General Assembly Rejects Deaconess Study Committee
On Wednesday, the PCA’s General Assembly voted to reject an overture that recommended forming a study committee to discuss the issue of women deacons. 
“This is not a new area of study,” said Fred Greco (pictured left), who served as the chair of the Overtures Committee, which recommended that the General Assembly dismiss the deaconess overture. “There is plenty of existing material on the subject, and our Book of Church Order is clear [that ordained church officers are to be men].”
Greco also expressed concern that further study of this issue would polarize advocates on either side—causing deepening division in the church.
Bryan Chapell, who presented the minority report on this issue, disagreed.
“We have to listen to one another,” said Chapell, who serves as president of Covenant Theological Seminary. “We have to be willing to talk about difficult things without fear of demoralizing the church. We must get people together in the same room to talk about [difficult issues] in an atmosphere that’s not highly charged.”
The minority report recommended that a committee comprised of theologians on both sides of the issue—including Tim Keller, Phil Ryken, Ligon Duncan, and Jimmy Agan—meet together over the coming year to come to a Scriptural understanding of deaconesses. After an hour of debate and multiple motions from the floor, the minority report was eventually defeated.
Affirming the Minority
During the debate on the floor, a number of commissioners spoke to those in the minority, especially the rising generation of PCA leaders.
“We need to celebrate the young men who want to dive into the PCA and study these issues,” said Mike Khandijan of Chapelgate Presbyterian in Maryland.
“It’s not the issue before us, but how we deal with the issue before us,” said Joe Novenson, of Lookout Mountain Presbyterian in Tennessee. “That’s part of the Reformed tradition, and how we have addressed issues in the past.”
And another pastor spoke directly to women. “There’s much we need to do—we’re failing to love fully half of the body of Christ,” said Jonathan Inman, pastor of Grace and Peace PCA in Asheville, N.C. “I’m sorry for the ways the church has offended women and often been unaware of it.”
In the end, a majority of the Assembly voted to follow the recommendation of the Overtures Committee, comprised of 80 ruling and teaching elders, who debated the overture for five and a half hours on Tuesday before making their recommendation to answer Overture 9 in the negative.
(Overture 9, submitted by the Philadelphia Presbytery, recommended that the General Assembly “erect a study committee on deaconesses” to determine whether the election of women to the office of deacon is contrary to the Book of Church Order, and to determine more clearly the role of women in diaconal ministry.)
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MT Limber
Orlando, FL
Instead, I'd recommend what my diaconate has tried to do: involve as many non-ordained men and women as possible in "diaconal work," viz. sympathy and service both to the physical and spiritual needs of the people (BCO 7-2; 9-1). I think all parties in the deaconess debate would agree that all congregants should be involved in caring for and serving others, so there's some common ground. Here's a summary of what we tried to do to make that a reality.
Our diaconate was spread over many service areas. We were caring for people in our church who needed assistance due to illness, new babies, etc.; caring for the poor and homeless in our area via a telephone helpline and a weekly breakfast in a park; and holding worship services at a nearby nursing home and assisted living facility. We were also serving the congregation by caring for the church property (fixing doors and toilets, organizing work-days and maintaining and improving the grounds beyond what our lawn care service does, etc.); serving in essential capacities such as parking, ushering, optimal setup of sanctuary chairs, etc. And then there's the finances, which at the time, was under the session by their choice, but which has since been passed to the our deacons along with the team the elders had established to run it.
In short, we had a lot going, not a lot of deacons (8-10ish), a lot of fatigue, and not much success in recruiting for obvious reasons.
To ease the burden without stifling the good work that God was doing through us, we worked to recruit people to teams that handled each of these service areas (some of the teams were already in existence ad hoc). The teams came up with their own structure and guidelines, which, along with its leaders, were approved by the diaconate. Each team had its own budget, which were line-items in the total diaconal budget but which the team leaders alone were responsible to manage. We also added a mandatory sabbatical program -- officers serve for a three year term, then can serve for another three year term at their option, but then must take a year of sabbatical before returning to service. (I'm currently on sabbatical myself.)
On the whole this was an effective strategy for us. Best of all, it accomplished the goal of getting more people -- men and women, and even kids -- involved in what is commonly considered diaconal work. The essential element of being a deacon, we realized, is not personally fulfilling our responsibilities, but rather being responsible for seeing that these things get done so that the session can focus on shepherding and the like. This insight allowed us to empower non-ordained people (importantly for this discussion, men and women) to exercise their gifts in serving others.
This, I think, is a non-controversial way to address this problem. I would still like to see women be ordained as deaconesses someday because I think the BCO is mistaken in its restriction on that count. But in the meanwhile, we can (and should!) make it easy for all congregants to be active in serving their neighbors by doing "diaconal work."