Deacons and Elders in the Church

Deacons and Elders in the Church

The ancient church begins with two stages: the early church and the church as an institution. Many people trusted Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Some of these people were poor or sick and needed help. The church leaders could not care for all while preaching the Word of God. They asked that the church chose seven men to help the needy. These seven men were glad to be of service to God and helping the needy (Morgan, 1991). These men were called deacons. Today the pastor and deacons have a special place in our church. They are our leaders. Serve God in many ways. The pastor helps us learn from the Bible. In the early stage the church was not very well organized, but was gradually creating a new institution at world. Meeting with God as the centre of the church is the core task of the leader who brings together, the entire group.

The Greek word used in the New Testament Ekklesia term in its translation into Hebrew Kahal means assembly, called and explained that Church is the group that meets for a purpose determined to become a religious entity with eschatological (Values) (Menking & Wendland, 1994). Then stop the Christian community called to Synagogue called Church, formed by many believers. The first Christians were Jews and synagogues were of great importance, each had its own characteristics and identified more with their communities. Major Jewish holidays are domestic parties, because identify strongly with the family. They insisted on brotherhood and fellowship that should exist in communities, in order to accumulate forces for change society.

Each community has its own ideal of Jesus, but equal respect to communities and traditions to think differently. The Christians were fascinated by the organization of the Roman Empire and left the synagogue model (Maring & Hudson, 1991). Were divided according to the territory and human groups and not even used the same words of the structure of Empire: Diocese and Vicar. In the first four centuries saw further expansion stage of Christianity throughout the world then known. Starting with Syria Egypt, Ephesus, Asia, Tarsus, Antioch, Alexandria and especially in Jerusalem, continued in the second century and was in Rome and Athens, reaching the fourth century Christianity had already taken much of southern Europe. He later formed Christian communities in Asia, as Marcionita and Montanism. The ...