verses out of context can lead to misguided interpretations. It’s wise to read verse 11 in the context of all of chapter 3. First, it is most unfortunate that some translations have entered the word “men” in the original Greek; the word “men” does not exist in verse 11. Second, verse 11 (1 Tim. 3:11) reads, “Women in like manner…” in the ASV, AMP, CSB, CEV, DRA, EHV, ICB, NABRE, NASB, NASB 1995, NCV, NIRV, NIV, NIVUK, NRSV, NRSVA, NRSVACE, NRSVCE, NTE, TPT, RSV, TLV, and YLT translations.  Even the ESV, a translation many consider one of the most accurate to our 21st century language, puts the footnote “Women Likewise”. In this chapter, Paul lists the qualities of deacons and says, “Women in like manner.” This suggests that Paul is asserting that women are deacons as well. When looking at the text within context, 1 Timothy 3:1-7 (verses that give qualifications for shepherds), Paul doesn’t mention the qualities of a wife at all for an elder. He doesn’t list the qualities of an elder’s wife, rather that the elder must be a man of one wife. Paul is silent on women as elders. In verses 8-13, Paul elaborates on women’s qualities as deacons. This seems to indicate that women are a part of the pool of candidates for deacons and suggests that Paul had every intention for women to participate as deaconesses. Obviously, elders are held to a higher standard than deacons; why would Paul not demand the same qualification of an elder’s wife? Most likely because there were no women shepherds. But, in verses 8-13 the qualities of the women are included. The Cornerstone elders believe this is because Paul had every intention of women participating as deaconesses. He himself recommends them and utilizes them in his ministry.

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Paul is clear in Romans 16:1 that Phoebe is a deaconess. Strong’s lexicon is also clear on this. Phoebe of Cenchreae was trusted to carry the book of Romans to the churches in Rome. This is an example of a woman being trusted in a ministry to carry one of the most important books of the New Testament halfway across the Mediterranean Sea. As was the custom of the first century, the carrier of the letter would have also read the letter to the church. Note, this is an example of a woman reading the inspired Word to the church. As the carrier of the book she would have been the authority of its contents, implying that men and women would require her to interpret the scripture’s meaning. If Paul was against women reading scripture or explaining its meaning to others, in public worship or in separate meetings, he would never have ordained Phoebe as the carrier.  Ideally, she was the one who would meet with the Roman churches and explain to them any questions about what Paul may have meant when he used specific statements.  She would have been interpreting for Paul in public assemblies of believers. Paul tells the church, “Give her whatever she may need!” (Romans 16:2). In Romans 16:7, Paul requests that the church also greet “Junia” and goes on to either compare her to an Apostle or say she is an Apostle, depending on the translation you read. Junia is a female name and studies have failed to find any man with that name during that time period. This implies that a woman is either an Apostle or like an Apostle. What does this mean? There are two possibilities here; Junia was a witness to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and has been given the official title of Apostle, or she is like an Apostle, teaching Jesus resurrected. Either way, in any translation, a woman is involved in a ministry in the church. They are deaconesses involved with specific ministries. Remember, Apostle (Apostolos in the Greek) means a delegate, messenger, one sent forth with orders, or an eminent Christian teacher.

We believe there are multiple examples of women in servant ministries. These include: Luke 8:1-3, Acts 12:12, Acts 16:40, Romans 16:3–5, Colossians 4:15, Philippians 4:3, Romans 16:12, Acts 9:36, and John 20:17.

There is much more to say about the roles of women in the church; however, that is outside the scope of this article. Our intent here is simply to say, we “the elders at Cornerstone church” believe that women were deaconesses in New Testament times. We are in full support of restoring that ancient position today in our own church.

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 To read more about how our restoration forefathers felt on this subject, please read:

https://stonedcampbelldisciple.com/2011/09/29/voices-on-female-deacons-in-the-stone-campbell-movement/