Hello,<\/p>\n
I’m a member of the church of Christ and have questions about the deacons where I serve. We have several deacons, and some of them have unknown situations to me.<\/p>\n
The first, to my knowledge, married without having children of his own, but his wife had children she brought into the marriage. I think it was a teenager that he helped raise. I am not knowledgeable about the other children. It is stated that both had former spouses. I don’t know the reason for the divorce.<\/p>\n
The second deacon situation is that they both had previous spouses as well. I’m not familiar with the background information.<\/p>\n
The third deacon had a previous spouse, stating that he had divorced her because she didn’t want anything out of life. They also didn’t have any children together. I assume he helped raise her kids. During his marriage with his second wife, his first wife passed away.<\/p>\n
I did ask my minister, who is an elder, about these situations. He told me the first minister put the men in place. He sounded unsure of the background of the deacons. I assume he trusted that the first minister would put the right men in place. I keep hearing outsiders talk about the deacons having had previous marriages, but I know nothing about their divorces. I’m not sure if this is something I should leave to my elders or how it should be handled. No one else seems to look at this situation.<\/p>\n
Thank you for reading my thoughts.<\/p>\n\t
When deacons are selected, the congregation suggests men who are qualified (Acts 6:2-5). These men are then appointed to the office by the congregation’s leadership. I would generally assume that the congregation, in the past, did their duty in looking into each man’s qualifications. If you think a mistake was made, you need to have more than thoughts based on a lack of information. Since you don’t know the reasons for the divorces, I won’t speculate. I will assume the congregation checked and decided that their marriages were legitimate.<\/p>\n
The scriptures state, “Deacons must be husbands of only one wife, and good managers of their children and their own households<\/em>” (I Timothy 3:12). Nothing indicates that the children must be from their own bodies. Adopted children would meet the qualification just as well.<\/p>\n Paul warned that accusations against elders were not to be entertained unless there were at least two witnesses (meaning independent sources) (I Timothy 5:19). It would seem reasonable that similar requirements should be in place for the other offices in the church as well. I know you have concerns, but concerns are not evidence.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Hello, I’m a member of the church of Christ and have questions about the deacons where I serve. We have several deacons, and some of them have unknown situations to me. The first, to my knowledge, married without having children of his own, but his wife had children she brought into the marriage. I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1568],"class_list":["post-89489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-deacons"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":51404,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-i-timothy-311-refer-to-both-elders-and-deacons-wives\/","url_meta":{"origin":89489,"position":0},"title":"Does I Timothy 3:11 refer to both elders and deacons’ wives?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In I Timothy 3:11, where it says \"Likewise their wives,\" do you think the word \"their\" means both elder and deacons wives? Or is this word a specific reference to deacons' wives? I ask this because in context this verse falls under the qualification of a deacon. Answer: Actually,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66639,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-a-man-gains-children-through-marriage-is-he-qualified-to-be-a-deacon\/","url_meta":{"origin":89489,"position":1},"title":"If a man gains children through marriage, is he qualified to be a deacon?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I know the Bible says a deacon is to have one wife and rule their children well, among other qualifications, but these are the two I have a question about (I Timothy 3:8-12). If a deacon is divorced based on scriptural grounds, meaning his wife cheated on him and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40749,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-man-be-a-deacon-in-the-church-if-he-doesnt-have-children\/","url_meta":{"origin":89489,"position":2},"title":"Can a man be a deacon in the church if he doesn’t have children?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question I would very much like an answer to: Can a man be a deacon in the church if he doesn't have children? Answer: \"Deacons must be husbands of only one wife, and good managers of their children and their own households\" (I Timothy 3:12). \"Must\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16170,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/may-a-church-without-elders-appoint-deacons\/","url_meta":{"origin":89489,"position":3},"title":"May a church without elders appoint deacons?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: May a church assign to a servant or servants (deacons) a specific task or tasks in which they will serve the congregation and for which they will be responsible and answerable to the congregation for performing if the church does not have elders. In other words, may they set\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48527,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-a-man-be-appointed-a-deacon-when-he-only-attends-sunday-morning-services\/","url_meta":{"origin":89489,"position":4},"title":"Should a man be appointed a deacon when he only attends Sunday morning services?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I emailed you before about a topic, and you had an answer that I did not agree with at all, but today I have an unrelated question. At our church, we are in the process of selecting new deacons. Is it wrong for me to think it is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43615,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-i-havent-married-yet-can-i-still-be-a-deacon\/","url_meta":{"origin":89489,"position":5},"title":"If I haven’t married yet, can I still be a deacon?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, Bro. Jeffrey, I write this email in order to seek a mature answer and guidance from a well-rounded spiritual leader. Our local church here wants to appoint deacons since we don't have formally appointed ones. We already studied the apostle Paul's teachings on appointing deacons based on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}