DEACONS/ELDERS 403, 430.1-2, 430.4, 431., and 431.1
403. The Church of the Nazarene recognizes the order of
elder and the order of deacon [only one order of preaching ministry, that
of elder]. It also recognizes that the
member of the clergy may serve the church in various capacities. Christ has called “some to be apostles, some
to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to
prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be
built up” (Ephesians 4:11-12). The
church recognizes the following categories of service in which a district
assembly may place an elder, deacon, or, as circumstances warrant, a licensed
minister: pastor, evangelist, missionary, teacher, administrator, chaplain, and
special service. Service within these
categories that qualifies as being an “assigned minister” would include that
service for which ministerial training and ordination are normally required, or
greatly desired. The Sourcebook on Ordination shall provide
guidelines for each category of ministry that will aid district boards in
identifying the qualifications necessary for consideration to be an assigned
minister. Only assigned ministers shall
be voting members of the district assembly.
430.1. [The deacon does not witness to a specific
call to preach.] The church recognizes,
on the basis of Scripture and experience, that God calls some
individuals to a lifetime ministry [who do not witness to such a
specific call] of Word and Service, and believes that individuals so
called to [such ministries] the ministry of a deacon should be
recognized and confirmed by the church and should meet requirements, and be
granted responsibilities, established by the church. This is a permanent order of ministry.
430.2. The deacon must meet the requirements of the order for
education, exhibit the appropriate gifts and graces, and be recognized and
confirmed by the church. The deacon
shall be vested with the authority to administer the sacrament[s] of baptism
[and the Lord’s Supper], to officiate at marriages where the laws of the state
do not prohibit, to assist the elder in the distribution of the Lord’s
Supper, and [on occasion] to conduct worship and to preach. It is understood that the Lord and the church
may use this person’s gifts and graces in various associate ministries. As a symbol of the servant ministry of the
Body of Christ, the deacon may also use his or her gifts in roles outside the
institutional church. (35.2)
430.4. If in the pursuance of his or her ministry, the
ordained deacon feels called to the [preaching] ministry of elder, he or
she may be ordained [elder] as such upon completion of the requirements
for that credential and the return of the deacon credential.
431. An elder is a minister whose call of God to preach,
gifts, and usefulness have been demonstrated and enhanced by proper training
and experience, and who has been separated for the ministry of Word and
Table and to the service of Christ through His church by the vote of a
district assembly and by the solemn act of ordination, and thus has been fully
invested to perform all functions of the Christian ministry.
431.1 [We recognize but one order of preaching ministry –
that of elder.] The order of elder [this]
is a permanent order in the church. The
elder is to rule well in the church, to preach the Word, to administer the sacraments
of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and to solemnize matrimony, all in the name
of, and in subjection to, Jesus Christ, the great Head of the Church. (35.2, 412-13.3, 413.9, 435.12)
FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS:
1. Throughout the history of the Church, from
ancient times up to and including our own lineage of John Wesley’s Anglicanism
and American Methodism, the distinction
between the order of deacon and the order of elder has been: a.) the deacon is
called to a ministry focused on service, and b.) the
elder is vested with the authority to administer the sacrament of the Lord’s
Supper. This has been expressed as the ministry of
“Word and Service,” on the one hand, and the ministry of “Word and Table,” on
the other hand.
3. This is the
main distinction that seems to be held ecumenically, and it is the main
distinction that seems to be held in the Roman
Catholic
and Eastern Orthodox traditions, as well.
4. Our current distinction between the two
orders (viz., preaching), seems to have been assumed due to the statement in
par. 429.1 that “We recognize but one order of
preaching ministry – that of elder.”
- However, making preaching the
distinction between the two orders when we developed the order of
deacon was an erroneous assumption. The
statement found in par. 429.1 was not intended to distinguish the order of elder
from any other order. Rather, that
statement was meant to reinforce that we had only ONE order; that of elder. We did not have TWO preaching orders (viz.,
elder and deacon), as did the Methodist Episcopal Church of the time. We only had ONE preaching order (viz.,
elder).
5. To identify the distinction between the elder
and deacon as one of a call to preach, not only disregards the historic
position of the larger Church, but is very difficult to
maintain when the deacon, according to par. 428.2, may also preach, and when we
are a part of a tradition that involves lay preachers
(cf. par. 402.1).
6. The proposed changes will bring us much
closer to alignment with the usage of the terms in Scripture, the distinctions
throughout the history of the Christian Church, the
ecumenical consensus, and our own Wesleyan heritage.
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